Something about the Subject Makes It Hard to Name by Gloria Yamato

Argument

Yamato argues that racism will inevitably end sooner or later.  "Celebrate the inevitable end of racism."  However, she argues, it will not be easy and it will not happen instantaneously.  "Racism--simple enough in structure, yet difficult to eliminate."  "Cuz you can't even shave a little piece off this thing called racism in a day, or a weekend, or a workshop."  Honestly and unfortunately, I don't agree with Yamato on her first point.  I think racism will be around forever...I think it's not something that "we" (white people/society in general) can not overcome.  I can't say if that's because white people will never try hard enough to eliminate it or if the world will end before we get a chance to complete the process, but that's how I feel.  I definitely agree with Yamato on her second point though.  It IS not easy, or it would've happened already!  That's pretty apparent I think.  The not happening instantaneously...well, pretty obvious if you step back and think about it like that, but Yamato's right.  Some people, probably a lot of people, believe that something like a one-hour class can fix it.  The one-hour class could definitely help the problem, but I don't think that one-hour of anything can completely reform anyone's ideas. 

In class I will try to talk...about this and that I believe 1. racism will never end completely because "we" will never get that far and 2. one-hour classes can't completely fix anything, only merely help issues.  I think it will be an interesting class discussion, especially with everyone having read 1 of 4 different articles.