I have been thinking a lot about the Silent Racism reading we did for Monday's class. Ever since I did the reading it has been making me think about the way I see and think about people. It has also made me think of racism and the idea that Barbara Trepagnier brings up, about racism being created by society and culture and also about racism being a taught concept. I thought the idea of people being taught formally and informally is very interesting. She interviews the woman who was told by her parents that racism is bad, but then by watching her parents and their reactions is "informally" taught that she should be afraid of black people. I had never really thought about racism this way. I also knew and believed it was taught, and you were either racist or not, but I had never really thought about it being taught willingly by people I considered none racist. And I think because it is subconsciously taught it is the reason why there is still so much silent racism.

Another thing I found really interesting was how there were so many types of racism in society. I think symbolic racism shows how much silent racism is embedded in our society. It is almost an excepted form of racism in our society. I also think that Color Blind racism was very interesting, and the fact that programs like affirmative action exist makes it racist. It brings up the question of why do these programs need to be in place? Shouldn't schools and jobs not be looking at race as a qualification, but be looking at the individual separate from their race? The fact that they need to be told that they HAVE to look at an individual shows that society is a long way from getting rid of any form of racism.