AUTO ETHNOGRAPHY TO CRITICALLY INTERROGATE RACISM 1
Autoethnography to Critically Interrogate Racism
Theone question that I have asked myself and perhaps everyone else hasasked themselves is who am I? Everyone knows and understands thatidentity is multidimentional, complex and dynamic. It keeps changingeither with economic and interpersonal relations. I choose to confidethis report to my identity as a man and a white a man who earned hisundergraduate in a black dominated society where my whiteness alwaysattracted attention and was a point of contestation.
Ihappened to have injured my leg in a football match and I checked inan emergency room where I found a queue of patients waiting to beattended. I talked to the lady at the reception and she stood up totake me to the room where I would be attended. The rest of thepatients looked at me, it had, however, not occurred me that I wasbeing served before all the other patients who had been queuing thelast 6 hours.
AsI checked out, I analyzed the situation that I had been subjected toand I could not help but think of the white color privilege that hadbeen prevailing in the society. White color privilege is notsomething that white people inescapably do or fashion it is anobvious inclination for whiteness that constructs existent benefitsfor the whites. The way interactions are carried out in our societiesis what depicts racism in my situation, this racism had been outrightly shown by the institutional behavior directed to me at thehealth center.
Thissituation changed the way I looked at things, though I was receivinga lot of attention from other students and the lecturers it had notbeen as apparent as in that situation. The people of color shouldembark on understanding that they have done more than enough in thiscountry and they should not create situations that depict theirrepresentation as people of color, instead they should know they areentitled to good education, good health services and above allrespect just like any other human being including the whites. Thepeople of color should take pride in their achievements, as well asunderstand that there is no one who assigns a value to anotherperson we assign value to ourselves.