The Color of Fear

In the color of fear a group of diversity men come together to talk about their personal experiences and their definition of equality. To Victor, an African American, “all men are created equal” means “all white men are created equal”, so people who are non-white are being treated the same in which they are always less equal than white men. From their pass experiences they’re still living in fear, for instance Victor was scared walking down the street, Yutaka’s family never stop while driving across Texas, Loren was afraid when there’s a police near him. Even though they didn’t do anything wrong but from history we know that the minorities were the victims of violence and discrimination just based on the color of their skin. There are also discrimination and double consciousness between the minority groups, for example the director of the document, who is a Chinese American, was growing up with a dad who really dislikes African American because his wife was killed by an African American. But the director recognizes his double consciousness about other races, he doesn’t like African Americans because of what happened to his mom but at the same knew that he can’t hate all African Americans. The director was a victim of discrimination himself because of other Chinese Americans so he doesn’t want to hate all African Americans for the same reason.

What I found interesting from Victor's words is assimilating to America or being American means the person has to give up his/her culture identity and follow only American’s culture. In Takaki, a second generation Chinese American girl says “A few years ago when my Mother took me to worship at the shrine of my ancestor … I decided it was time to stop this foolish custom” (258), I know there’s a denial in non-white cultures but I didn’t really think about how some people have to give up their own identity and act like Americans in order to be accepted. What I found surprising is the discrimination within the same race about the shade of their skin color. The lighter the skin a person is the more likely for them to be loved by Caucasian and the people of their own race. This is surprising because I didn’t know the white privilege idea is so strong in the minority groups. Which is kind of funny how now people like darker skin color more than white skin color and some people are willing to pay to get their skin tanned to a darker color.