Between Barack and a Hard Place

In the video "Between Barack and a Hard Place speaker Tim Wise discusses many topics such as racism, white privilege, and schooling systems that favor the white students. Wise being a very powerful speaker made me think while I was watching ever minute of this speech. He made a statement that I too have most likely said in my head, "I don't need to talk about racism, I have many black friends." People think in their head that if they have a few close friends that may not be of the same ethnicity as them then that is their way of being tolerant towards "all of them" as a whole. Tim stated that many people will just tell you what you want to hear and make you think that you are accepting and just tell you that they have african american friends when in fact, they do not.

In his discussion he stated that many people believe that Barack Obama being elected into office twice is going to end all racism in the United States. He argues that Obama's political success could instead "deepen the denial in which so much of the white public has been embedded for generations." Race always has been an "explosive issue" in the United States. He states that people point to Barack Obama as, "a validation of the American ideology that anyone can make it if they work hard and have an example of how institutional barriers against people of color have all vanished."

I believe that people have racist thoughts everyday still even this day in age because of how we are brought up as a society, how our families act, and how the country as a whole acts. Tim wise stated that he too has admitted to having racist thoughts as well. Wise touched upon research that he has done stating that people in different professions will not treat African Americans the same way they would treat someone white.

I see this all the time at my internship, the African American students all sit together, the spanish children all sit together, and the white children all sit together. They still keep them separated and ostracized from each other.