Summary
Vershawn Ashanti Young, the author of “Momma’s Memories and the New Equality” explains the advice he remembers his mother gave him concerning his race and his job along with the reason why she gave him this piece of advice. Vershawn explains how his mother came from the Jim-Crow South and is still skeptical and very conscious of socializing or affiliating with a white person in her society. The reason for this behavior started since an early age for this is what has been instilled in her and it’s the way she was brought up. Young explains that there is, and will always be some kind of racism and and racial differences, although it may not be such a big deal or as obvious as it was many years ago when Young’s mother was growing up. Young describes and refers to a phenomenon he calls microaggresion defined as “mostly unintended ‘racial slights and insults’ (271)”. To have a better understanding of this think about it this way; The great majority of us may not even be aware of the fact that we are engaging racial prejudices in our everyday lives and this does not necessarily mean that we are racist, it’s just the way some of us are brought up to think like To expand on that this issue Young includes two articles where this is highlighted. The first article entitled Shayla’s involved a situation which occurred where Young was located at the time. In this article a young girl’s mother explains that her young girl, Shayla was verbally insulted by her classmates by asking her “why she’s so black, why her butt is so plump”. The mothers’ friend classifies these type of insults as a microinsults defined as “communications that convey rudeness and demean a persons’ racial heritage or identity. Young’s article ends with his plea for others to join him in “the individual and societal conscious-building project of the new equality. This leads us into what Young classified as the new racism which is the promotion of “distinct themes” of microaggression: colorblind ideology, a belief that in effect says, ‘pretend race isn’t here” or “if you ignore race, it’ll go away.”
Vershawn Ashanti Young, the author of “Momma’s Memories and the New Equality” explains the advice he remembers his mother gave him concerning his race and his job along with the reason why she gave him this piece of advice. Vershawn explains how his mother came from the Jim-Crow South and is still skeptical and very conscious of socializing or affiliating with a white person in her society. The reason for this behavior started since an early age for this is what has been instilled in her and it’s the way she was brought up. Young explains that there is, and will always be some kind of racism and and racial differences, although it may not be such a big deal or as obvious as it was many years ago when Young’s mother was growing up. Young describes and refers to a phenomenon he calls microaggresion defined as “mostly unintended ‘racial slights and insults’ (271)”. To have a better understanding of this think about it this way; The great majority of us may not even be aware of the fact that we are engaging racial prejudices in our everyday lives and this does not necessarily mean that we are racist, it’s just the way some of us are brought up to think like To expand on that this issue Young includes two articles where this is highlighted. The first article entitled Shayla’s involved a situation which occurred where Young was located at the time. In this article a young girl’s mother explains that her young girl, Shayla was verbally insulted by her classmates by asking her “why she’s so black, why her butt is so plump”. The mothers’ friend classifies these type of insults as a microinsults defined as “communications that convey rudeness and demean a persons’ racial heritage or identity. Young’s article ends with his plea for others to join him in “the individual and societal conscious-building project of the new equality. This leads us into what Young classified as the new racism which is the promotion of “distinct themes” of microaggression: colorblind ideology, a belief that in effect says, ‘pretend race isn’t here” or “if you ignore race, it’ll go away.”