Book+Summary



Book and Trip Summary In this book she explains how she feels she is being treated differently and how the people judge her based off of her skin color. She also notices how other people are treated differently for example the lady who is having a baby is being treated differently by the doctor. Everywhere we go we will in some way be looked at differently or treated differently because it is in our nature to judge people based off their skin color. There are also a lot of stereotypes which also force people to judge someone by the way they act or how they look. When we were in Chicago most people in our class found themselves stereotyping the people they saw on the streets or in the subway. Being in a city as big as Chicago was new for most people in our class so when we saw things that were out of the norm for us we questioned it and wondered what was going on. In the first section of the book we read Biss she describes the bad connotation that comes a long with being white. She even makes the statement, "Perhaps it would be better if we simply refused to be white." White Americans have had an extensive history of being judgmental and unfair based on appearance. Biss gives good examples of being culturally accepting by explaining the life of her mother. Although I do not agree with her dating many different men, I do admire her ability to accept everyone no matter their ethnicity. She also describes to solutions to racism by taking her readers through her classroom. Biss gives a good example of this by explaining how she handled a bullying problem that her class had with calling a boy gay. In order to teach them a lesson she made them write down every name they had ever been called and had them relate that to how they're making that boy feel when they call him gay, or faggot. Biss took it as her job to create a learning environment that would cause them to think. This is why education is liberating because it causes us to ask questions, think and learn about our environment and other cultures. We have a good example of this here at Spring Arbor. Since we are a liberal arts school we have to take classes that give us a broad perspective of what our world is like. By taking these classes and learning about the world around us we become as Biss says "better people" (pg. 49). Section two of this book addressed institutional racism. She used examples of coal mines to describe what this meant. Institutional racism is the discrimination or ill treatment of employees done by the company because of their skin color or disabilities. This form of racism can also be used by not hiring someone because of their skin color or hiring somebody over someone else because of their skin color. Biss also explains the fears we each face in our different races. White people tend to be afraid of impoverished people of an other ethnicity and other races feel threatened by white people; it is a cycle of racists discrimination and intimidation.

The Chicago trip taught us a lot in regard to racism. Larger cities have a more diverse population which most of us are not used to, especially in the small town of Spring Arbor. Greg, one of our classmates, made an interesting observation when he said that he was not used to being so cautious about his safety because we live in a very safe area, but when we were in Chicago he was really paranoid about what was going to happen to him. The scariest encounter we faced in Chicago were the rumors of a gang fight going to happen. The police told us to leave the area so that we would be safe. This not only taught us that big cities are a whole lot different, but it also enforced that God is our protector! Our experiences in the Mosque and the Synagogue were extremely beneficial in understanding different cultures. I realized that they seemed to be more friends than a lot of Christian circles that I've encountered. I had never been to a place of worship for a different religion before other than Catholicism. This opportunity not only pointed out the differences we have with the people in these religions, but also the similarities we have with them. Overall the trip taught me how to be more culturally accepting, and it made me more culturally intelligent. Although there is still a great amount of racism going on we have made improvements. We have come a long way since slavery and everything else that has happen in our country. For the most part people are being treated equally and are giving the same opportunities as others. Some places are not as culturally mixed as others but they are accepting of others. Today we go to schools that are mixed with many races and cultures and we also have diversity in the work fields. As years go on people are becoming more accepting to those that are not like them in race, culture, and religion. God created all people equal, no one is better than anyone else which means we should treat each other the same. We as Christians are to be the example to those around us and treat everyone with love because God is love. If everyone begins to treat people how God wants us to treat people we will have a better country. We can change the world one step at a time.