Reflection on Racism and Stereotyping

I have to admit, that I felt when Barack Obama was elected president it was a sign that racism was coming to an end.     As Wise wrote in his article, Obama’s election to the presidency showed that people could come together and defeat racism.  Obama got the white working class to confront racism and think about what was best for the nation.    He got young people to work together in what he called cross racial collaboration to make it possible for Obama to win the election.   His campaign to the presidency made people see racism first hand. (pg. 364)  I think this really changed people when they witness the inequalities and discrimination first hand.  So for me when Obama was elected as the president I thought that our nation was on the road to wiping out racism.  I know that Wise’s article goes into why that is not true and would probably label me one as a white who refuses to see what is really happening.

I am not saying that racism has ended.  It was quite clear to me when that Basketball owner publically made racial comments about his “own” players that racism was alive in well in the United States.  However, the public reaction to his actions also shows that we are making ground in wiping out racism.  I do think that we are making steps toward ending racism.  Do I think that it will happen in my lifetime?  Probably not, change takes a long time to happen.  Racism did not happen overnight, ending racism will be a slow process.  As one of the article in the books stated, we may not see the change today, but everything we do will have an impact on things in the future.  We need to keep taking the steps to letting people know that we will not tolerant racism.

On another note, the article by Wu about the “Model Minority” really made me think.  His point is that most of Americas think of Asians as computer geniuses, math wizards, doing well, overachievers, polite, law abiding, and the model citizen.  Wu says this is just a myth.  It is creating a certain image of Asians that is not true.  Wu writes this stereotyping is use to compare Asians to Africa Americans, as it provides the statement to Africa American’s “They made it; why can’t you?” (pg 373).  Wu states that it creates jealous among other groups as they feel Asians gains are their loses and they resent Asians. 

I currently work at National Life in Montpelier.  The National Life Insurance Group works in the same building.  They are many people from India that work for National Life.  I have heard many comments that they are computer wizards, super smart, polite, and work for less money.  I have also heard from former National Life workers that they lost their job because they employee people from India because it was cheaper.  It is this type of activity that causes resentment in people.  If someone truly lost their job because someone from India could be paid less, it is not fair to either party.  I have heard of this in other places and I wonder what we can do about it. 

So just as I am feeling that we are moving forward with wiping about racism, I have to take a half a step back.  I have to admit that I have heard many people refer to Asians Americans in this way.  They believe they are super smart, computer savoy, hardworking, and they threaten their jobs. This type of resentment is racism. We will always have companies that exploit people that is a different issue that needs to be addressed.  I still believe that we are moving forward in eliminating racism, it is just a slow process.  I am not ignoring that racism is an issue, but I do believe in general as a nation we are working toward eliminating racism.  We have to keep making the steps forward.

Reading 38: Wise, Tim – Between Barack and a Hard Place

Reading 39: Wu, Frank – The Model Minority: Asian American “Success” as a Race Relations Failure