Race-Related Reality

4 Pages 1072 Words

Race-Related Reality
There is no nation in the world that holds racism in greater horror than the United States. The whole fabric of our land seems to be backed by racial factors. For hundreds of years, minorities, blacks in general, have been openly discriminated against not only in social settings but in the workplace and private settings. No matter how many measures have been taken to try and end the problems of racial discrimination, it is still alive and well as we speak. Racism is, indeed, a national obsession. Universities are on full alert for it, newspapers and politicians denounce it, churches preach against it, and America, the land of the free, is full of it. Many people wonder will it ever go away or is it something that we as a people will just have to learn to accept.
In the article, “My Secret Life as a Black Man”, Anthony Walton talks about how his race is a huge factor in his everyday life. The way he lives his life seems a bit awkward to the people around him. For example, his family members and piers do not always agree with his goals for the future or the type of things he likes to do with his time. Growing up, Anthony liked school and reading books the arts, things which some blacks, his parents in general, said were not “true to his kind”, He also encountered and incident with a black woman while he and a Caucasian friend going for a walk. The lady began to criticize the two as they walked together saying that he thought he was too good to have a relationship with a black woman when all the time he was only walking with a friend who happened to be Caucasian (Walton).
So, how does one respond to discriminatory acts as the one that Anthony experienced? In his case, he simply ignored the remarks that were made towards he and his friend, but what sometimes simply ignoring the acts does not always cool the pressure as in the case of a black news director and her date in a white owned restaurant. T...