Silent Racism

I'm not sure how I feel about the Silent Racism reading this week. I do agree with Trepagnier that thinking of Racism as a black or white issue without any kind of grey area is not a viable way of looking at the issue. I also agree that for the most part all people are in some way racist or as it was pointed out in class... prone to stereo-typing.

while browsing my usual haunts on the Internet I found a video clip from Chris Matthews giving a report on Obama's State of the Union Address. In this Matthews states that during the address he forgot that Obama was black, he said that for a moment he forgot Obama was a black man standing in front of a room full of white men as president of the united states. Matthews was trying to point out that Obama transcends race but the way he said it reminded me of the Silent racism reading. I don't think we was purposely or even consciously trying to sound racist but just by how he said it made it sound like racism.

I think what my biggest problem with the reading is that I think trepagnier and I have a different definition for the term racism. I do thing that some of her points could actually be labeled stereo-typing and not racism