Race and Stereo-typing

           Gary Shteyngart throughout his book "Little Failure" speaks of many things such as race, immigration, drugs, etc. The one that peaked my interest would be race. He was Russian Jewish, as he explains in the memoir he says that he grew up with having to fear African American (dark skin) because they would rob you. In class it was brought up that with race comes stereo-typing and its true because not only do people in general are raised to believe certain things about others, it's that they don't try to socialize with that certain group. In my opinion it amplifies the thought that after so much time; race and stereo-typing are what gets people to separate as race than to consider each other as human beings. Gary Shteyngart was able to portray that to me because he took everyone in as humans.

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The Color Complex

 In The Color Complex we come again to race, this time its more associated with color. Now in Colonial American times men had once outnumbered females and that caused the men to have relations with their slaves. Well in class we spoke of how due to the relationship there were offspring but they were neither dark or white. As that happened the fathers came to love their children thus letting them learn and own property even slaves. Later on we spoke that consequences came because of the one drop rule. Soon those who weren't fully dark feared they were going to be put in the same category. All this interracial mixing gave Colonial Americans a problem which is still here today. Today many Americans would land a job if they were a lighter skin. Some human beings just cannot see that its not the color that defines you but the credentials you have for it. That's why a prime example would be the use of affirmative action where it helps those of different race, skin, have a shot at the job. I believe we'll keep feeling colorism for a bit longer because as I see it now there are hardly any "pure whites" so it may go away in time but till then the affects of the past will still continue to influence the present and future if there is failure to change.