The Gray Area...
The Gray Area...
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| https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/mixing-paint-renee-trenholm.jpg |
When you mix black and white paint, you get the color gray. Granted if there's more black than white then it's a darker gray, and if you have more white than black, it is a lighter gray.
Mixing colors is one thing, and if we take the analogy above and compare it to the racial issue with the blacks and whites we can see how the outcomes changes in different situations.
Before I get into that, in class we discussed white privilege. With the understanding that you already have about it, I am hoping you'll be able to understand my analogy.
Georgia Southern is predominately white. There are so many people with different personalities, beliefs, majors, life stories, intentions, and all the more of anything you could imagine. One thing that is clear cut is the difference in skin color. Just skin. Nothing more nothing less. The problem we face is that the color of our skin (at most times) determine how we are viewed and treated.
Take any situation where white privilege can come heavily into play. If you are having a hard time, one situation can be where a colored man and a white man (who do not know each other) enter into a store. There might be some time delay between both entrances. Without guessing the skin color of the clerk, or what clothes the men were wearing, who do you believe would be watched more based off of the generalization or stereotypes over colored individuals? To take it a step further, if you were the clerk, who would you look at more. Let's be real, the colored man will most likely be watched a little more. I don't care even if its just one glace more, he will most likely in any situation be observed.
Let me ask you one more question. What skin color of the man did you imagine? I ask because I have a feeling that half of the viewers at least thought of a black/ African American man. See the thing about colored people is that we are not only black, but we are any other skin color BUT white. With that being said, sometimes one skin color is targeted more than others, it just depends on the area of civilization and other factors.
I'd like to add to the situation above. If both men were to exit one behind the other, or theoretically just to make things easier to see, both exited side by side and the alarm goes off, who do you think the finger would be pointed at. Let's take away the answer for now and add in other consumers. Let there be majority white consumers and just a few colored consumers. Now, lets act as though both men have to go to court over this. The consumers are the jury, and you the clerk are the judge. In this case, the jury is going to determine which man made the alarm go off. With a predominantly white jury, the outcome would be that the colored man set the alarm off.
Here is where the mix of colors come in. In the discussion between the jury, since there was more of the white paint than the black paint. The outcome was a lighter gray, in this sense the white man got off free of whatever imaginary charges or the colored man was asked to stay behind in the store until proper authorities arrive. What I'm trying to get at here is that the voices of the white paint most likely overpowered the voices of the black paint. At times even the black paint can be scared to speak up, or the bias groupthink could even come into play. If there were more black paint than white paint then there would be a higher chance that the colored man could have a better chance of being on the same platform than that of the white man. I say "could" because sometimes the stereotype or generalization can run do deep even in the colored population. I believe that the colored people have also been conditioned because white privilege runs so so so deep and from so long ago. Even at this time as a colored person, it's not so easy to recognize when white privilege is occurring because I correlate it with "that's the norm". It can even be a coping mechanism to not realize it or to acknowledge it because once I speak up --it's all war.
As much as I'd like to get deeper into it, I feel that this is as far as my qualification to speak on this topic comes to an end. There are too many opinions and factors to consider, and other knowledge I have to acquire, so to keep it from getting complicated, I will just leave it at this moment.
*I do not have proper knowledge about what happens and court or things about the Judicial system, but this is just for the situation.
*Links to images talk about deeper situations and white privilege.
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| https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-privilege.html * |
Before I get into that, in class we discussed white privilege. With the understanding that you already have about it, I am hoping you'll be able to understand my analogy.
 |
| http://dailytrojan.com/2015/06/23/mass-shooting-indicates-white-privilege/ * |
Georgia Southern is predominately white. There are so many people with different personalities, beliefs, majors, life stories, intentions, and all the more of anything you could imagine. One thing that is clear cut is the difference in skin color. Just skin. Nothing more nothing less. The problem we face is that the color of our skin (at most times) determine how we are viewed and treated.
Take any situation where white privilege can come heavily into play. If you are having a hard time, one situation can be where a colored man and a white man (who do not know each other) enter into a store. There might be some time delay between both entrances. Without guessing the skin color of the clerk, or what clothes the men were wearing, who do you believe would be watched more based off of the generalization or stereotypes over colored individuals? To take it a step further, if you were the clerk, who would you look at more. Let's be real, the colored man will most likely be watched a little more. I don't care even if its just one glace more, he will most likely in any situation be observed.
Let me ask you one more question. What skin color of the man did you imagine? I ask because I have a feeling that half of the viewers at least thought of a black/ African American man. See the thing about colored people is that we are not only black, but we are any other skin color BUT white. With that being said, sometimes one skin color is targeted more than others, it just depends on the area of civilization and other factors.
I'd like to add to the situation above. If both men were to exit one behind the other, or theoretically just to make things easier to see, both exited side by side and the alarm goes off, who do you think the finger would be pointed at. Let's take away the answer for now and add in other consumers. Let there be majority white consumers and just a few colored consumers. Now, lets act as though both men have to go to court over this. The consumers are the jury, and you the clerk are the judge. In this case, the jury is going to determine which man made the alarm go off. With a predominantly white jury, the outcome would be that the colored man set the alarm off.
 |
| https://42hire.com/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-groupthink-94095df871ec * |
Here is where the mix of colors come in. In the discussion between the jury, since there was more of the white paint than the black paint. The outcome was a lighter gray, in this sense the white man got off free of whatever imaginary charges or the colored man was asked to stay behind in the store until proper authorities arrive. What I'm trying to get at here is that the voices of the white paint most likely overpowered the voices of the black paint. At times even the black paint can be scared to speak up, or the bias groupthink could even come into play. If there were more black paint than white paint then there would be a higher chance that the colored man could have a better chance of being on the same platform than that of the white man. I say "could" because sometimes the stereotype or generalization can run do deep even in the colored population. I believe that the colored people have also been conditioned because white privilege runs so so so deep and from so long ago. Even at this time as a colored person, it's not so easy to recognize when white privilege is occurring because I correlate it with "that's the norm". It can even be a coping mechanism to not realize it or to acknowledge it because once I speak up --it's all war.
As much as I'd like to get deeper into it, I feel that this is as far as my qualification to speak on this topic comes to an end. There are too many opinions and factors to consider, and other knowledge I have to acquire, so to keep it from getting complicated, I will just leave it at this moment.
*I do not have proper knowledge about what happens and court or things about the Judicial system, but this is just for the situation.
*Links to images talk about deeper situations and white privilege.
Ebeni, I really enjoyed reading your blog. You made some really great analogies. I have never heard it explained like this before. I also enjoyed hearing you speak in class this past week. See you Monday!
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