Reflection+on+Habbits+of+the+Heart

At the beginning of this year, in my first reflection on what it meant to be American, I wrote that America was like a teenager, because it was always changing. Though there are parts of that essay that i still agree with, this idea that America is always changing, especially as a means of bettering itself (as i had written in the paper) does not really hold true for me any longer. I would hope that my readings and writings this year have not turned me from an optimist into a pessimist, but simply opened my eyes to a more complex problem: It is easy to change laws, but very difficult to change how people feel. Though we have often laughed about the repetitive use of De Tocqueville's phrase, "America's Mores," it is amazing how on track he was when he warned us so many years ago that "the greatest difficulty [in eradicating racism in America]...is that of altering the manners (not the laws)." This wall focuses on how our racial mores have only become more subtle, but not disappeared. The recent racist statement made by Don Imus, a prestigious radio host who referred to the women from Rutger's basketball team as "nappy headed hoes," is just one of the countless examples of how Americans are still, perhaps at a more subconscious level, racist. The disturbing video of the comedian Michael Richards getting into a verbal argument with a black patron at his show, exhibits how Americans instinctively attack each other's race in order to insult them. After the incident, Richards went on air to apologize claiming that "the most amazing thing is, I'm not even a racist." This quote personifies what this wall tries to display: Americans persistent racism that is now often suppressed, but impossible to completely hide.

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