I believe both texts "The Talk: After Ferguson, A shady
conversation About Race" and "Ally's choice" both have complex
situations regarding skin color and race. In "The Talk: After Ferguson, A
shady conversation About Race" a single African-American mother struggles
with a conversation regarding her son being a black male regarding if he ever
has an encounter with the police. Also, regarding her son's lighter complexion
and higher social class he has conflict with "why can't he just be
white." In "Ally's Choice" it follows a family in Oklahoma that
has their own identity conflict going on regarding the mother accepting herself
and her kids as "Negro" in which she would say and her kids feeling
that their just white. This entire conflict causes family issues and goes back
deeper in their family roots and the towns they reside in. With both texts, I
find it quite interesting but still sad that being "African-American"
is such a burden that the identity isn't just necessarily honorably claimed.
The texts both give you different perspectives of different situations
regarding skin color and the conflicts that come with it.
Both readings, “The Talk: After Ferguson, a Shaded Conversation about Race” by Dana Canedy and “Ally’s Choice”, are about not wanting to accept the racial background or consequences of a race. In Dana’s article, she is expressing reasons her son doesn’t want to be black anymore, she explains those reasons in concentration of encounters with the police. Her son doesn’t want to be killed or picked on for being black and since he can pass for being white, he feels that it should be an option. Her son sees being black as a bad thing and feel feels that he wouldn’t have to go through the troubles of black people if he just pretended he wasn’t black. Oppositely, in “Ally’s Choice” she is a white mother who is passionately saying she is black and her children don’t feel she should think his way. Although it doesn’t go into depth I feel that in this report Ally is running away from being the oppressor, just as Dana’s son was running away from being oppressed. Ally seems not as rich as Dana, as described in Dana’s article. Maybe they feel they are of the opposite race because of their circumstances, they want to relate more with who they grew up with. Different perspectives make you think differently, and this is a good example of that.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Talk: After Ferguson, a Shaded Conversation about Race”, Dana Canedy discusses her apprehension in having to explain to her son that he might be treated differently by the police because of the color of his skin. She had prepared herself to answer many of the question he might have, but when her son Jordan asked, “Can I just pretend I’m white?”, she was taken aback and didn’t quite know what to say. It was probably hard for Dana to grasp the fact that her child would be viewed first and foremost as a “threat” by police even though she knew him to be very educated and moral young man. The fact that her son asked why he couldn’t just try to fit in with other white people to avoid this problem shows our cultural bias and is disheartening to hear. Everybody should be proud of their cultural heritage and proud of who they are, and I think it was hard for Dana to see society warping her son’s perception of who he was in such a negative way. Dana wants her son to be as safe as he can, and even though she is proud of who she is and wants him to be proud as well, she knows that him claiming a white heritage would probably increase his chances of avoiding police hostility, and I think that might have had something to do with why she was so taken aback.
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