In this reading, the overall message that I received was that of mutual self-consciousness in regard to relationships with the “other” race. The main races addressed were African American and European American. Each main idea was either the appearance of unease in the company of the other race or the small ideas that could help bridge the cultural gap.
One point in particular, the author identified 3 types of friends. The one type of friend, personally I would consider more of an acquaintance, was deemed the “guilty liberal”. They are the worst kind in my eyes, and not worst as in they actively do harm to a minority group, but their belief creates this entitlement for the minority group in a reverse racism way. Ultimately saying, this should make up for things that unjustly happened many years ago. They are hurting themselves and dampening our ability to move forward. Maybe I’m the only that feels that way though.
I did like the portion that drew attention to Bill’s coaching and his indifference to whether it was acknowledged or not. Those people are the kind that can truly bridge any cultural void. They don’t see a group that needs to be coddled into a safe environment. They see individuals and people that they can offer a service to, not to be praised for their action, but out of genuine concern. I=
Discussion Questions
When evaluating your interracial friendships, is the first thing to come to mind your differences or similarities?
Would you consider someone, that you have to censor yourself around, a true friend?
Someone I have to censor myself I would consider a true friend but just not as good of a friend as others that I have and am more open with. There's always things you don't want anyone to know about you or things you don't want to say to offend them.
ReplyDeleteI agre with your comment Alex, I think we need to go back to how we were when we were kids, we definitely said what we thought when we were young, and if we all empathized with each other as adults I think we could be more honest, but we somehow lose this when we hit adulthood.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more than just investigating our difference or similarities. I honestly don't feel like I've been in a position where I could have made a lot of black friends. Partially due to the extreme getrification of Nebraska.
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