The second term is racism, which is, “the systematic oppression and exploitation of human beings based on their belonging to a particular racial group or people. ‘Systematic’ indicates that we must look at the status of the group and not at those few individuals who may have climbed a ‘latter of success’ in the white society” (Andrzejewski, 1996, p.56). Racism is a very common word that gets thrown around a lot today. Even though that it is very common, I feel that racism is very hard to understand. One of the handouts that we got in class, seemed to help with understanding racism, it was an equation; race prejudice plus the power of systems and institutions equals racism. Although this equation helped me better understand racism, I feel like I do not completely understand just like other people in our …show more content…
There are a few different ways that racism affects me personally and through other connections. The first way that racism affect me through other connections, is through my friends. One of my best friends, is of the race African American, and by the stories and looks that we get when we hang out, I can see how racism affects his life. What I want to focus on is when we hang out, I can feel people looking at us in a weird way. In a way, I feel like they are looking at us, and thinking that he is trying to attack me or use me for something else. When this happens, I feel like it is my job to go out of my way to make sure that those people that are judging us, know that he is my friend. It is something that I feel, that I should never have to do, because to me the color of our skin or your racial background does not define what kind of person you are. It is sometimes hard for me to understand that other people look at people of color or people of different racial background as different, in a negative aspect. That is one way that racism affects me through