A Dialogue on Racism

Jasmine: Hey Alex! What’s up?

Alex: What’s up Jas? Things are all right my way how are things with you?

Jasmine: Um… I’m okay. This semester has been so stressful though; I’ve seriously considered transferring.

Alex: I wish I could say I knew how you felt, but being a hooper and all I really don’t.

Jasmine: Yea, I bet you don’t. You have it so easy. I struggle everyday, not only with just classes, but with my identity too. College has a way of making you reevaluate who you are and where you fit in society. Right now, I honestly feel like I don’t belong at this school. I’ve always dreamed of going to Michigan, but now that I’m here I question if I made the right decision.

Alex: Really? It’s like that? What could be going on to cause all this? You know what, I think you just need to stop stressing so much. That’s the problem with you females; you all are always so damn dramatic!

Jasmine: Typical male response, blame it on my femininity. But you know what, now that you mention it, my gender is part of the problem. Like it’s not enough that I’m a woman, but I just had to be a black woman too! Seriously we have it the worst.

Alex: What do you mean you have it the worst? I mean as a black male I know being apart of the African American race isn’t always an easy task, but times are changing Jas, seriously I just think you need to calm down.

Jasmine: You don’t understand how many times I’ve tried to “calm down”. I walk around this school everyday feeling like a failure because my burden is two fold. Alex, you only have to deal with being black and for you that’s secondary especially at the University of Michigan because before people acknowledge your ethnicity they notice that you’re an athlete and because of that they respect you. I get no respect, no matter what I do and it hurts.

Alex: Jasmine all you really need to do in life is look good, get a husband with a well paying job, and then you’re set for life. What are you complaining about? No matter what you’re ethnicity you’re a female and that alone allows you to get of the hook. You can get away with murder, but let me commit a crime and it’s over. My basketball career would be done, now that’s messed up!

Jasmine: Alex I can’t believe you’re being this close-minded, seriously. This is not the nineteenth century, and I don’t want to be the trophy wife who waits for her husband to “bring home the bacon” so she can fry it when he gets there! I want to work and make something out of me life. I want my daughter to look up to me and respect me for being a strong woman, not dependant on a man, in control of her life.

Alex: All I’m saying is if it’s stressing you this much maybe you shouldn’t be so ambitious. Maybe you should pursue a different career; you know something that requires less work. As you’re friend Jas, I’m just trying to look out for you. You shouldn’t let this school get the best of you.

Jasmine: So you’re suggesting that I give up?

Alex: No, but there is a such thing as an alternative.

Jasmine: You’re suggesting that I take the “alternative” route rather than pursuing my dream of becoming a brain surgeon.

Alex: I’m just saying Jasmine; you don’t have to be superwoman. No guy wants a superwoman. I mean not to play the race card but you know how you black women get.

Jasmine: *gasp* EXCUSE ME!

Alex: Wait! Just let me finish. I’m saying you all always try to be so damn independent and after awhile it gets really old. It’s okay to ask for help. Take you for example, you obviously need help, but when I try to give it to you, you object. You’re upset with me for giving my opinion, but the truth is you need to hear it.

Jasmine: I can’t believe you! Do you understand the things you are saying? I am a person trying to succeed in a society not only founded by patriarchal ideals, but racism as well. As a black woman, I am inferior to (all) men and white women. There is no group of people lower on the social totem pole than African American women, that’s how it was, and that is how is has proved to be ‘til this day…

The above piece represents a fictional dialogue that I have created between an African American woman and an African American male athlete here at the University. The dialogue centers around Jasmine's (the female protagonists) distress in relation to the experiences she has had here at the University. She often feels as if no one understand the pressure she is under as an African American woman. On the other hand Alex, and African American basketball player is said to have it easy here on campus, but in his defense he tries to express to Jasmine how only on this campus is he held in high regards and that is only because he is an athlete who services the school through his athleticism. In this dialogue I try to express the disparity that most African Americans feel at large universities such as the University of Michigan.