Race in America

This is a topic very close to my heart.  Race is such a touchy subject.  I know race is a social construct and I know that it was all a sham.  I believe such a thing as white privilege exists and I believe that we are all "created" equally - however you believe we were created.

Recently, there was an article published in Psychology Today online called, "Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive?" For one, that question in and of itself is racially inclined.  I stumbled upon a blog post from Sam Sommers, PhD in response to the article.  You can read it here.

The article has since been removed from Psychology Today's site and Change.org has already created a petition to get PT to respond to the outrage from posting the article.  Now, I agree it may not have been in the best interest of the people at PT to allow such an article to be posted, but without having read the article, I can't really speak to it's content.  The whole idea of Race in America is so construed.  It's an ideology that was created by the majority around the 1690s; in other words, the old white men who wanted to make sure they didn't have to compete for the resources here in the new world with people who could be "labeled" as different because it was easier to do so due to the color of their skin.  Pretty sad.

This will not be my only post on this topic.  It's a topic that is evergreen and will always raise opinions and shouts from the peanut gallery.

Racism is something everyone who is alive today in America was raised with, socialized into and has been a part of at some time, whether you are aware of it or not.  Slowly things are changing and people are coming to the realization that racism no longer needs to dictate the actions of education, politics and advertising...a bit too slowly for some of us.  The unfortunate thing is that racism has become so institutionalized in our country that it has reached beyond our borders.

courtesy of amptoons.com
There is something myself, as a white person, had to confront...I am privileged primarily because of my skin color.  For as non-discriminating and non-racist as I am, there are things that have been socialized into our subconscious that we don't even realize.  If you watched television commercials from even a few years ago, it's a prime example.  More so now, though, I see people of all colors depicted.  We can't truly count on commercials as a measure of the collective conscious, however.  Commercials are made by people trying to sell things to consumers and more and more lately, consumers come in all colors and sizes.  Diversity is everywhere.  Yet, there are still articles being posted about how black women are less attractive.  Only if you believe the pseudo-science and the idiots that wrote The Bell Curve.

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