Race is a predominantly social construct due to its deep integration with societal norms and behaviors. It is clear not only from the speeches made by Laura Mae Lindo and Anthony Jack, but in real life as well that race plays an important, and often abused, role in our society to differentiate cultures and attitudes. Lindo mentions racial inequality in her district as an issue that became undermined by underrepresentation. The problem was seen as solved because of no active complaints or problems, when actually, there was just nobody at the table that could represent and bring up those problems. The problem I’ve just described is in no way a directly racially motivated exclusion, simply an ignorance of inequality. Ignorance that stems from the historical lack of inclusion of people of color from society. Nowadays, with such blatant exclusion no longer present, the silent exclusion, such as the chance that there’s no person of color on a board,  becomes harder to identify and recognize as racism.

Our society has created a certain mindset about people of color, and the intersectionality of race is often not thought about, merely accepted. When Jack mentions the miscommunication of the term “office hours,” it is a problem rooted in difference of social class, which also happens to be in tandem with difference of race. Such considerations of educational equality in understanding between race and social classes is often overlooked due to the difficult nature of spotting the problem itself. Other explanations of such inequalities are also deep rooted in historical racism, the shift of blame to the victim itself is all too familiar, rather than the intentions of solving the problem itself.

By: Briana Do