Commentary on Chapter 1 "Defining Racism"

After reading the article Defining Racism by Beverly Tatum I found her ideas about a racially structured society embedding a prejudice mindset very interesting. She explained that living in such a society offers a number of stereotypical images and ideas that are fully observed even at a young age. This means that even though many people do not realize it, they are developing a prejudice mindset that will stay with them as they become adults. The example in her chapter when the two white students are talking about Cleopatra being a black woman displays this tpe of prejudice. After discovering that Cleopatra was black the student exclaimed "That can't be true. Cleopatra was beautiful!" is Tatum's way of showing us that society has a way of creating these images and categorizations which include and exclude certain types of people.

Another interesting idea that Tatum introduced were the terms active and passive racism. I know that active racism is blatant acts of hatred towards a different race, but I had not took the time to think about the idea of passive racism. One of my fellow classmates brought up the old saying "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" and that is a good way to understand passive racism. I feel that you will not be able to actively fight racism in every situation (especially if you do not recognize that it is happening) however, in situations that you realize that racist things are being done or said, that is when you can become part of the solution.

Amani Johnson