Sabrina Murray

Over the weekend I went to a dance hosted by the Black Student Union. It was really fun and I danced a lot to songs mainly written by black artists. There was one thing that I noticed that my group and I were very quick to judge; there were white people. This is a common judgement that comes up among my friends and I, who are predominantly people of color, about white people and how they seem to be the first to voice opinions on topics about people of color. In class, a question was posed about the microaggressions people of color face, the first person to raise their hand was not a person of color but a white person. It is funny to me that someone that does not face racist comments, or judgements based on the color of their skin, to know more on that specific subject. Similar to when I was at the dance, I found myself judging these white people and thinking what right do they have to be here? But then I realized what makes it so wrong for them to be here? What right do I have coming to this Black Student Union dance when I am not black? Why was my first instinct to judge and feel a sentiment of us and them?

I think this is a common feeling among people of color and related to a bigger society issue. It is a known fact that white people have suppressed many groups of people of color over the course of history. There was slavery and then segregation that still exists today. Chinese people also faced racial injustice, like when they were used to help build the railroads. There are more examples of injustices between people of color and whites, however I am not saying that all white people or people of color have animosity with each other. I am saying that because of these events it has instilled the feelings of separation and sentiment of us versus them. I think that because of these events, people hold others against a prejudice that had backing in another time period but not as relevant today.

I think my feelings of judgement have been influenced by society. Society views people of color as different groups that are not intermixed. We are never specifically segregated but it is natural for people of color to be attracted to each other in a room because we are usually the minority wherever we go. Then, since we usually come together it further instills that feeling of outsiders or difference between the two groups. I do know that this is not always the case: as a child I would want to be friends with all types of races. However, I found it hard to make friends with the people of color at my school because they would group together. I had friends that were white, and I would want friends that were people of color. However, the people of color, for example if they were all Korean, would segregate themselves. Even though we were all Asian, I still felt excluded because I wasn’t Korean. I think that society is to blame for our judgments because the institutions that we grew up with never stopped the separateness or they ignored the differences all together.