This week I have really noticed how I as an young African American women experience racism but experience it so much that I have learned not to acknowledge it or just view it as ignorance, but I have also began to acknowledge a kind of privilege that I may posses due to the color of my skin.  Having open my eyes more to the realization that race really is around me more than i openly acknowledge, it has created feelings of shock and frustration at the idea that people still behave and act unphased by this but also at the idea that racism is there but it has become so impacted into the normal lives of individuals that we just move day by day as if it is acceptable because "it has been going on for so long."  When looking at "Is Race for Real", I focused on 3 that I found to be important.  The first being that Colorblindness will not end racism.  Ignoring that racism exist will not help the situation.  It does not allow others to understand the effects even the smallest forms of racism have on the psyche of those oppressed.  This corresponds with the movie we watched in class "The Pathology of Privilege" in that Tim Wise explains that the lack of knowledge is in part due to the fact that society keeps information away that pertains to the experience of blacks.  Secondly, the fact that "Race is a modern idea" which explains how people were divided by religion, status, and class, as opposed to physical differences.  I must say this fact surprised me because we are not taught these things in regular class rooms.  I have always been taught that slaves were enslaved because as a race they were inferior to other races.  African Americans were enslaved through laws and oppression of the superior race.  The article How white People Became White?" looks further into the idea that race is socially constructed and not biological.  This means that a system was put in place by a group of people to physically suppress another group of people for years and years.  Lastly, the final fact that caught my interest was "Race justified social inequalities as natural".  It is interesting to think about how the social structures that we live by daily were constructed out of race.  Race as driven laws into existence that have kept races oppressed through institutions and an unconscious white privilege.  I believe the history that explains race is out there and people know about it.  I don't believe it is discussed enough because it is such a sensitive topic that people don't like to open back up.  The "race thing" will forever exist because there will always be those that refuse to acknowledge the issue and refuse to acknowledge the privilege that they hold because they are white.

Looking over white privilege, although I am not white, I still find myself having certain privileges that I do not always acknowledge on my daily life.
1. I may be accepted more in the white community because I am a lighter toned complexion.
2. Growing up in a middle class family and in a relatively good neighborhood allowed me to obtain a fair education, consequently qualifying me to continue my education and succeed here at UT
3.    My parents provide me with housing, transportation and living essentials without me needing to work (although I do)
4. My degree from UT will be worth more than my peers who graduated from other schools
5. When going out, I am likely to get attention and receive things because I am female.  

These are all privilege that I take for granted, without taking much thought in because it happens so regularly.