Blog Post

I was looking through my notebook and realized I wanted to talk about Adrienne Rich's piece a little more than we did in class.

She mentioned that people see her as mostly white, but she identifies herself as Jewish and female as well. Although this was written in the early/middle 1900's, that's still a common theme people use to identify others in the 21st century too. The reason it's like this (and specifically in America) is because the majority of our country's rules and standards have been made by white men. And for the longest time, white was always seen as the main reason you got respect, a job, a better life, etc... Therefore, many people didn't associate themselves with their religion, background, and real beliefs as much because being white was all you needed! That mentality still remains in many peoples thought processes today due to the way we learn specific psychological themes growing up: treatment, authority, manners, differences/sameness, and social class. So, my point is that the reason she was only seen as "white" for the longest time is not only because that was how she was seen to the eye, it's the knowledge of what we've been taught as well. For example, if you take any single person of color, and you have someone identify them, that person will most likely be labeled at black or colored. Of course, who knows what they're true identity is... Dominican, Puerto Rican, Indian, Colombian, Greek, Haitian, Mexican, etc... but the fact that they are colored is all most people need to know. And why? Because we live in such a westernized white world.