Compare contrast race bait & three white pillars PDF

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AAS 360 Professor Masequesmay assignment on comparing and contrasting the "race bait" video with the "three white pillars" reading...

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Compare/Contrast “Race Bait” & Three White Pillars In the “How to Race Bait” video, Matthew Cooke explains that the United States depends on a caste system, in where rich, white men are at the top, and those who are perceived as black, would be at the bottom. As mentioned by James, the video focuses on the white/black binary, so there wasn’t much talk about other cultures or races. Cooke does also look into the problem with poverty, and how the American “caste system” is created so that people are pushed to the bottom to make the rich more supreme. Ultimately, his video drives at the fact that we should all work together to rebel against this system. However, in the “Three Pillars of White Supremacy,” Andrea Smith discusses more than just the idea of organizing people of color, by going in depth as to how the United States is dominated by white supremacy. She simplifies it under the three pillars: slavery/capitalism, genocide/colonialism, and orientalism/war. According to Smith, people of color take part in “oppression olympics,” in where we argue over who is the more oppressed race. Cooke’s video focuses more on slavery under capitalism, which paves way for a caste system, whereas Smith’s essay argues that there’s more than the issue of slavery; colonialism and war are also factors to white supremacy and the limitations put on other races and cultures. Furthermore, Cooke discusses white supremacy (the idea of masters) as if it were the same as racism. Smith argues that they are not the same, but they are interrelated due to the way the people under those categories think. Also, the video pushes forth the idea that only the rich, white men are responsible for the problems of white supremacy. On the other hand, Smith’s essay claims that we take part in stabilizing white supremacy by consenting in some sort of a hegemony; essentially, we are trapped in a certain pillar of white supremacy, by believing that we can act upon the other two pillars. Although the video and the essay focus on different parts of the issue, they can be combined to form a more complete understanding of white supremacy and racism in the United States. They both claim that we should never push others down, in order to feel better about ourselves or more powerful. Rather, we should unite because of the oppressions we face, and through this, we should eliminate the hate....