Monday, April 18, 2016
Good White People & Small Change
In the two articles, Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, by Malcolm Gladwell and, I Don't Know What To Do With Good White People, by Brit Bennette, each author brought about different attitudes concerning activism. Gladwell criticizes a type of activism that branches off of the traditional form, and we can call this "social activism." He believes that this is less effective in getting things accomplished because it's based around weak ties. However, Gladwell praises that new ideas thrive off of acquaintances and people who have a higher likelihood of a differing opinion than your own. Bennettte criticizes how certain supposedly "good" white people are more concerned about how others see them rather than actually preforming a good action. In reality this makes them more selfish than gracious. Bennette shows an example of this through the use of FaceBook. These "good" white people would delete racist persons all while flaunting their "goodness" to the world, expecting a pat on the back from everyone. There's not much Bennette praises, but she does note that some actions of these "good" white people are actually very decent and humble. It's just a matter of if they expect to be rewarded or not, because to anticipate reward is not the right or good reason for doing the action in the first place.
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Malcom Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” and Brit Bennett’s “I Don’t Know What to Do with Good White People” both explore aspects of social media and people’s roles in activism. Gladwell’s article introduces an civil rights event in the 1960s where North Carolina students protested their rights to be served in a coffee shop, creating a movement. Gladwell speaks on how times have changed and how activism isn’t done through protest but through social media. He argues that this is inspiring and allows people to speak their mind without violence but questions whether speaking out on social media really makes a difference. While Bennet’s blog post addresses that many white’s attempt to showcase that they are not a part of the racist community by standing up for lack movements on social media and attacking other racial points. However, Bennet questions whether these are pure comments or just an attempt to avoid criticism. She struggles to understand the intentions of many whites, whether they are good or bad or on purpose or not. I agree that social media allows many to speak against many issues but is in fact not very impactful, it draws attention but does not allow a difference to be made but is instead just a conversation later forgotten. I do understand that it is hard to value someone’s intentions and to have second thoughts on them, but what if they do mean well and many blacks are continuing to hinder on the past and not accepting the change in some people?
ReplyDeleteIn the two readings, “I Don’t Know What to Do with Good White People” by Brit Bennett and “Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Malcolm Galdwell, they both talk about the components of activism and express their different views. Bennett indeed does talk about how white people try to dissassociate themselves with racism but what exactly is that stopping. I think that Gladwell is praising social media and how it allows people to broadcast their racist or non-racist acts behind a screen as opposed to doing it through protest.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “I don't know what to do with good white people” by Brit Bennett, she states the intentions some white people have, and some intentions that they say they have but are untrue. The attitude Bennett criticizes are ones that aren’t true to their word, the ones that state that they are not racist but behind closed doors are. Bennett says she would rather have someone come out and say they’re racist than put on a front so that they seem accepting. Yet she seems a little contradicting towards the end of this article, when she talks about police having the same description for all African Americans.
ReplyDeleteIn “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Malcom Gladwell, he talks about how activism has changed since technology became a big deal. He simply says that while social media unifies everyone, and isn’t a bad thing, its not a good way to make a big difference, just because there’s no specific leader to make a change in society. Gladwell praises the activists in the 60’s because they came together as one to fight for what they believed in. I think although Gladwell makes a good point, a majority of people want to make a change in the world and the best way to do so is through social media.
In both the article “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” and the blog “I Don’t Know What to Do with Good White People,” the authors Brit Bennett and Malcom Gladwell both criticize that today’s social movements regarding racial issues are less effective than social movements in the past. Brit Bennett argues that “good white people” are another way of racism because “good white people” actually try to discriminate themselves from black people that they’ve been nice to. She ironically praises the racist bigots because of their authenticity. On the other hand, Malcom Gladwell criticizes specifically social media, he argues that though social media can be beneficial, but when we compare the activism in social media with sit-ins that took place in the 60s, she argues that sit-ins are the really activism and it was far more effective.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Brit Bennett that some “good white people” are real racism by pretending they do care about black people. But I do think that there are a lot of good white people who do put themselves equal to other race. I also do agree Malcom Gladwell that social media is less effective than actually go onto streets though, as he introduced too, that social media is effective in at encourage participation.
In the two readings, “I Don’t Know What to Do with Good White People” by Brit Bennett and “Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Malcolm Galdwel, the authors explore the ins and outs of social activism. Why people do it, their intentions in doing it, and how they are doing wrong. I do not think anyone should tell someone what they are doing is not enough, if they feel like they are truly trying. According to Galdwel, if people aren’t out actively protesting, it is not enough. However, what if the person behind the computer screen, trying to enlighten her 1,000 friends on FaceBook, is a single mom to a newborn baby. She cannot leave the baby to go to protest rallies. So while it is not the most conventional method, If the white mother to a newborn wants to tell all of her FaceBook friends that she unfollowed a racist person and she wants all of her friends to do as well, why and how does that make her a bad white person? Bennett on the other hand appreciates the social movement and implies that as long as people are getting the word out on the issue, change is bound to happen.
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ReplyDeleteBoth the readings “I Don’t Know What to Do with Good White People” by Brit Bennett and “Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Malcolm Galdwel are very critical toward people. I think they are way too critical. They do not know everyones situations or stance. And they should be happy with the amount that people are doing. They should accept even a little help and not tear them down.
ReplyDeleteThe two articles, "I Don't Know What To Do With Good White People" and " Small Change: Why The revolution Will not Be Tweeted" are both articles which comment on social change and how the methods of the past compare to methods of today. In the first article, the author suggests that racism of the past has changed from racism of the future because it was easier to understand where people stood. The racist people before always "let you know where you stood" with them. However, the racists of today hide it, and patronize themselves with words like "I am sorry" or "I didn't mean to hurt him." The last article claims that methods social change is less effective at changing the status quo than it was before. Loose networks of social media keep people less committed to the cause which harms them in the long run. However, if all you're looking for is information by social network then media is the way to go. Where strong social connections by a hierarchy is the way to go for movements which require commitment, social media movements allow for a lot of people to through in their two cents. Which adds up over time. Not as effective but useful for the modern age.
ReplyDeleteIn both articles the authors are basically talking to evolution of racism. People are actually to get a long. Yet I do see why the author believes some “good white people” are racist. The author argues that the “good white people” are just discriminating themselves from the people of color by acting nice to them. Since social media is a huge factor in the issue of racism. It has an affect on people’s actions and what they say and act. I personally think they are saying that racism still exist people just tend to hide it better than they did before. That’s why social media is so important. It starts social movements and spread the issue to alarm other that racism still exist as much as they think it doesn’t. It helps motivates people so they can help change the on going issue in our nation. It’s been going on for too long. As much as people think it’s getting people it’s not because people just find other ways to be racist so no one knows it.
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