Defining Racism

     I really did love reading this. This definition of racism really exposes just how prominent racism continues to be in today's day in age. No beating around the bush. This is how the world is. THERE IS NO DENYING THIS. How quickly I was to learn stereotypes at such a young age. As far back as I can recall in my childhood, I associated Native Americans with the same sort of characteristics as the preschoolers in the experiment. They, along with myself had unknowingly been exposed to these stereotypical traits from a young age. Feathers, beads, bows & arrows, and of course the term “indian giver” just to name a few, were typical associations I made. Although I was able to pick up on these things, I never really saw myself as “stereotyping” a cultural group. In fact, I wasn’t entirely able to see myself as part of the group, or felt as though I could completely “fit in”, despite being white. I did often feel like a minority, and this was because I wasn’t raised Christian like the majority of school children in my area. Religion, just like race, can put you outside the group. Being raised Jewish meant understanding a bit of what it’s like to have other prejudices against you. I also learned this early on, as many students tended to see being jewish as some sort of “joke” or laughable matter in some cases. I’m assuming this not only has to do with society, but what they pick up from their parents. When parents make jokes about certain groups, or stereotypes, children are easily influenced. Although many people don’t find jokes as serious acts of racism, all jokes dealing with stereotypes have that underlying hint of degradation. I often wished that I could share the same religion as the majority of the kids, because being one of the few non-christian students made me feel like maybe Judaism wasn’t as “good”.

I read somewhere a while back that an experiment was done in which black girls and white girls were put into a room and asked to choose a doll to play with. There were black and white versions of the dolls, however, both the white girls and the black girls preferred to play with the white dolls. Why do you think this is? Does it have something to do with racism itself, or perhaps another impression put onto children of minority groups at a young age, such as not being “good” enough?