Racism In The Modern World

We all live in 2014, the modern world; but how modern is our "modern world"? There's a saying that dictates, "The more things change, the more things stay the same", but what is really changing and what is staying the same?

Physics dictates that forces come in pairs of equal magnitude and in opposite direction. This analogy parallels that struggle that minorities face today. As much as society would like to believe that everyone has the same opportunity to be successful, the struggles author Bell Hooks describes in her book Remembered Rapture reminds all of us that as far as we've come as a civilization, we still have a long ways to go.

In her essay "The Class and Politics of Writing", Hooks describes the obstacles she had to traverse to become an accomplished writer as an African American female. Being from a poor working class family of color herself, Hooks denotes the inequality and injustices she faced becoming a writer. She describes how mainstream publishing corporations rejected her writing and the writing of other minorities under the premise that it would invoke a resistance movement and the elitist group of individuals responsible for the circulation of information would never allow it. For her work to become recognized, she would have to turn to other methods of publishing. Hooks also mentions the resistance she felt from her parents. Writing about the secrets of her family was considered treason and her parents condemned her work. Many other writers were threatened for their well being if they wrote about the secrets of their families and some were even excommunicated.

Does racism still exist in America? The answer is unequivocally yes; but racism has changed. The Jim Crow south doesn't exist and lynchings don't occur in America. Racism has become more introverted, less mainstream, and ingrained into our psyche. No one told Bell Hooks that she wasn't worth publishing because she was black, it was mutually understood between her and the company but it wasn't dared to be said. No one told Bell Hook's that the experiences of an African American woman came second to that of an affluent white women, it went unsaid but completely understood.

As a civilization, we must grow and evolve together. It takes one of us to make the difference.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it"

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Little Failure? Or Big Success?

Gary Shteyngart's memoir Little Failure is a humorous recollection of his life as a Russian Jewish immigrant coming to America. He's captivated audiences based on his ability to ridicule himself and retell even the most embarrassing moments of his life. He doesn't hide anything about himself to the reader and thats what I loved about it.

His struggle of assimilation in a foreign country and eventual actualization of success is a story any immigrant can relate to. The realness of his struggle to fit in and make something of himself makes his story easy to identify with and this is the root of his success.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't agree with Shteyngart's label; failure. 

From a young age, his mother labels him "Failurchka"  because he didn't get the grades in high school to land him a seat in an Ivy League school. Shteyngart carries this label with him for the rest of his life and his entire memoir revolves around himself identifying as a failure. Shteyngart manages to pave his own road that his parents could not have imagined for an immigrant boy; he becomes an accomplished writer. He spends his life walking against the slope of immigrants "going into law, medicine, or maybe that strange new category known only as ‘computer.’ ” I consider this achievement to be a great success. In spite of his parents wanted realized for him, he realized his own dreams. He walked against the grain, he did not give into social conventions and did what he wanted to devote his life to; writing.