This week we read an article by Aleichia Williams titled “Too Latina to Be Black, Too Black to be Latina” She wrote about how people’s perception of her stems from purely how she looks, rather than how she identifies and projects herself. People could not believe she spoke Spanish because of her skin tone and considered her to only have one identity. As a white woman this is an experience I have never encountered and never will. White people are considered the norm in our society while everyone else is highly critiqued. Black and Latin people are often described by the color of their skin first while white people are more often described by their personality and more specific things about them. This fact is something that when talked about with a white audience, usually turns into a banter and they become very defensive.

In Alicia Garza’s chapter “The Power of Identity” she wrote about this defensiveness from white people when spoken to about “race issues” and said how they fall under the impression that “naming it somehow perpetuates the dynamic of underrepresentation”. I think that even beyond this white people are ashamed and therefore can not hold these conversations with a listening ear for fear of then having to take responsibility. For most white people it is not a total lack of understanding that people have, it really is a sense of shame and not wanting to be held accountable for a number of reasons like losing power in the way Garza spoke about.