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Our Blind Side

Naturalization—used by whites to explain segregation as "natural". Our society today is engulfed in racism but we tend to be blind to it because it is extremely normalized. Racist actions within our society are described as “just the way things are” or “just part of life”. By doing this, we are continually discriminating and pushing down one race as we make one race dominant over all the others. While our racist tendencies are not as clear-cut as they were in the days of slavery, our actions are still deeply affecting the recipients of the racism. Slurs, slangs, stereotypes—these are only a few examples of commonly used racism in our present day society. In our lives today, we are so accustomed to our routine lifestyles that we fail to see the reality that is going on outside of our own lives. Today, there are still activists and small movements for the recipients of this hurtful racism. We fail to see this reality because we are blind to it, as our society hides it so well. Whether you are or are not on the other side, receiving the racism, we need to become aware. We need to change our so called “traditional ways” and make new changes towards improving our blindness. Naturalization is so prevalent in our society and with no effort towards change, we will remain where we are and make no progress towards a more unified community. The article strongly supports the presence of naturalization in our society when it states, “Forced by federal housing policy and local practices into slums and nearly all-black neighborhoods, African-Americans lived apart from the city's white population, which limited their ability to enroll in better schools in white neighborhoods or seize job opportunities across the city or suburbs” (Wilkinson).

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