After doing the readings and watching the video for this
week I felt as if I had just taken in so much valuable information but was not
really sure how to process it all and turn it into a blog post. At first, I
felt really empowered to write about what I had just read and watched, but then
I started to feel angry about all these issues and just decided to push it the
side and deal with it later. That seems to be a recurrent theme for me lately-
not only because Donald Trump is president, but also because it is just a
reminder that there are a lot of people who agree with him and actually voted
for him. It is easier to just not deal with the anger and sadness I feel
towards the whole situation, especially as a person of color and the daughter
of an immigrant, and just go about my day. But after listening to Junot Diaz’s
interview and hearing him talk about how we have to put ourselves in those
people’s shoes who are directly affected by discriminatory acts and policies, I
realized that this was not the right mentality to have. In order to make a
difference, we all have to turn this anger into productivity towards creating
an inclusive and united society.
I found the first chapter of Allan G. Johnson’s book, Privilege, Power, and Difference to be
very in-touch with the issues going on in today’s society. His acknowledgment that
the use of such words as “racism, white, and even worse, white racism” cause a sense of defensiveness
and irritability, especially in white people, gave me a perspective that I don’t
often hear about. I often get so wrapped up in my own feelings of anger and
sadness when I hear such words that I don’t often think of the feelings white
people feel when they hear those words or how it might make them feel uncomfortable
when I go on rants about the injustices people are going face because Donald Trump
is president. After the election I realized that I was completely blind to the
fact that such a vast amount of people actually supported him. I don’t know if
it was because I have lived in Austin my whole life or because I have surrounded
myself with people who have similar views as me, but his win really took me by
surprise. While I had a lot of anger at first, the unity I saw with the
protests and the women’s march turned that anger to hope and restored my faith
that there are a lot of people who felt a similar sense of frustration as I
did. It made me realize that while the situation we are in right now is tough,
there are a lot of people who are coming together to make a difference. While
it might be easier to just ignore all of these issues to avoid the feelings of
anger and sadness, it is important to remember that some people do not have the
option to do so because it is their reality.
