COM_ExtraCredit

1. ?For the span of weeks or months, you could experience the freedom that comes from not feeling watched, the freedom of believing that your hair grows as it?s supposed to grow and that your rump is supposed to sway?Here the world was black, so you were just you; you could discover all those things that were unique to our life without living a lie or committing betrayal? (311). In his comments on this quote Luis Fraga ties it in with Obama?s experience of being part of the majority group in his visit to Kenya, similar to how white people are part of the majority group in many areas in the States. That once Obama was with a large group of people he felt in kin with, had a similar ethnic background, and cultural characteristics Obama then could fully self-reflect on his race. Luis Fraga connected this to his experiences of going back to Southern Texas, to the Latino community his family is from. There he feels he can be himself and relate to his people in that way. In that community he thinks about race, whereas in the larger general community of Washington it is not addressed. Fraga made the comment that these issues do need to be represented because then society can face the idea that we do not live in a post-racist country. 2. ?I sensed?at some stage your choice was irrevocable, to divide was now impassable, and you would find yourself on the side of the line that you?d never intended to be on? (122) ? As far as I could tell, I was the only black man in the company, a source of shame for me but a source of pride for the company secretarial pool? (135) In response to the quotes above Professor Christopher Parker reflected on to what extent he has sold out. Growing up in a poor minority community he never would have imagined that he would be sitting around the table with two other minority colleagues wearing a suit to talk about a book the black President had written. The American Dream is something expected of people as a member of a minority community they have the responsibility and burden to give back to their community. Further, the responsibility to mentor others and bring up the community as due to their race blacks have the odds are stacked against them. In closing Christopher Parker said successful black people feel they have the responsibility to build up their communities, while as a majority group white people do not feel this burden they can succeed as individuals without thinking about the community. 3. ?They talked about the richness of their multicultural heritage and it sounded real good, until you noticed that they avoided black people. It wasn?t a matter of conscious choice, nessasirly, just a matter o gravitational pull, the way integration always worked, a one way street? (100). As a mixed raced person Ralina Joseph respects and appreciates Barack Obama discussing his mixed race identity. Joseph elaborates in saying that having a mixed race is not just about you. Has to do with which group you identity with, about the census. It is not just about naming different parts of yourself. Currently in the census you can select all boxes instead of just a multiracial box. The Professors brought up the ideology that it was once said that only through the world becoming completely mixed race will the world finally become post-racist. Ralina Joseph said this information is wrong, proven by social science data. Mixture doesn?t mean that you will be able to get a loan any easier, it doesn?t escape ?blackness.? Especially in the case of the original American idea of the one drop rule, that even by being a small fraction of black makes someone a black person.