I found the reading in "Silent Racism" really interesting and made me think about things that I have never really considered before. The first thing that I found interesting was how we have created racism and have attached certain things to the word race. Since there are things attached to race we inevitably attached things to racism, and therefore as she says, can only fit into the two categories of "racist" and "not racist"(Trepagnier 3). I also agree that a lot of people are blind to racism because they think only certain things can be racist thus if they choose to be considered non-racist, they try to avoid or ignore them. She also talked about how just trying to ignore it didn't make someone completely not racist, which then made me think of white privilege and how a lot of whites do not even realize they are benefiting from it. The reading reminded me of a Tim Wise, an anti-racist writer, who came to talk to my high school about white privilege and what that means. I think it is interesting that because society has such a big influence on the way we think it causes us to instantly think certain things when we see people, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a blatantly racist or stereotypical thought but just on the mere fact that a thought of who that person is or could be, based on the way they look, shows that society has engraved racist thoughts into the way we think. All of this made me think of a reading I did in high school that helps explain the idea of white privilege and I think could go along with silent racism ( I attached a link to the reading if anyone is interested).

http://www.case.edu/president/aaction/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf