Editors Note: James Kenneth Duah-Agyeman, Ph.D., and Diane Swords, of Syracuse University submitted this article. With the amount of materials presented, this article will remain on the conversation for two weeks.
"By far the best documentary series on race of the last decade."
~Troy Duster, president, American Sociological Association
We tend to believe that the world’s people come divided into distinct groups – “red,” “black,” “white,” “yellow” – reflecting innate biological differences.
But what if we found out this isn’t true?
And if race isn’t biological, what is it?
Episode 1- The Difference Between Us examines the contemporary science - including genetics - that challenges our common sense assumptions that human beings can be bundled into three or four fundamentally different groups according to their physical traits.
Episode 2- The Story We Tell uncovers the roots of the race concept in North America, the 19th century science that legitimated it, and how it came to be held so fiercely in the western imagination. The episode is an eye-opening tale of how race served to rationalize, even justify, American social inequalities.
Episode 3- The House We Live In asks; If race is not biology, what is it? This episode uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics, and culture. It reveals how our social institutions "make" race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status, and wealth to white people.
RACE – The Power of an Illusion: A Long History Of Racial Preferences - For Whites
Many middle-class white people, especially those of us who grew up in the suburbs, like to think we got to where we are today by virtue of our merit – hard work, intelligence, pluck, and maybe a little luck. And while we may be sympathetic to the plight of others, we close down when we hear the words “affirmative action” or “racial preferences.” We worked hard, we made it on our own, the thinking goes, why don’t ‘they’? After all, it’s been almost 40 years now since the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
What we don’t readily acknowledge is that racial preferences have a long, institutional history in this country - a white history. Here are a few ways in which government programs and practices have channeled wealth and opportunities to white people at the expense of others.
Early Racial Preferences
We all know the old history, but it’s still worth reminding ourselves of its scale and scope.
Affirmative action in the American “workplace” first began in the late 17th century when African slaves replaced European indentured servants - the original source of unfree labor, on the new tobacco plantations of Virginia and Maryland. In exchange for their support and their policing of the growing slave population, lower-class Europeans won new rights, entitlements, and opportunities from the planter elite.
White Americans also received a head start with the help of the U.S. Army. The 1830 Indian Removal Act, for example, forcibly relocated Cherokee, Creeks, and other eastern Indians to west of the Mississippi River to make room for white settlers. The 1862 Homestead Act followed suit, giving away millions of acres – for free - of what had been Indian Territory west of the Mississippi. Ultimately, 270 million acres, or 10 percent of the total land area of the United States, was converted to private hands, overwhelmingly white, under Homestead Act provisions.
The 1790 Naturalization Act permitted only “free white persons” to become naturalized citizens, thus opening the doors to European immigrants but not others. Only citizens could vote, serve on juries, hold office, and in some cases, even hold property. In this the last century, Alien Land Laws passed in California and other states, reserved farm land for white growers by preventing Asian immigrants, ineligible to become citizens, from owning or leasing land. Immigration restrictions further limited opportunities for nonwhite groups. Racial barriers to naturalized U.S. citizenship weren’t removed until the McCarran-Walter Act in 1952, but white racial preferences in immigration remained in place until 1965.
In the South, the federal government never followed through on General Sherman’s Civil War plan to divide up plantations and give each freed slave "40 acres and a mule" as reparations. Only once, did Washington D.C. provide monetary compensation for slavery. But that compensation was not paid to the emancipated slaves, government officials paid up to $300 per slave to local slaveholders as compensation for the loss of their property.
When slavery ended, its legacy lived on not only in the impoverished condition of Black people but in the wealth and prosperity that accrued to white slave-owners and their descendants. Economists who try to place a dollar value on how much white Americans have profited from 200 years of unpaid slave labor, including interest, begin their estimates at $1 trillion.
Jim Crow laws, instituted in the late 19th and early 20th century and not overturned in many states until the 1960s, reserved the best jobs, neighborhoods, schools, and hospitals for white people.
The Advantages Grow, Generation to Generation
Less known are more recent government racial preferences, first enacted during the New Deal, that directed wealth to white families and continues to shape life opportunities and chances today.
The landmark Social Security Act of 1935 provided a safety net for millions of workers, guaranteeing them an income after retirement. But the act specifically excluded two occupations: agricultural workers and domestic servants, who were predominately African-American, Mexican, and Asian.
As low-income workers, they also had the least opportunity to save for their retirement. They couldn’t pass wealth on to their children. Just the opposite. During old age, their children had to support them.
Like Social Security, the 1935 Wagner Act helped establish an important new right for white people. By granting unions the power of collective bargaining, it helped millions of white workers gain entry into the middle class over the next 30 years. But the Wagner Act permitted unions to exclude non-whites and deny them access to better paid jobs, union protection, and benefits such as health care, job security, and pensions.
Many craft unions remained nearly all-white well into the 1970s. In 1972, for example, every single one of the 3,000 members of Los Angeles Steam Fitters Local #250 was still white.
But it was another racialized New Deal program, the Federal Housing Administration, which helped generate much of the wealth that so many white families enjoy today. These revolutionary programs made it possible for millions of average white Americans - but not others - to own a home for the first time. The government set up a national neighborhood appraisal system, explicitly tying mortgage eligibility to race. Integrated communities were ipso facto deemed a financial risk, a policy known today as “redlining.” Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government backed $120 billion in home loans. More than 98 percent went to whites. Of the 350,000 new homes built with federal support in northern California between 1946 and 1960, fewer than 100 went to African-Americans.
These government programs made possible the new segregated white suburbs that sprang up around the country after World War II. Government subsidies for municipal services helped develop and enhance these suburbs further, in turn fueling commercial investments. New freeways tied the suburbs to central business districts, but they often cut through and destroyed the vitality of non-white neighborhoods in the central city.
Today, Black and Latino mortgage applicants are still 60 percent more likely to be turned down for a loan than whites, even after controlling for employment, financial, and neighborhood factors. According to the Census, whites are more likely to be segregated than any other group. As recently as 1993, 86 percent of suburban whites still lived in neighborhoods with a black population of less than 1 percent.
Reaping the Rewards of Racial Preference
One result of the generations of preferential treatment for whites is that a typical white family today has on average of eight times the assets, or net worth, of a typical African-American family, according to New York University economist, Edward Wolff. Even when families of the same income are compared, white families have more than twice the wealth of Black families. Much of that wealth difference is attributed to the value of one’s home as well as how much one inherited from their parents.
But a family’s net worth is not simply the finish line, it’s also the starting point for the next generation. Those with wealth pass their assets on to their children - by financing a college education, lending a hand during hard times, or assisting with the down payment of a home. Some economists estimate that up to 80 percent of lifetime wealth accumulation depends on these intergenerational transfers. White advantage is passed down, from parent to child to grand-child. As a result, the racial wealth gap - and the head start enjoyed by whites - appears to have grown since the Civil Rights days.
In 1865, just after Emancipation, it is not surprising that African-Americans owned only 0.5 percent of the total worth of the United States. But by 1990, a full 135 years after the abolition of slavery, Black Americans still possessed only a meager 1 percent of national wealth. As legal scholar, John A. Powell says in the documentary series Race – The Power of an Illusion, “The slick thing about whiteness is that whites are getting the spoils of a racist system even if they are not personally racist.”
But rather than recognize how “racial preferences” have tilted the playing field and given us a head start in life, many whites continue to believe that race does not affect our lives. Instead, we chastise others for not achieving what we have; we even invert the situation and accuse non-whites of using “the race card” to advance themselves.
Or we suggest that differential outcomes may simply result from differences in "natural" ability or motivation. However, sociologist Dalton Conley’s research shows that when we compare the performance of families across racial lines that make not only the same income, but also hold similar net worth, a very interesting thing happens: many of the racial disparities in education, graduation rates, welfare usage, and other outcomes disappear. The "performance gap" between whites and nonwhites is a product not of nature, but unequal circumstances.
“Colorblind” policies that treat everyone the same, no exceptions for minorities, are often counter-posed against affirmative action. But colorblindness today merely bolsters the unfair advantages that color-coded practices have enabled white Americans to accumulate.
Isn’t it a little late in the game to suddenly decide that race shouldn't matter?
About The Author: Larry Adelman is executive producer of RACE – The Power of an Illusion, a three part documentary series scrutinizing the very idea of race and available from California Newsreel at www.newsreel.org. Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/Race.
TEN THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT RACE
Our eyes tell us that people look different. No one has trouble distinguishing a Czech from a Chinese.
But what do those differences mean?
Are they biological?
Has race always been with us?
How does race affect people today?
There’s less – and more – to race than meets the eye:
- Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language. The English language didn’t even have the word ‘race’ until it turns up in 1508 in a poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of kings.
- Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait, or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.
- Human subspecies don’t exist. Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven’t been around long enough or isolated enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. Despite surface appearances, we are one of the most similar of all species.
- Skin color really is only skin deep. Most traits are inherited independently from one another. The genes influencing skin color have nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability, or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone’s skin color doesn’t necessarily tell you anything else about him or her.
- Most variation is within, not between, “races.” Of the small amount of total human variation, 85 percent exists within any local population, be they Italians, Kurds, Koreans, or Cherokees. About 94 percent can be found within any continent. That means two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.
- Slavery predates race. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest or war, even debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours was the first slave system where all the slaves shared similar physical characteristics.
- Race and freedom evolved together. The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that “All men are created equal.” But our early economy was based largely on slavery. How could this anomaly be rationalized? The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.
- Race justified social inequalities as natural. As the race idea evolved, white superiority became “common sense” in America. It justified not only slavery but also the extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Racial practices were institutionalized within American government, laws, and society.
- Race isn’t biological, but racism is still real. Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Our government and social institutions have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power, and resources to white people. This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.
- Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. Race is more than stereotypes and individual prejudice. To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that advantage some groups at the expense of others.
Copyright 2003 California Newsreel www.newsreel.org
Sources:
1935 Social Security Created
When Congress created social security in 1935, it provided a safety net for millions of workers, guaranteeing them an income after retirement. However, the act’s provisions excluded agricultural workers and domestic servants, who were predominantly African-American, Mexican, and Asian. As low-income workers, minorities had the least opportunity to save, were least likely to have pensions, and were most vulnerable to economic recession, yet they were systematically excluded from the protection and benefits granted to most Americans.
1935 Wagner Act
Like Social Security, the Wagner Act helped establish an important new right – to unionize. The act’s original version prohibited racial discrimination, but the American Federation of Labor fought against it and the final version permitted unions to exclude nonwhites. As a result, nonwhites were not only locked out of higher-paying jobs, they were also denied union protection and benefits: medical care, full employment, and job security. Moreover, they were legally barred from challenging their exclusion. Although the laws changed in the late 1950s, many craft unions remained all white well into the 1970s.
1930s-40s Spurred Growth
Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, the federal government created programs that subsidized low-cost loans, opening up home ownership to millions of average Americans for the first time. At the same time, government underwriters introduced a national appraisal system, tying property value and loan eligibility to race. Consequently, all-white communities received the highest ratings and benefited from low-cost, government-backed loans, while minority and mixed neighborhoods received the lowest ratings and denied these loans. Of the $120 billion worth of new housing subsidized by the government between 1934 and 1962, less than 2 percent went to nonwhite families. Nonwhites were locked out of home ownership just as most white Americans were finally getting in.
1948 Supreme Court Rules
Restrictive covenants, which barred homeowners from selling or leasing their homes to nonwhites, were common in many neighborhoods across the U.S. Although they were outlawed by this Supreme Court decision, exclusion continued. Private developers could still refuse to sell homes to nonwhites, and real estate agents steered nonwhite prospective homebuyers away from white neighborhoods. Following government guidelines, lenders continued to base property appraisals on race, denying loans to communities with nonwhites or insisting on higher fees and interest rates to cover their “risk.” By systematically devaluing nonwhite neighborhoods and homebuyers, federal intervention helped disguise racial discrimination and enabled many to claim that the resulting segregation was “market driven.”
1949 National Housing Act
The housing market available to most nonwhites was rental and later, public housing in segregated urban centers. Government-sponsored urban redevelopment programs destroyed more housing than they built. Ninety percent of all housing destroyed by urban renewal was not replaced; two-thirds of those displaced were Black or Latino. As urban renewal projects destroyed taxable properties, the burden for maintaining social services was shifted onto fewer and fewer residents – encouraging white flight and making the poor poorer.
50s-60s Economic Housing Boom
During the 1950s and 1960s, more and more white homeowners moved to the suburbs. Federal and state tax dollars subsidized the construction and development of municipal services for suburbs, in turn fueling commercial investment. Freeways in major cities connected white suburbs to central business districts, but they were often built through core areas of black settlement. Many urban black areas lost their neighborhood shopping districts and successful small businesses as a result. By the 1960s, many businesses began moving jobs from cities to suburbs, further concentrating wealth and needed tax dollars away from urban areas.
1960s Fair Housing Laws Passed
In the 1960s, the government made several efforts to end housing discrimination, most notably Kennedy’s 1962 executive order, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Although these were important, they had little practical impact. Appraisers continued to factor race into their assessments and some practices, such as racial steering and predatory lending, continue to this day. It was not until 1988 that fair housing laws were amended to expand their scope and include important enforcement provisions. In the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, housing prices rose dramatically, and white homeowners who benefited from discriminatory federal policies were able to sell their homes at great profit. Meanwhile, minority groups who had been denied federal assistance had homes worth far less or faced an even higher cost of entry into the housing market.
RACE – The Power of an Illusion was produced by California Newsreel, in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Ford Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Diversity Fund provided the major funding for this project. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Lida and Alejandro Zaffaroni, the Akonadi Foundation, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, and Nu Lambda Trust provided the additional funding.
Comments
The Power of Race
After reading this article, I am shocked about the amount of biased laws that were passed by Congress in favor of whites. I was aware of the horrible treatment of minorities, but I had not realized the extent of it. These blatantly unfair laws were likely passed in order for whites to justify their treatment of the other ethnicities. I agree with the author when he says that whites do not tend to acknowledge the primarily "white history" in this country. This "white history" has been the dominant viewpoint for so long that it is difficult at times for the minorities to break through. It is easy for white people to say they made it successfully on their own when it is clear they had some advantages. These advantages have influenced the past as well as the present. I am always saddened by reading about the manner in which the Native Americans have been treated in the past, and even the present. It is still shocking that they were shoved off their land and how white people were than given that land for free. It is no wonder that many Native Americans still carry hostility about the events that transpired. After being reminded in this article that certain minority groups were not even allowed Social Security, it is not a shock that whites have had a great advantage over the years. If these minorities had been given the chance to save money and put it away for their children, than there would probably be a much more equal footing between whites and minorities. A surprising aspect that I learned from the article is that race is a modern idea. It is interesting that people used to be divided up according to aspects other than skin color, such as religion and status. I do feel that our society has made tremendous gains in the area of race, but people still need to be working toward total equality. If the minorities who were not allowed certain opportunities in the past are not given the chance to catch up to the whites than the U.S. will likely never be completely equal.
Race was socially contructed!! I had no clue!- (Sarcasm)
The worst part about all of this to me, is that this is new to people. Perhaps I am somewhat different from other educated people. The films are great, but the saddest part is that people didn't already know this. I have been interested in why people are treated differently for a majority of my life, so I decided to look a lot of this stuff up and ask people from various backgrounds about inequalities. However, the idea that race is strictly an American thing is something that I have a problem with. Sure we seem to talk about it a lot more and had more "issues" when dealing with people of different cultures, but come on, just because the word didn't exist doesn't mean that the ideas weren't already there. In fact, generally that means that the concepts were already there for years, but we didn't feel as guilty about it. What happened in America, as so many books will tell, is that those who felt they were different, decided that try and give the people in power guilt. Nietzsche talks about this idea of people who are not in power using the only weapon they could(guilt), in order for the people in control to think twice before beating them to a pulp. This slight hesitation, in turn caused the entire world to think just a little bit further into why they had the right to manipulate and control smaller populations.
Race? New
It is evident that times have change in race, but racism still exists in the power of positions in our country. We all are the same species. We all know the history of whites being in power. I’m glad a lot of the minorities have fought to get to great positions in this country. Minorities will still a long way to go dealing with power struggles and get fair chances at jobs. Legislation has ensured that we treat each other with respect and dignity with rights to pursue life. Still it’s not fair how minorities with equal financial status get turn down for loans. It may take more generation to get past all the race and power trips. I’m just glad we are moving in better direction on race. I think blacks deal with more racism than any other race. It won’t matter when we die we will all be equal for sure. Here on earth no matter what we try to gain for ourselves. We are filthy dirty rags in his eyes.
Race and the hypocrisy of man.
In my opinion no subject more clearly illustrates hypocrisy in the heart of man than the subject of race.
Self righteousness and smug pride is often seen in society in various ways through religion and other social improvement s such as charity work or giving. People want to think they are a positive force, adding to the world and not taking away from it. But rarely is this so blatantly obvious as it is with racism.
Starting even with the founding of this nation this hypocrisy is obvious. With many of the signers and proposers of the declaration of independent owning slaves we can barely call them completely selfless heroes. As the “nation of freedom “ grew and expanded into Indian territory all the rights they considered “self-evident” for their own were somehow waved for the Indians. Because the Indians were not citizens they felt free to apply their own set of “rights” to the Indians. What about the ideals of “self-evident” rights that were being talked about so much by the nation. But if that was horrible it didn’t even hold a candle to the treatment of slaves. Even in the height of black slavery and the violation of the rights of Indians Americans were so conceited that they thought they were the angels of liberty.
This is the paradox of humanity, yet hardly a paradox but an illustration of the pride and evil that men are so prone to.
An illusion we created
If you saw me and knew nothing about me you’d probably assume I was a born American Latina. You would probably think that my parents originated from somewhere in South America most likely Honduras. I have lived in four different countries; Thailand, Philippines, Germany and America and been labeled into different races nowhere near my original ethnicity. I was labeled as a Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, American, Latin, Malaysian, and so on. Truth be told I am a half German and half Filipino. I don’t look very much like a German nor do I look very much like a Filipino if anything I look very Latin. This is what happens to mix breeds; they mostly don’t look anything like their origins. I have trouble answering questions such as race or ethnicity because my race and ethnicity is not common nor is it acknowledged. So my conclusion to this is that race is an illusion we have created which is supposed to serve a purpose. What that purpose is, I don’t know. Race to me is nothing more then something a use to describe a person’s appearance and not their worth or role.
I completely agree with you
I completely agree with you that race is nothing more than something used to describe a person's appearance only. Race is used to describe our ancestry and where we come from; race is not used to describe our worth or role within society. However, like during slavery, race was used to describe appearance and more importantly worth. I think due to a long history, some will never be able to rid themselves of describing race as more than just the appearance of a person. The race of a particular human being should never be tied to the worth or role of that person within a society.
Comment
When you look back into history and see all the advantages that white people have been given its staggering. One statistic that really stuck out to me when I was reading this article was that experts estimate that over 200 years of white people using free labor they have profited roughly one trillion dollars. After reading this it's pretty hard to argue that just because 40 years have passed by that blacks should be just where whites are because they have been given equal opportunity. The amount of land, money, and resources that whites have been given has accumulated for hundreds of years before blacks even got an opportunity to drink out of the same water fountain. This article really opened my eyes and I believe that when teaching about black history that how much the white man got the upper-hand in history should not be left out.
The Race Issue
Race is something that is not a new topic. People tend to think that the discrimination process began with African Americans in slavery, but this is simply not the case. Racism was present in Biblical times as well, take for instance the Jews and Samaritans. The Jews viewed the Samaritans as sub-par, simply because where they were from. Racism is something that has been around for thousands of years, and I doubt that it will ever change. As long as people look different, one group will find some way of justifying their "dominance" over another group. In no way can this be moral or justifiable, it just is the way history repeats itself. However, I don't believe that accusing the entire "white" population in America for all of the racism in the world is fair either. Is that not in itself a bit racist? For example, I am classified as "white", but my mom's side of the family didn't move to America until 2 generations ago, and my dad's side of the family is strongly Cherokee. Just because I look "white" doesn't mean that my ancestors weren't oppressed at some point in America. I believe that stereotyping whites is simply unfair. Of course there is racism among whites, but there is also racism amongst Latinos, blacks, Indians, Asians, you name it. My point: racism is at the basis of the individual, and to accuse one group of being responsible for all of the racism in the world is simply absurd.
Race
In modern society, the system of nomenclature that is race has become something that helped to divide people. Again, I must say that it's unfortunately become something that we have become dependent on. It is an institution created by man that seeks out the physical and behavioral differences of people and classifies them based on these traits. It effectively puts everyone into a category regardless of how erroneous it might be. I do rather like Morgan Freeman's attitude on the issue. In a short segment of 60 Minutes with Morgan Freeman, he talks about Black History Month. He said that it is ridiculous that the culture of black people was tied to just one month, and he concluded by saying that he would no longer be liked to be called a black man and not have to call other people such things as: white man, black man, etc. I truly believe it's that kind of unifying mindset that will allow us to move away from our dependency on race.
My Opinion
How do you really define who you are without knowing your actual identity? Race has been constructed and has had several different meanings to try and classify or discriminate against certain groups. At one point in several different states in the US u could be classified as different races because of the one drop rule. Turns out that your appearance may show your most dominate genetic trait, but you may be mixed with several different races and not know. Race was also used to discriminate and cause inequality among individuals in the 1960s whether it was voting or just using the restroom. Even though some may feel that race is commonly not a factor anymore, I disagree. In some cases it may not be as open as it use to be but racism definitely still exists. My only problem with this is, how can you discriminate a race that you may identify with genetically??
Race is only skin deep
I have seen this documentary several times in some of my classes, but each time I am just as shocked to find out some of the facts the documentary proves. I myself, I'm sure like many other people, thought that the closest matched genetic DNA would be of those of similar race. The documentary, however, provided sufficient evidence that is not the case. The part that I found most disturbing was the creation of Levitt town. It was completely unfair that a family could be denied an affordable home in a safe neighborhood solely based on the color of our skin. I definitely do not think that it's too late in the game to decide that race should matter. Today, African-Americans are bleaching their skins to appear "whiter." Minorities, not just Blacks, are continuously being discriminated against in the workplace and the healthcare system. The only way we are ever going to move towards equality is to fully address the issue head on and try to eliminate the stigmatized perception of having a skin color other than white.
Slavery Predates Race
This paragraph stood out to me the most. It has been an idea that has been around since practically the beginning of human existence. I don't think the former America chose Africa for slaves because of their color but perhaps because they were an overpopulate country that was on the trade route. I think race only became an issue in the US because it was everyone else besides the original settlers. And, since the new country was so power hungry, they used "race" as a reason to keep the power out of other peoples' hands. We are all human and according to the passage "we are one of the most similar of all species."
Slavery and Race
I’m always interested in hearing and having the ideas of race challenged. This article brought up several points that I have very seldom heard. The part that stuck out to me, like you, was that slavery has existed long before race. I think you could be right when you say that America might not have had any predisposition to choose Africa because of the dominant color of people’s skin, but more so on the fact that the opportunity was there. It presented itself in a way that was easy, accessible and plentiful. I feel like no matter how hard we try to figure out the cause of race, whatever conclusion we come to won’t necessarily solve the problem. I feel like, honestly, it’s just going to take quite a bit of time. For those of us that want to break that barrier, we’ll have to put forth a conscious effort in not viewing people according to race, but by actually investing in a person’s life and getting to know them. Hoping that the way you’re acting and treating the situation will have an effect on others and the way they view it.
Racism
Like many who commented earlier, I appreciated the “10 Things Everyone Should Know About Race” section. I agree with many that race is mainly used as a way for many people to judge others based on their skin color, rather than just getting to know them. I agree that we cannot just ignore race completely, but we should not be preoccupied with it. Racism is still prevalent in today’s society, maybe more than ever. The difference is that in today’s society, people can hide their racism fairly well. I also feel that many people are more accepting of people that are different than them, both in race and culture. However, there is a polar opposite of that in groups like the KKK, etc. America is a nation that was founded on freedom and individual rights for everyone, not freedom and individual rights for a certain race, so we should start acting like it. I also agree with people that we can’t forget about the past, but rather we must learn from it. The only way we can prevent making the same mistakes again is by learning from what happened before. Once we, as a nation, realize that racism is completely wrong, many other problems will be solved.
When we get behind closed doors....
I agree that racism at least where I live is more hidden than in the past or even in other parts of the country today. I know that in public many individuals who hold racial opinions would not openly express how they feel. But I do think that because these individuals are concealing their feelings rather than discussing them (neutrally I must say), we are faced with an even bigger problem. We cannot ignore that our population is comprised of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Hispanics, Whites, etc., and because we cannot ignore this fact I think that we should embrace these differences and once and for all hash it out. We need to openly discuss the discrimination and oppression that is occurring, not just between races but with class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. I know from personal experience that I am afraid to bring up the topic because of the "consequences". What those consequences are I don't know but I still know that it is the uncertainty that I fear most.
More Than Just Color
Race in our world, especially in the United States, has become more than just the color of your skin and your appearance. It has become a way to cause predisposed judgement and an excuse for actions that are inhumane or shortcuts. People are not born into a certain place in society based on their looks and things they cannot control. Races, especially white, have used differences in looks to change the rules of hard work and benefits of society. Race is just a description created by humans to describe looks, yet it has been twisted into a reason that some use to gain confidence that they are better or to use to put others down. Differences in color and looks are not reasons to hurt others or use them, race should be embraced in that it helps our world become better place. Differences can make this world better or they can make it worse. If people don't take what we have been given as methods to help, but instead as methods to use against one another, the world will never get far.
Race vs ethnicity or nationality
While reading the "10 things about race" portion of this article, I was reminded of a class I am taking called Minority Populations and Health. This class mainly discusses the disparities by races across the U.S. An entire chapter of our text is devoted to an explanation of the terms race, ethnicity and nationality. It is very interesting to note that, unlike ethnicity and nationality, the term race has been proven to have no biological basis, but instead a purely social basis. Race is a perceived category, mainly based on skin color, that today’s society classifies a person in. A model called the Psychosocial Model of Race is now used to describe how a person’s life is effected by their “race.” In this model, a person, no matter what their background is, is categorized by their perceived race, based on their skin color. From this categorization, the person will then have certain risks, chances, and exposure to outcomes based on what their race is. Ultimately, this categorization will affect the person’s life opportunities, health outcomes, relationships and more throughout his or her life. Race is entirely what the world perceives a person to be.
Race
Race Is Made Up By Society, End Of Story...
In my class at school we
In my class at school we watched all three of these films. The basic idea is that there are very few differences in people from race to race other than what we see. As some have stated, race is a product of societty. The only way to change the way we think about race is to change society.
Race and Policies
After putting a little more thought into it, the case of black discrimination in America is truly astounding. The manner in which the government responded to the issue was sluggish and half-hearted. Black slaves were introduced to America in the 1500's, but the first laws that even remotely aided them weren't until around 1787 when the Three-Fifths Compromise was passed. To put it into perspective, that is almost two hundred years before even a shoddy, back-handed piece of legislation was passed. Then it took about another eighty years before black people received their freedom. In total, that is nearly three-hundred years of oppression that people had to put up with before they were told that they could "live freely." Even after the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, black people were discriminated upon for almost another one hundred years without any legal repercussions for the alleged party. Now, after 400 years of sub-par treatment, the policies that run our country have become so perverse that everyone is trying to avoid "stepping on anyone else's toes." With regulations that require certain demographic requirements for admissions or taboos that force employers to make impractical decisions, people are dancing around the hot topic that is race. Although the intentions of these policies are good, it's put a negative light on the way society goes about dealing with people of different cultures, skin colors, etc. It would be absurd to suggest completely dismantling the policies that we have in place now, but I think that it would be wise to reconsider some things and try to take a more practical and human look at the way we run things in this country. The end goal being trying to cut out race in the decisions that we make in our lives.
Race
What really stood out to me was the the section describing 10 different facts about racism. I agree with it on most accounts that Race isn't something biologically determined. Also it doesn't mean that we will be better in academics or sports simply because of our "Race." I once took a course on Native American Histories and throughout the entire course we talked about different things that determined race. Many things from that class were similar to this article. One thing that happened in their history was that during the census they were generalized by their skin color, and if you looked to be Indian then you were. Ergo if you looked Black then you were. The simple fact was that you were what your skin determined for you and that is not the case with many people. These people were determined to be White or Black or Indian by their skin and not by their culture. Culture should be the determining factor that characterizes who you are. The only thing I don't fully agree with is the fact that "colorblindness" to race wouldn't help the problem. In my mind I feel that if we ignore race and focus on what makes us people than this would go a step further in helping create a more equal society. We should further classify ourselves as "Americans" of the "Human Race" rather than "Black or White" people living in America. We should accept our brother no matter the color of skin or their culture. Of course this being said is the ideal idea of society, but that's all it is. It's an idea that we should strive for but something that can most likely never be achieved.
Race in this article along
Race in this article along with my own personal beliefs, has to do with what a lot of people tend to misinterpret. Race today is seen more than just with appearance. I don't think that is moral because it has been scientifically proven the race is nothing more than physical appearance. There will always be stereotypes and racism until people learn the roots of race. We read a book in my World Views class called, " A Different Mirror" by Ronald Takaki. Every chapter in the book teaches the readers something about race that chances are, the average reader would not know. When learning these facts i learned that America wasn't created by one race, it was actually developed as it is today by every race. Every race has brought something to the table, yet racism and segregation still occurs today. Why is this? How does America end this? It is hard to say, especially with the media commenting on racism all the time. I personally believe individuals need to learn about their own racial backgrounds and then learn about others, before judgments can be made. I guarantee in doing so everyone will learn something out of it, and their views might even change.
Colorblind Policies and Privilege
I wonder if the movement behind "colorblindness" is simultaneously a usurpation of diversity discourse and a reactionary ideology that is intended as a deceptively named safeguard against affirmative action policies. Without context, color-blind admissions to colleges sounds like a good way to promote merit. But, given the context of a racially stratified and segregated education system, colorblind admission policies will serve to help wealthier segments of the population and will reduce the diversity in incoming freshmen classes in universities.
As a minority, I am always deeply perturbed by people who claim to not "see" race and only see people. Does that mean that they live their lives pretending that racial injustices don't exist? How do they deal with issues like racial profiling if they will not confront issues that stem from racial classifications that are made in our society?
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