The Experience of Racism

I must be honest, I had very little insightfulness on the "Experience of Racism"  I truly wish I has an anecdote or tale to portray how racism has affected my personal life.  At first I would say that "No, it hasn't"  As I explained in an earlier blog, I grew up in a practically all white neighborhood.  There was one black boy who went to my elementary school.  He lived in the richest part of the neighborhood and had a pool.  He certainly did not fit the stereotype I had seen of other black or other races.  But that is exactly how my experience of racism fits in with my life.  The stereotypes.  I am so quick to stereotype, to laugh at the jokes my friends make, to assume the color of the persons skin by how they act.  I have been manipulated this way because of the way our society has depicted people of other races.  Races other then my own.  

The section on racism and female sexuality stuck out to me the most.  Not only is the depiction of female sexuality sickening to me but the depiction of racialized sexuality is even more shocking.  Black women are shown in the media as animalistic and primal, almost like a zoo animal, there for a man's gaze.  The fact that women can be dominated within gender and race is a problem that needs a light shown on it.  A big spotlight.  Racism, sexism and class all play a role in the way I have perceived other races too.  I live by Pac Highway, a popular spot to find prostitutes.  They majority of the prostitutes are women of color.  This is a vicious cycle because racism has created these women to have a lower income, they resort to prostitution or dancing and therefore are dubbed sexual and allowed to be preyed on.  Any women that has to unfairly face this treatment should not be discriminated against but instead helped and those classifying should realize that they may be the ones who are causing this cycle.