Denial

I read the chapter Denial in White Like me by Tim Wise. His message is clear and agreeable, but I am still skeptical of the severity of his examples. When Wise says “ Since we teach history as an uninterrupted string of linear progress, where things were really bad, but slowly got better, and are always improving when it comes to race, students can easily mislead into thinking that the issue of racism is so yesterday’s news.”(62) This idea is extremely agreeable in my life. Throughout my history education I learned about slavery, then the abolishment of slavery, then the civil rights movement, and so on. History is definitely taught in a linear string of progress. Almost like a spectrum going from worse to better. Where I disagree with Wise is where he says that students are being misled to believe that racism is a past problem. No one can say that there has not been progress with racism. It is apparent in our society. Our current president is half black. Even though there is a dramatic improvement in racism in America over time, I would argue that we do not deny that it still exists.  Racism is a current issue that is not yesterday’s news.  A huge problem currently in our society is bullying. It would be absurd for someone to believe that race is not a large contributor to the bullying epidemic. All schools in America are cracking down on bullying. Most schools have issued no tolerance for bullying policies. To suggest that the youth of America associates racism as a past issue is almost ridiculous. Equality and getting along with everyone are the foundations of our school system. The youth is constantly being reminded and taught how important it is to treat everyone as equals and show respect. There is a large difference between progress and concluding that the issue has been resolved. America is constantly working to eliminate racism in our society; we have not declared it an issue of the past.