Reaction Paper: The Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True The General Topic of the Presentation and Its Relevance in Understanding Social Injustice and Oppression

The general topic of the presentation is how to effectively be sensitive to prejudice against minorities, i.e., race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion, while at the same time being fair to the majority. In the video, Trevoh Phillips narrates how he led nationwide campaigns against prejudice, but somehow, that campaign bore the wrong fruits. The narrator starts off by explaining how positive and negative stereotypes work; in the U.K., the Jewish community is comprised of the most successful people. In more detail, Phillips explains that Jews make up 15% of all billionaires in the U.K., even though the whole Jewish population is less than 1%. The negative stereotype is based on crime; Phillips, with the help of a former commissioner, maps out how different crimes are committed in different communities, which brings about the question of racial profiling.

Trevor Phillips continues to prove how some of the negative stereotypes created for minority groups are actually a result of their actions. For example, Phillips shows that the risk of a black person dying is three times more likely than a white person. However, the chance of a black person being killed by a white person is 25% compared to a 75% chance of being murdered by another black person. The video goes on to show how white people have been put in a corner and that speaking out against any sort of bad behavior against minority groups earns them the title of racist. Minorities have committed severe crimes because the white people who could have reported feared being labeled as racists (Graham et al., 2010). Another issue addressed is that in efforts to make Britain diverse, white people have been discriminated against.  All these issues are the foundations of social injustices and oppression in our societies.

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Lessons Learned from the Presentation

One fascinating thing I learned from the video is that the segregation of communities is intentional. Most people would say the segregation of our communities is based on discrimination and is rooted in slavery from centuries ago. However, according to Phillips, segregation occurs in the modern world because people want to stay near people they know or have the same dialect, religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, and other attributes that make them similar. In most cities globally, communities tend to reside in particular areas; and attend the same school, places of worship, etc. One major characteristic of minority groups is that they have a high rate of in-group marriages. While this trait may be attributed to the “us versus them” concept, Phillip’s demonstration that segregation is intentional disapproves of that concept in the U.K.

Phillips attributes intentional segregation to comfort and familiarity, which is what most people prefer. For instance, a British white man choosing to stay in a Pakistani neighborhood would be uncomfortable because he doesn’t know anyone, can’t speak their dialect, and has a different religion. His clothes would also be very different. Seeing the adjustment as too much, the British man would prefer to stay where those who talk and dress like him surround him. Additionally, friends and family tend to stay close to each other, forming a community, and most often, that community has the same background. Hence, when we think we are separated because of our hatred of others, the truth could be that we are separated because of our love of our culture and background.

Cautions or Reservations Regarding the Presentation

One statement made in the video I have reservations about is “successful black people are feared or a taboo.” As much as racism is still part of our society, I believe that white people who are not racist are not threatened by successful black people or any other minority group.

Over the years, minority groups, especially black people, have believed that white people fear their flourishing and empowerment because white people will lose their power over them. This is one of the theories about the success of black people, all of which imply that black people are meant to be inferior to white people. Hence, their success is seen as a threat. This statement was true, but I believe that things have changed now; a majority of white people do not share this belief. The election of President Obama, a black man, as the US president in two terms consecutively, and recently Kamara Harris, a black woman, as the vice president in the US, a country dominated by white people, has shown that the world is changing. White people are not threatened by black people anymore (Barksdale 2019).