Author: Tyler Poeschel

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43970903

Recently, Kanye West has come out of what appears a battle with drug addiction and himself and has taken his thoughts to twitter. His tweets began receiving a magnitude of backlash; however, many people used this to talk about how “free thought” is not allowed anymore and a particular group tries to maintain control over ones thoughts. This has led to many artists and friends of Kanye to openly debate topics that are controversial in a sensible manner.

This article exams his thoughts on slavery and his take on politics. Kanye West said “When you hear about slavery for 400 years … for 400 years? That sounds like a choice”. He then tweets a quote from Harriet Tubman that says “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” – Harriet Tubman. Personally, I’m shocked at what Kanye West is saying, and wanted to know people thoughts on his recent twitter rampage and thoughts ranging from philosophy to politics.

 

I went to the documentary screening of Little White Lie. This documentary is about a girl that grew up within a household believing she was a Jewish White girl living in a White community of Woodstock, New York, but ends up finding out she is black. The girl’s name is Lacey Schwartz a Georgetown graduate admitted to the University due to seeing a picture and admitting her to the university as a black student. Eventually she goes through her Freshmen year at Georgetown and realizes through therapy sessions that she needs to confront her mother about why she looks the way she does with lighter skin, and curly black hair. Reluctantly, her mother admits that she had an affair on her “father” with a man named Rodney. This affair was kept secret from Lacey and her “father” until her parents’ marriage started to decline which her mother hinted to her “father” that Lacey may not be his which led to a divorce. Lacey then struggled throughout her life with dealing with her new found black identity and her past white identity. Although she understood who her father was, she never felt a sense of closeness with her real dad like she did with her “dad” that raised her.

After the documentary Lacey Schwartz did a Q and A and I was interested in her responses to the questions presented to her. A student asked her when she finally realized she was a” black woman did she experience any difference of being treated compared to how she was as a white woman?”.  Lacey Schwartz instantly replied “no”.  I was actually shocked to hear that, but Lacey went on to acknowledge her beliefs on race fluidity, and her experience with privilege. I believe the student was looking for her to reinforce their thoughts on white privilege, but gave them a different way of looking at it. It is essential at looking at different sources and letting them guide your opinion without just looking at one to continuously reinforcing your own thoughts. I believe this documentary represented a different side of a discussion on race and its physical  boundaries.

I attended a lecture called “White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race”. The lecturer was Matthew W. Hughey, a sociologist, and associate professor at the University of Connecticut. His research has led him to write several books and main focus is on studying whiteness. As a white male, I dislike attending these lectures due to the fact that I’m ostracized and put into categories like Hughey provided. Hughey literally hand-picked samples from his months of research to examine how a white nationalist group and a white antiracist group have a lot more similarities than what meet the eye. He also provides 3-4 categories that he put white people into that eventually the outcome is different forms of racism. I understand that this was just a lecture as well as a brief summary of his research, but his arrogant attitude leads to the conclusion white people are all racist indefinitely. I just was curious since he is white, what category did he fall into? Oh wait, when asked that question he twisted it and never really answered it but gave excuses like the white antiracist group did. So, was he racist?

This lecture pertains to the class in the following ways: learning about groups from different sides of the spectrum within the white community and their attitudes towards people of color. The class has talked about at certain points of white people’s role in the movement, and this lecture gave certain insight of possible views certain groups had.