Ashley Jackson
2/6/10
TED 3380
Race Matters 5 4 3 2 1: Preface- Chapter 4

5- After reading, I think Cornel West wants his readers to remember that race does matter and African American people are treated differently than people that are white. So far, West talks about how nihilism invades black communities. Black people are nothing to white people and are not treated how they should be; equally. Cornel West is trying to tell the people of America to step up and quit being so closed minded. There are people of different races in America and it should not matter what color they are.

4- 1.) Page XVIII: “With roughly 40 percent of black children living in poverty and almost 10 percent of all black young adult men in prison, we face a crisis of enormous proportion.”

2.) Page 6: “To engage in a serious discussion of race in America, we must begin not with the problems of black people but with the flaws of American society- flaws rooted in historic inequities and longstanding cultural stereotypes.”

3.) Page 7: “Afrocentrism, a contemporary species of black nationalism, is a gallant yet misguided attempt to define an African identity in a white society perceived to be hostile, It is gallant because it puts black doings and sufferings, not white anxieties and fears, at the center of discussion.”

4.) Page 22: “Nihilism is to be understood here not as a philosophic doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards or authority; it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaningless, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness.”

3- Nihilistic (page 20) - total rejection of established laws and institutions. Anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity. Total and absolute destructiveness, esp. toward the world at large and including oneself
Apartheid (page XVII) - A rigid policy of segregation of the nonwhite population. Any system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc.
Paucity (page 12) - smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness

2- I have not had many experiences with racial issues. My parents raised me to be open minded and friends with anyone with any skin color. I have always gone to a school that was not closed minded and accepted everyone. The few times that I have had to deal with racial issues are when people would say things to someone out in public or someone I was friends with might say a comment or two. It is so sad that people care and say things about African Americans. I really do not understand how people can be like that?

1- What are some experiences you have had with race?