Current State of Racial Relations in America

This past weekend, my father and I decided to go to the movies. We both were adamant about seeing "Get Out", the current #1 grossing movie in the country. The thriller, written and directed by Jordan Peele, was driven by the current racial issues in our country. I won't delve to deeply into the details of the movie in case anyone reading this is yet to see it, but I will explore how the film explores racism and how I felt watching it. Going into the movie, I was extremely excited to see the movie as I was a huge fan of Jordan Peele's work and so I was expecting to be entertained immensely, but I was not expecting it to cause me to think to much. The film basically shows how while white people can act as if they are extremely open and accepting of cultural and racial diversity, they can have hidden feelings of racism. While watching, I became myself almost becoming offended. I am a Christian straight white male who has been blessed into a great socioeconomic status. I grew up with the majority of my friends being basically mirror images of me; however, when I was 10 this would change forever. Following my completion of the third grade my family decided to travel around the world for a year and a half. This experience changed my outlook on the world and different culture forever.When I got back I was much more open to other races, religions, and cultures. Now my best friend is African-American, two of my best friends are Muslim, and I feel very culturally aware and open. My dad and I were the only white people in the entire theatre and as the movie ended I could just feel the stares as we exited. Even though I am extremely open to diversity and in no way racist, I could tell that I was being judged and possibly even labeled a racist simply based on assumptions from the movie. The media, as well as the people and environment surrounding us help to shape our world views, and one of the current views is that generally, white people are racist. I believe that in order to improve race relations, it is equally as important to view everyone as culturally open as it is to view everyone as equal, otherwise it will be impossible to communicate because of our differences and we will never be able to make progress.