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Inequality
Question 1
According to biology color blindness is a color vision deficiency that decreases a person’s ability to differentiate between two or more colors such as the difficulties in reading traffic lights. However, according to Sheriff in Chapter 6 of Dreaming Equality, color blindness is assuming that racial differences do not exist (Sheriff 43). For example, instead of accepting that people have different races, a person might experience some discomfort when asked about racism or racial discrimination. Another definition of color blindness is the failure to see or recognize the power of white privileges or failing to acknowledge someone race due to the fear of being termed as a racist.
On the other hand, naturalization as defined by Seth Holmes in Chapter 7 of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies means equal or the same (Holmes 44). For example, the author uses some cases to show how white people justify racially based inequalities. One of them is how migrants are portrayed as having “chosen” to come to the US as opposed to being forced to after the implementation of trade policies that made it impossible for them to survive in Mexico. Therefore, with this statement, the white people mean that in one way or another, there is no racial discrimination as they are helping the immigrants who escaped from the trade policies in their motherland. With them saying that the immigrants chose to come to the US, they mean that back in Mexico; the immigrants were experiencing something worse than racism. Therefore with the perspective that whether the immigrants were forced or choose to come to the US; the white justify that racism naturalizes the suffering that the migrant workers’ would have experienced back at their home.Therefore, the suffering is not really because of the race difference but a way of helping them.
Another example that the author uses that helps the white people to justify race-based inequality is that all immigrants have to go through suffering so that their children won’t suffer. With this statement, the whites are just covering the suffering by saying that the immigrants are setting the table for the future generation, which is not valid. Another example that helps white people to justify race-based inequality is stating that the psychologist has proven that white people are superior over the other races. For example, when given two identical resumes with a difference being on black and white sounding names, the resume of the white person will be ranked higher than that of the black sounding name. Therefore, with this example, the author justifies that white people are superior to black people.
Question 2
Children grow up always believing that with hard work, one can live a better life in the highest social class in society. However, when they grow up, they tend to experience many scenarios that raise questions concerning inequality. For example, a person might be torn in between helping a beggar in the street because he/she is not wealthy and not helping him /her because he/she choose laziness over hard work, therefore, putting him/her in his/her current situation. Thus, with all the life experiences concerning inequality, we see that some life suffering are self-proclaimed. Therefore to justify this, Seth Holmes, an author of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies describes various ways in which Mexican farm workers are the cause of their suffering. One of the examples he uses is when he compares the white teenager’s farm experience with that of long-term pickers. With this example, the author means that the suffering that the long term pickers experience is not from an external factor but their blame. In this experience, we see that the white teenagers work on the farm pick but did not complain of any suffering because, during picking, they engage in many breaks that reduced the pain. Therefore, this perception diminishes the suffering that the long-term pickers experience since it was their choice not to take breaks while picking.
The second example that justifies that the Mexican is to be blamed for their suffering is whereby the wealthy and powerful people believe that they deserve their success while the poor people are out there suffering because they brought the problems for themselves. The statement is correct because when people are born, they both do not possess anything. However depending on whether a person chooses laziness over hard work or vice versa, the person is the cause of his/her suffering or success. Another example of how the afro Brazilians are blamed for their suffering in Dreaming Equality is when Holmes went to Burger King with some of his friends. While at Burger King, they were given wrong French fries; and instead of going to ask for the right french fries, his friends were convinced that they would not be able to be given the right one. They continued to take the wrong french fries. However, Holmes stood up and went to the counter to demand proper french fries. Holmes was then given the right french fries while his friends struggled with the wrong ones. Therefore, through this example, we see that his friends choose their suffering by not asking for the right fries.
Works Cited
Holmes, Seth. “Fresh Fruit, Broken bodies.” (n.d.).
Sheriff. “Dreaming Inequality.” (n.d.).