Extra Credit Blogpost

I think Mr. Wise made a very clear point at the beginning of his speech that many people of color don’t like to talk about racism in front of white people and this makes them shut down. People of color assume white people are racist because we are raised in a radicalized society in which we internalize it. At the same time white do not want to talk about racism because they fear they may say the wrong thing. Wise gave the term suspect racism means that when people don’t talk about racism is because they have something to hide. Wise says it is better to take a risk even when it is scary and uncomfortable.  He says we need to push through the difficulty and emotional feelings. Wise said it is not like science where we can find a solution to a problem. So to get rid of a social problem we need to be able to discuss this issue amongst each other as a social society. I thought this was a great point because I feel this is plays a part in why there are issues with the topic of racism. Everyone feels uncomfortable and therefore we don’t talk about it but, by doing so it harms us more because we are doing nothing to try to fix this. How can we it so that people will feel that it is ok to talk about racism? I think this is why people are now bringing up the white privilege topic because it is a new way that involves white people to try to think about their advantages and how minorities don’t have equal opportunities and how this ties into racism. This made me reflect on the reading by Linda Faye Williams that the race problem is a euphemism for white skin privilege. “The real problem is the social and political construction of race in a way that advantages whites over people of color in economic markets, political institutions, and social policies (91).” There is this new idea of racism denying that race still matters. Just because we don’t see racism like how it was historically like slavery doesn’t mean it doesn’t still exist today.

Wise told us a story of when he was invited to CSBSJU a couple of years back to speak about diversity. The two students who had went to pick him up at the airport and while driving to campus Wise asked why they decided to bring him to their campus. They told him that because they decided to have a diversity day. Wise thought to himself really only one day! So what is the rest of the 364 days are like without diversity he thought? He asked them if there were any issues on the campus about conflicts with racial tension. They answered no because they have this thing. Wise was thinking wow they have something that gets rid of racism? Let’s hear it said Wise. They said it’s called Minnesota Nice. After that Wise spent a few years asking people what they think of the Minnesota Nice thing. People said that it is just used to be passive aggressive. Minnesota Nice is institutionalized and is used as a mask and keeps the lid on problems. Wise said that people of color or people who are marginalized have to complain or raise their voice something that is wrong/issue. When you do that you are not nice now you violate the norm because it wasn’t an issue until you brought it up.  We need to prepare to be honest address institutional inequalities to be a community. We are bad as a society at not being honest. Wise said that when you’re white it’s hard to see racism just because of race you’re not going to have to know what color of people has to know or experience. William argues that, “new racism hinges on the insistence that, discrimination is illegal; everyone has equal rights, so what’s the problem (93)?” I agree with Williams that in order to break this new racism and make people of color full participants in our society we need to openly confront white privilege as reality and ideology (94). This means changing the capitalist system of social policy like redistribution of income and wealth and less capitalization (94). I think for this to be effective is if a great number of people come together to bring this issue up and get attention from the government and politicians to do something about this because they do have the power and authority to make new rules and they have the responsibility to take care of our society.  

-Ka L.