(H) Ezekiel, The Racist Mind

Ezekiel says that we have to begin with our own lives when it comes to racist situations like thinking young black teens are bad and criminals.Ezekiel, a Jewish professor at University of Michigan, decided to conduct a set of interviews with racist members of the militant white racist movement. The purpose of this study was to get into the psyche of these racist fellows. I have a real life example on his strategy that I have identified in my life. I can claim I am not racist, just like Ezekiel says, because I think I am a good person, but When I am walking to the gas station by my house to buy some chips and a young black teenager is walking in my direction about a block away, I tend to get scared. I begin to think the worst. I get scared thinking he might kidnap me, or rob me, or hurt me. I start thinking all kinds of bad things about him because he is a young black teen. This makes me racist and prejudiced because of these beliefs in my head. But like Ezekiel says, we should start from our own lives and look at our experiences. Well if I do what he says and think back, I can remember when my dad would tell me stories about working with white people it was hard for him. They would always put him down and tell him shit. He didn’t want to go at a time but he kept going but after months he ended up ignoring it but then the worker would take his things. After a year he started observing and learning like Ezekiel says.