Post 2

After our two classes I am starting, whether it is true or not, to sense that members of our class expect the white students to openly accept being racist. This feeling also rang true to me after reading Joe Osmundson’s “Love Letter to White People” and I wanted to further address it. 

I do not understand what accepting being a racist, or having more accountability, does to improve racism and race relations in America.  Joe Osmundson does not openly admit to being a racist, but he states that he considers himself “an ally in the fight for racial justice.” I don’t see what Osmundson is suggesting that differs from the accountability that has been taken for racism by the white students in our class.  I am completely open to taking further steps in improving the way we speak about racial inequality, but I do not know what other steps have to be taken in our discussion to make it a better learning experience to take to the outside world.  

I sincerely believe to be working in conjunction with the oppressed in attempt to help racism so I am asking my fellow classmates, what else I can currently do to for the betterment of the cause. Osmundson addresses reading Malcolm X saying to “Let sincere white individuals find all other white people they can who feel as they do – and let them form their own all-white groups, to work trying to convert other white people who are thinking and acting so racist. Let sincere white people go and teach non-violence to white people”, but I do not think that is the most effective way to stop the perpetuation of racism throughout America. As a white person I feel the best thing I can do is to get to know black people better and attempt to, as impossible as it may be, to understand their plight before attempting to change the minds of other white people.