Summary on "Momma's Memories and the New Equality"

In this article, Young speaks about racism, the new upcoming ages and his mom's view on the success of a black man in a predominantly white community. Young's mother has endured her pains with racism and realizes that times have progressed, but she still fears that her son will endure "microaggressions."

 Microaggressions are unintended racial slights and insults. This means that white people won't call out racial slurs like the "norms" of before, but they will use methods of being "color-blind" rather than just accepting people as who they are. This is what Young calls new racism, with gender being one of it's main fatures. This new racism has motivated white parents to encourage their children to become color blind or to ignore race rather than accepting it. Young uses the example of his friend's daughter, Shayla and how she experienced her first microinsult in her first grade class. A microinsult is an insult off rudeness that demean a person's hearitage or identity. Shayla was asked why she was darker than most kids in the class and Shayla began to cry. Shayla's mother asked Young for help but Young only determined that Shayla would only learn through accepting these faults in society.

As a coincidence, Senator Harry Reid made racial comments about Obama being light skinned with no negro-dialect unless he wanted to. Most people consumed this is a very negative way because it felt like a sense of less citizenship to them. English teachers are encouraged to teach code-switching. Code-switching is  taking a African American English and translating it into standard English. This is taught like it is a foreign language, but questions are asked about if African Americans are assumed to claim less citizenship because they're "foreign." This method has its obvious flaws, and new educators should promote code-meshing. Code-meshing is the mixture of racial rhetoric, dialect, and versions of English.

As a result, Young states that we can move on from this new racism by interrogating the new racism. By keeping silent and becoming racially isolated, people contribute to racism. People shouldn't base anything on race, but just let things be.