This week I read Joshua Alvarez's "Power and Privilege Definitions". It had a lot of interesting definitions about commonly confused terms. It declared that prejudice is either based on ignorance or a disregard of facts. Thus, nobody can be simultaneously prejudiced and accepting of facts. Therefore, it declared, prejudice can be unlearned. Later, it emphasized that race is imaginary and not rooted in biology. I remember once reading an article that stated that if one was to walk from sub-Saharan Africa to Northern Europe, they would not notice any physical difference between the inhabitants from one village to the next. This is because the racial transitions are gradual with no clear boundaries. Finally, it the list declared that racism can only be exhibited when it has institutional power behind it. Thus, even though minority targeted groups can be prejudiced, they cannot be racist.
I also read Joanna Windom's "The Backlash Against African Women". I felt it elucidated the attitudes of many men towards the changing status of women. There is not as much male resentment concerning where women are in comparison to where they are going. The growing egalitarianism of the modern age is clashing with many traditional values of male dominance that were taught to today's young men. However, despite what we would think, many African countries have made huge progress in regards to womens' rights, with Rwanda becoming the only country in the world where females outnumber males in the legislature.
Finally, I read Sarah Fisher's "The Complexity of Human Rights in Global Times: the case of the right to education in South Africa". It suggested that as much as we like to think our rights are god-given, rights are fought for and achieved; similarly, they can be abused or lost. I liked it because many people here in the West take K-12 education for granted and don't even appreciate that they can safely (in most cases) go to school and get a free education. However, as we saw with the kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls, this right is not respected in all areas of the world.
