Structural Racism In Audre Lorde's 'Searching For Whitopia'
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Whitopia Response Paper 2
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” -Audre Lorde. This quote celebrates the differences between the two concepts of racism. Those two concepts being, interpersonal racism vs. structural racism. The book Searching for Whitopia and my own personal opinion on the difference between the concepts are similar, and the book has some very good examples to refer too. Except for the fact that both are racism. Bullying someone at school for the color of their skin is not the same as a white family being allowed to buy a house before a black family. But it proves that interpersonal and structural racism are two different forms of racism.
To begin…show more content… The book says, interpersonal racism is; habits, policies and institutions that are not explicitly designed to discriminate. Structural racism is; the forbiddance of intentional discrimination but if someone successfully plaintiffs in a discrimination lawsuit then they must prove that someone intended to be racist bias. An example of interpersonal racism would be, in the beginning of the book when they are all playing poker. Poker is a habit but when you mix racist jokes in with the poker game it becomes interpersonal racism. An example of structural racism would be, when he says that living on a ranch used to be considered being poor but when it got popular by the white people it became a sign of…show more content… This quote really confused me at first but then realizing the differences between these concepts I got to an understanding about what he meant. This book has some great examples of interpersonal and structural racism. Some of the best I think of interpersonal is on pg127, chapter 4. " We trade off-color jokes. We trade rounds of cheap scotch and of course---- chased by pitchers of Bud." I think this is a great example because obviously drinking with Stan is a habit for both of them and because of Stan being a native and Rich being black, the fact that they are both joking about race shows the interpersonal racism in their day to day binge. A great example of Structural Racism is, how on pg212, chapter 7. "The court ruled that the "intent doctrine" was not discriminated against. Since, they believed that the suburban village did not discriminate, because its "intentions" were not to discriminate." This is just another reason our country I feel doesn't realize racism still exists because people in the eyes of the law did not intend to be racist but it still was a natural reaction to control racial minorities which is being racist. Either way the book gives us lots to prove how the concepts are both racist but two different