Ancestors and Race

On my fathers side we can trace our history back to my great grandfather who arrived at Ellis Isle from Germany. Sadly. we can't go any further back than that without genealogical tests. Since it was so few generations ago I can't imagine my fathers side of the family owned slaves, at least not in the United States. On my mother's side we can trace back to my great great grandmother. She also traveled from Germany to Ellis Isle. Since slavery was almost non-existent in Germany I don't believe that anyone in my family (thankfully) owned slaves.

While my family may not have owned slaves, we are still living in the US. Even by living in the US we are abiding and enforcing prejudicial and racist actions that were instituted years and years ago. What is interesting about my family however is that we never came from any type of money. A majority of my family has been poor, below or just above the poverty line, up until my uncle and my parents. I find this interesting because with my family coming from lower class I would presume there wouldn't be as much personal racism  (as apposed to institutionalized) in my family. However, and I discussed this with both of my parents, both of my grandfathers were very racist. I believe this had a lot to do with their upbringing. I don't know any of my great grandparents but I would venture to say they were personally racist as well leading to their children becoming racist.

Politeness

It seems to me that there is a difference between how polite someone is based on their class. I went to the mall over the holiday break and, because it was crowded, I bumped in to a few people or had to walk around them. The first time it occurred I didn't really notice; it was a middle aged white male and we sort of just bumped each other passing in the aisle. Neither of us said anything, we just looked at each other and he gave a quick little nod basically signalling everything was fine. The second time this occurred it was with a black man probably in his fifties or so and we just lightly brushed jackets as we walked past. The man immediately turned and apologized, trying to pull his jacket closer as he looked at the items on the shelves. That was when I realized that interactions between individuals can be quite different. I started noticing things as I was walking throughout the mall. A middle aged Hispanic male held a door open for me and told me to have a good day as I left one store. An older white woman ignored me as she rushed past and hit me with her large purse. There were several other anecdotal incidents but my point is that the colored individuals that I met and interacted with were much more polite about the interaction than the non-colored. I only link this to class because of how each individual was dressed. The white male was in a suit, probably a businessman of some sort. The older black gentleman was wearing a rather beat up Eagles winter jacket and blue jeans. The Hispanic man was wearing jeans and a jacket. The elderly white woman was wearing a dress and had several rings on her hands and a rather large hat along with the large purse. Regardless of whether these things signal true class levels, I believe my point is still made. Class and race are related because of the institutionalized efforts of the US society to pressure colored individuals in to lower class rankings. I feel that this may make these individuals either more self-conscious of their actions or simply more polite. I'm not trying to make any sweeping generalizations. I have met very nice white people and rather impolite colored people. I simply found the whole day sort of like an experiment of sorts. I'm wondering how different the entire experience would have been had I been colored as well.

Ursinus College

Ursinus College makes a very strong effort to show the face of a diverse campus. The Ursinus website is a good example of this. The website always shows a person of color in one of the top five bullets. Currently three of the five bullets show colored students and the other two are pictures of the campus. I only bring this up because the college boasts a surprisingly small diversity percentage especially with its closeness to Philadelphia. Why does the school show diversity on it's website, without actually having the numbers to back up this praise? Is the school trying to show diversity to persuade other students to attend here? Anyone can easily access the statistical information of Ursinus' diversity of current students and I'll post them below.

• African American 6%
• Asian 4%
• Bi-racial 1%
• White 75%
• Latino/a 4%
• Nonresident Alien 1%
• Unclassified 9%

It seems strangely coincidental and quite intentional that Ursinus has only 6% African American and yet three of the five pictures on the websites homepage shows African Americans. I believe Ursinus is quite misleading to a lot of prospective students in this way. I feel that there are betters ways to communicate the appreciation for diversity than trying to mislead prospective students into believing the diversity on campus is higher than it actually is.

Race in my life

I'm going to start off with some background information about myself and then explain my views on race. I grew up in a middle class family. I went to an elementary school that was predominantly white but it never once struck me as an odd thing. As a child I didn't have opinions on race, not to say I didn't notice racism, but I didn't understand why an individual might be treated differently based solely on skin color or body shape. I went to Hershey Elementary, a public school, up until fifth grade. After fifth grade I moved out to where my family is currently, Bethel, Pennsylvania, and I was home schooled for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. When it was time for me to enter 9th grade I decided to return to public school.

I remember when I was about seven years old I was at a family get together and a friend of one of my uncle's was saying the word "nigger." Now, being seven, I obviously didn't understand the definition of the term. I did however understand it was a bad word and that I would never say it. Even though I didn't understand at the time, the racist mind-set was still prevalent in my life. I learned to recognize what was a curse word, versus what was a racial slur. In my extended family's eyes, the two weren't the same. Racial slurs and derogatory terms were fine, but swearing wasn't. It's quite absurd really.

When I was 14 my family took a trip to Florida. There is a lot of racism in Florida. Now, being raised in a middle class family and living in a suburban area for half my life then moving to a completely rural area had kind of made me blind to how much racism there was. When we arrived in Florida my aunt was having a party and invited around 40 people. The people included family from Florida and a few of their friends that lived in the area. We had all just ate and we were sitting outside enjoying some pie for dessert. Somehow, the topic was switched to politics and a friend of someone in my family said "Oh yeah all these fucking people trying to elect that fucking nigger." As soon as the man finished his sentence I stood up suddenly, knocking over my chair. I freaked out. I just yelled at him, inches from his face, "How fucking dare you say that?" I then proceeded to go inside the house before I physically accosted the man. I walked inside the house seething, just not even able to comprehend how anyone could say what he said with the nonchalance that he said it with. He said it so normally. Like. "Oh do you need more tea, dear?" It was absolutely dumb founding to me. I just couldn't understand it what so ever.

 My parents, as rarely as it occurs now because they know how I feel about it, exhibit racism. They understand it's immoral to judge a person based on skin color, but they continually do so anyway. They both more specifically have issues with people of any Middle Eastern descent. My dad says "towel head" in reference to them and my mom refers to most Easterners as "Haji's." This didn't really occur when I was younger. My parents curbed a lot of their negativity around my sister and I. They were the type of parents that waited until their kids fell asleep to argue. Anyway, as I got older my parents started being more lenient. They would let a racial slur slip here or there and act like it was nothing. This racism stems from their being brought up in racist households. Both of my grand fathers were incredibly racist.

First Post

PHIL230 Blog. Philosophy of Race. I am looking forward to an insightful and changing class with all of you. I hope this will be a learning and growing experience for everyone. My first real post relating to race will appear probably on Saturday.