{"id":1381,"date":"2018-09-09T16:04:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T20:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2018-09-09T16:04:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T20:04:56","slug":"brief-for-9-10-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/2018\/09\/09\/brief-for-9-10-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Brief for 9\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Can You be Black and Look at This?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth Anderson made several well validated points throughout this article. She talked about how black people feel connected to one another\u2019s struggles even though they may not have experienced the exact same incident. For example, Emmitt Till was senselessly murdered by white men without remorse. In today\u2019s day and age, this level of blatant racially motivated violence would not be tolerated. However, black people can still relate and empathize with this just with the thought of \u201cthat could\u2019ve been me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This idea of empathy within the black community brings me to Anderson\u2019s main focus. \u201cThis essay considers the inchoate way that black people might understand themselves to be apart of the larger group. I mean this more than I mean political, ethnic, subcultural, or diasporic. I am talking about what it is to think of oneself , in this day and age, as having a <i>people<\/i>.\u201d (82). Personally, I feel as if black people are able to identify as a \u201cpeople\u201d because for so many years we have been viewed as the outsiders. Therefore, no matter what differences we possess, we know we share the trait of \u201cother\u201d in the eyes of society.<\/p>\n<p>This idea of being \u201cothered\u201d reminds me of a term that I learned in my Intro to WGSS class: alterity. In lamest terms alterity is just the state of being othered. Simone Beauvoir describes how alterity is used to make the \u201cothers\u201d viewed as negative and binary. It creates this mindset that if I\u2019m not this then I\u2019m that. For example, if I\u2019m not white, then I\u2019m black. If I\u2019m not rich, then I\u2019m poor. If I don\u2019t have a college education, then I\u2019m ignorant. Then, all of the traits of each binary are grouped together, insinuating if you possess any of the \u201cnegative\u201d traits, then you must have all of them. This is exactly how alterity has created many problems in our society, many of which only those who face these problems can fully understand.<\/p>\n<p>The system we operate within everyday was built upon alterity. It contributes to economic disparities, negative stereotypes, and disparities within our justice system. By dissociating themselves from black people, white people have been able to use alterity as a way to justify these inequalities. Is there a way to disconnect \u201cother\u201d from being associated with black people? If so, will this disconnection help reduce disparities? How would that address the inequalities black people have already faced for so long? What are some other alternatives to the situation? Lastly, considering that black people find a sense of community in our \u201cotherness,\u201d how can we keep this idea of \u201chaving a people\u201d without all of the negatives that come along with this term?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can You be Black and Look at This? Elizabeth Anderson made several well validated points throughout this article. She talked about how black people feel connected to one another\u2019s struggles even though they may not have experienced the exact same incident. For example, Emmitt Till was senselessly murdered by white &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-18","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/thesystem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}