blog 3

   Jabari Watson 

    This weeks reading opened up my eyes to a few cultural differences that divide our society. Racism and discrimination is still very apparent in our society but it is just hidden more by politeness, smiles, and manners. In one of the articles written by Patricia S. Parker she discuss the racial discrimination and settlements that have happened in the coca-cola industry. The coca-cola company paid their African American workers 26,000 less then their white counter parts. This is wrong on very many levels but this is not the extent of what was going on in the industry. The company then went on to create a hostile company that left many of their African American employees with stress related health issues such as depression. In this article Patricia also touched on the racial issues that went on at the Texaco company. Executives were calling their black employees “black jelly beans… glued at the bottom of the bag.” Statements like this in this article left me shocked and somewhat outraged at first. One I sat back decompressed and really thought about life and what my parents have always had to teach me and my siblings I wasn’t really that surprised by these actions. I first thought why the money was such a high pay out and I immediately thought hush money. The reason certain individuals are paid off so highly is because big time companies like these don’t want the masses knowing about their discriminative hateful side. When it comes to companies they don’t care about people they just want the public eye to see them in positive light. After reading this week’s articles and in particular this article I was left with quite a few different emotions. But the one question that came to mind and that is still on my mind is. Does not knowing enough about another culture make one fear and discriminate against that culture or is just pure hatred and ignorance that fuels this discrimination.