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Summary Of The Sky Didn T Fall

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“The Sky Didn’t Fall” is Susan Naimark’s metaphor used as she explains her feelings towards calling out and dealing with racism. Explaining her story of how she overcame her struggle of confronting the issues centered around race, Susan tracks her accounts associated with racism that lead to her growth and development. Susan grew up in a Jewish family that never discussed race and remembered traveling to her all-white suburban neighborhood in her family vehicle as the 1967 Detroit Race riots elevated in the city. As she got older, Susan became more and more curious about race and moved into a more racially diverse neighborhood. Her children attended a school in Boston, where white students were the minority and noticed that the white students …show more content…

Due to her preconceived thoughts about racism, she felt that if she called out the issues she saw, she would be seen as racist. She mentioned that she did not want to say anything wrong around people of color, but wanted to “get it right.” Many white people, in my opinion, feel that when there are African Americans around, they cannot talk freely or ask thought provoking questions for fear of sounding racist. This initial mindset that was displayed by Susan showed the self-negation Weber refers to because she automatically assumed that her questions would cause the “subordinate” group to get upset. Lacking confidence in herself, Susan fell into the mindset that all African Americans think that white people are racist. Susan worked for a nonprofit group that worked specifically with issues centered around race where she collaborated with many African Americans. During her time there, she shared her desire to not say anything wrong to her colleagues. She mentioned in her talk that she would often say during her meetings “I’m not going to get defensive” when her colleagues expressed how controlling she was being. This additional example of self-negation displayed by Susan when the “subordinate” group called her out caused her to immediately become defensive instead of analyzing the cause of their

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