White Like Me

Today in class, we watched a film called, "White Like Me". The film discusses the struggles associated with being black in the United States. The narrator, Tim Wise, maintained that while some believe that racism is a thing of the past (due to recent events such as the election of Barack Obama), it is still alive and is very prominent in every day American life. While I am not naive, and I recognize that racism is, of course, not completely gone, I do think that it is not as prevalent as it once was. In my personal experience, I have found that in communities that I have been a part of welcomed the (very few) blacks that were in my school, classes, etc. Also, I agreed with the majority of the points made in the film, and my beliefs especially align with a section about "reverse discrimination".  I think that we attempt to be so accepting and welcoming to the black community that we go out of our way to create opportunities for members of it, and while this is certainly not a bad thing, I think that it sometimes does limit opportunities for equally qualified whites. The film said that this should not be a concern at all because it is a very small percentage of the opportunities that are reserved strictly for blacks. I think that the percentage is a bit more than the documentary implied because it seems to be something that many people have strong feelings about and if it were as small a percent as Tim Wise said, then I do not think so many people would feel so strongly about it.