Payton Leo

March 14th 2016

UWRT-1102-006
Professor Blandford
UWRT-1102 Final Rough Draft
My topic was hard to research and find information that I didnt know
about this topic. I wanted to research how black people live everyday, and
the struggles that racism brings onto their life. The things I did learn about
this became very noticeable and prevalent in everyday life for me also. I see
this problem affects some of my friends, and it concerns me that this is still a
problem. I know I cant fix it with this paper but I know I can bring more
attention to the problem a few people at a time.
After I saw a video on YouTube based on a social experiment to show
everyday racism, I saw a different part of the world emerge before my eyes.
In the video, there is a white male and a black male are put in situations that
tested everyday people to see if people discriminate against black people.
One scene in the film show the black man go to a used car dealer lot. The
black man talks to the used car salesman and asks about the prices and
condition of the red car. As did the white male. They both went to the same
dealership and talked to the same salesman about the same red car. The
price of the red car for the black male was a total of $1,500 more than the
white male. I found this to be incredible, and to think that happens all
around us without the public knowing is absurd. I know that this one paper

wont change the world--or even a college campus--but I want to give the
reader of this paper bits of research that I found to be interesting and that
follow my topic more into the side of discrimination I have not witnessed or
experienced.
The video I mentioned before is just one part of the research I did. I
also found an article that was written by Cheryl Corley, Coping While Black."
There is a podcast that is a 4-and-a-half-minute session of women discussing
how black people cope with the stresses of everyday racism. In the article
she talks about how psychologists are trying to find out if dealing with
discrimination and racism everyday can lead to post-traumatic stress
disorder. She also goes into more detail: for example, she said that micro
aggressions and routine stresses can trigger psychological stress. Micro
aggressions are a term used to describe insults and how they effect
minorities. This psychological stress can build into anger and keep building.
The micro aggressions and psychological stresses are caused by a very
common problem of white people looking at black people and judging them
based on the color of their skin before even knowing them. Corley also brings
into the article the example of Eric Garner and the New York City Police,
when he was put into a chokehold until he passed out. The whole scene was
caught on video and his last words were about how he was tired of the police
harassing him daily and how he received unfair treatment. That just goes to
show that instead of Eric Garner saying goodbye to his family through the

video, he wanted to bring more awareness to the fact that everyday racism
is real and happening without many people seeing it.
Another source I found to be relevant to my topic was the movie To Kill
a Mockingbird. This one isnt as big of an example as my other two sources,
but its still relevant to my topic. In this movie, a black man (Tom) is
automatically accused of raping a young white teenager (Mayella). The
movie is set to be in the 1930s when racism was very prevalent in the United
States and especially in Alabama. Tom didnt stand a chance to the white
majority of the town in that time period. A white man stood up for the
accused Tom by representing him in court and they fought the case until the
jury and town were convinced he was innocent. The part of the movie that
draws my focus is the fact the Tom was accused right off the bat and
seemingly didnt stand a chance to the town until the white man standing up
and fighting for him. When I watched this movie, I learned that racism didnt
have geographical boundaries in the time period in which it exists. I learned
that no matter what time period or where you lived you can find someone
being affected by racism everyday.
Feeding on the subject of racism not having a time period or
geographical boundary, I found an article five miles from my home town.
This article, written by Chris Stevenson, is called Racism, Bullying and
Basketball in Buffalo, NY. This article is about the racism based in public
school systems, specifically Buffalo, NY. I never experienced or witnessed
anything that is described in this article. The article went into detail about

how an all white basketball team for the Kenmore school district, had a ritual
of chanting 1-2-3-Nigger. For what ever reason, they chanted this for years
and went unnoticed until a black woman joined the schools basketball team
as a player. Once she found out about the teams ritual, she became
offended and didnt know what to do. She asked the team to stop the ritual
chant and have something more civilized, but the teams response was that
its just a word. The school tried to punish the black woman for speaking
out giving her a 5-day suspension. The black woman was infuriated when the
rest of the team only received a 2-day suspension. She eventually made so
much noise in the world that it caught traction and became world news. She
used social media to make so much noise. I just couldn't believe my eyes
when I was reading this article. I had to read the title twice just to make sure
I was seeing correctly. I couldnt comprehend that such actions where
happening so close to home. I learned that everyday racism is closer to
home than I could have ever imagined. Also the fact an entire school
committee would fight to try and silence the victim of such a threat to her
integrity.
I saved this article specifically for last because it takes everything that
people would need to know about everyday racism and puts it in one article.
The articles title is Everyday Racism, which is pretty self explanatory. The
article goes through the ins and outs of racism that happens everyday. A
couple of definitions that caught my eye were that everyday racism is the
marginalization of those identified as racially or ethnically different and

symbolic or physical repression of (potential) resistance through humiliation

or violence. These specifically caught my eye because it put words to the
definition I couldnt.
The rhetoric affects every part of my subject, from the audience to the
form of presentation to the presenter. If the speaker was different races I feel
like the whole meaning of the speech would be different and target a
different audience. For example, if the presenter was black, the majority of
the audience would also be majority black people, and vise versa for any
other white presenter. But the only thing is that is a white presenter were to
stand up and try and present what is happening to black people everyday,
less people would listen. But if a white person went up and presented the
same information the audience would be larger. The only reason I think this
is because if a black man or woman was scheduled to present to a large
audience, the factor of everyday racism would come into play and some how
mess up the whole presentation. Also if the presentation isnt like a normal
rally or a convention and was more like a commercial, I feel like it would
effect who hears and how each individual is affected by the type of the
broadcasting. Like for example if the presentation was through a TV
commercial or a TV channel special, a lot more people with a wider variation
in race would see the program.
Some conclusions that I see in this topic, is that white people are
hurting the black community. The majority of the white community is not
hurting them, its the small percentage of white and other races that

contributing to the racism that black people deal with every day. This causes
black people to think that everyone is out to hurt them. I found that in my
research that the majority of black people are affected by this day in and day
out. Also that it only takes one saying or one person implying a racial
inequality, to ruin someone day or life; impacting them for life.
One source that I found to be a positive representation of this topic is
To Kill a Mockingbird. I found this source gave the reader rejoice when the
black male was founded not-guilty. My topic wasnt all too positive in the
sense that I could not find anything positive, besides Tom winning the court
case.
I couldnt find anything positive coming out of this through my
research. But I have noticed that from the 1930s till now racism has slowed
down and became lesser of a problem everyday, even though it is still
prevalent. The problem with racism is that it wont go away in the near
future, but we can make progress like we did from the 1930s till now. I saw
this through To Kill a Mockingbird. With Tom being wrongly accused because
of his skin color.
I found that every not every situation is different in the case of
everyday racism. I found that the majority of situations are based on the
stipulation that all black people are lazy and are criminals. This is very
pronounced in the film on YouTube and the movie To Kill A Mockingbird. As
when the black person went job searching in the film the owner of the job

agency explicative told them that there were no jobs for him, but there were
for jobs for the white man.
The genres I picked my sources from are articles and films. The articles
led me to envision the sense or the story behind it. Which in return led me to
see a whole misrepresentation of the story behind it. The films, I was able to
see the scene from start to end this ended up being the best way to see
what was happening and make my own conclusions from the story rather
than having me read their conclusions.
Some parts of my topic I didnt quite understand were how black
people actually deal with it. Do they just bite their lip and keep walking or
start up an argument with the accuser? Where racism start and end in the
world?
This world is a deep dark place and no one is safe from the darkness.
The racism in the world is very unacceptable amongst everyone. The
problem with racism it may never disappear but it only can get better.
Parents have been known to influence their kids to become racist. This will
cause a never ending problem, that will get better but never disappear.
Racism has never been so prevalent now that I researched this problem.

Work Cited Page:

Corely, Cheryl. "Coping While Black: A Season Of Traumatic News Takes A Psychological
Toll." NPR. NPR, 2 July 2015. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
"To Kill a Mockingbird." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
"Everyday Racism." - Racial, Color, Discrimination, and White. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
"True Colors - Racial Discrimination in Everyday Life 1/2." YouTube. ABC Prime Time, 26 Sept.
1992. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Stevenson, Chris. "Racism, Bullying and Basketball in Buffalo, NY." Racism, Bullying and
Basketball in Buffalo, NY. 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.