The Whiteness Project

A couple months back I shared a story with our class about how I was running late for a meeting speeding down 295 south and got pulled over by a state trooper. Not only did I get pulled over but the cop ran over to my car, gun in hand swearing at me like I was some type of animal. When he reached my window and saw who I was his response was putting his gun away and saying "Oh my god i can't believe you are a girl, I thought you were some old hispanic man who just robbed a bank or something." He thought this way because my car is registered under my step father's name which is Jose Eduardo. For the speed I was going I should have received a ticket somewhere around 600-700 dollars but I left that scene with nothing but an apology from the officer. This demonstrates the discrimination against minorities that still exists. But there is still so much discrimination against white people. There is about one group of white people who are completely untouched which would be the Upperclass, White, Straight Male. I am faced with difficulties and I am a white girl. I don't get the white treatment and that leads me to the first video I watched from the Whiteness Project. A women with purple hair, piercings and tattoos. She is faced with difficulties daily because of how she has decorated her body. The tattoos and crazy hair is what gives her personality and character. But when she walks in a store she gets dirty looks as if she's coming to shop lift or rob the place. She gets the same looks as people of different race. She is treated as if she is her own type of minority. At the end of this short clip it states that the civil rights of 1964 doesn't protect the 20% of white american adults with tattoos. I am an art major. I have four tattoos and I have those tattoos because I love art I love the process of creating something and seeing the finished project. ME expressing myself for WHO I AM should not throw me into the unofficial category of a minority. Art is a way of life for me and the fact that my future could come with difficulties trying to get jobs or getting dirty looks in public places seems cruel. I am being discrimination for being an independent individual and for showing creativity and imagination. I would rather be my own little minority than fall into the same manipulating pattern and routine as everyone who thinks that there is only one way to live and look and act.