First Blog

Good evening blogosphere,

In JOU3188 this past week, the notion of race was thrust once again into my brain. I hate the idea of race. I think of myself as more of a "class-ist." I know that sounds ridiculous and snobby and you probably want to smack me upside the head with a book, but it's the truth. I am more likely to judge a person by the way they dress and look more than I would by their skin color. It is all a part of my yuppety private school upbringing. I blame my mother, she's the one who insisted on me going to an all girls Catholic school. I, in no way, condone this behavior. But, I am just aware of it. In fact, it is the thing I dislike the most about myself. If I cross paths with a black man wearing RocaWear in an isolated area, I am much more likely to be seen clutching my purse than I would be if that same black man was wearing Banana Republic or J.Crew. Then again I can see how one could argue that those are "white man" brands.

I like to view someone's race as nothing more than an interesting tidbit about a person's story. That's all.

Unfortunately, my mindset on how I looked at race was kind of crushed about half an hour ago when I took the Harvard Implicit test. I had taken one before for a sociology of gender class a couple of semeters ago and I remember right after the exam how the results felt just as surprising and unsettling. According to the test, I had a strong inclination to light-skinned people. At first, I was accepting of it. After all it's just a computer operated test and there has to be some glitches along the way. All I was doing was pressing the "i" and "e" keys.

Then I began to think of everyone that I hang out with. None of my friends were black, not even acquaintances. I always pride myself on not being bigotted and racist, but subconsciously, I was siding with the white face people. It made me think of the differences between prejudice and race. A little off topic, but still relevant. I know myself and I would never be prejudice against someone, but I was capable of being hesistant towards them because they weren't my "kind."

The same thing happened when we appointed positions to different races and genders in our class assignment. Everytime, I found myself wanting to give the white male or female the top position because I found them to be the most trustworthy. I am of Hispanic origin, but have never fully identified myself with the Cuban culture. I live in a very Americanized Cuban household where Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts coffee quickly replaced Pilon and you wouldn't be caught dead watching Telemundo or Unrrivision. We're not ashamed of where we came from, not at all. We just have a tendency to look at the picturesque Hampton's-loving Kennedy kind of lifestyle for guidance- we just don't have that kind of money.

I've never watched Barbershop before last class. From the bits and pieces I saw, I understood what Reisner was getting at. As a writer, we want to paint a picture for our audiences. Bring words to life and show them what and why we're writing about this particular subject. I could appreciate the small family owned Barbershop more once the film showed the inner workings of all its key and supporting players. The present owner who is forced to live up to his father's legacy and is failing miserably. The ex-felon who's just trying to make a life for himself and the only way he can figure out how to do so is by stealing from others. The outcasted senior who no one can seem to take seriously, even though every thing he says is full of a certain kind of unique wisdom.

That's what we're supposed to pluck out when we do our Listening Posts or any other kind of story we're assigned. In order to get the full message, we need to pull apart the exterior to reveal the truth of what lies in these communities. Like Prof. Reisner says, they're not just food, festivals and fun.