Why do we care about race? Where has this monstrous notion come from? In this opening chapter, Audrey, and Brian Smedley tackle, and pole holes in theories, historically used to explain race. The writers assert that race is a completely cultural construct, rearing its ugly head during colonial expansion. They argue that several individual elements collided to create a new world view. This new maze-way used race as a concept to categorize human differences, and differentiate power. This sense of conditioning perpetuates racism, as even science has historically made excuses through biased lenses.
As European nations expanded, they encountered new cultures. Their nature of domination and competition influenced the way they saw those they encountered. The authors make clear that those who quickly became subordinate, were not active in the invention of race. It was those who benefited from a racial hierarchy who established it. As social processes adapted to this new worldview, race became a mind set. Once society accepts this new mindset, it is no longer questioned, analyzed or critiqued, despite the lack of empiracle validity. The notion that race is completely made up does little to convince people to change their views, as long as they are profiting.
The writers acknowledge that biophysical variations do not carry much weight, yet our social use of race is an issue that creates serious consequences of division. They express that cultures define race in different forms, including: phenotypic differences, class and ethnicity. In order to claim wealth and power, the social application of race changes during social climates shifts. Audrey and Brian discuss the unclear differentiation between “race”, and “ethnicity.” An assumption is made that If race is determined by skin color, a person’s status is fixed in society. You “wear” your rank in this case. Whereas, “ethnicity” is a socially conditional marker of status. They explain that in America, looks determine who you are. If we were a culture who focused on ethnicity, people with different complexions would be part of the same ethnic category. I really appreciate the idea that while we see our neighbor as black, or white, an outsider would see us as American.
I like the idea of placing the focus on ethnicity because we, as Americans, have more in common culturally than we have differences racially. Smedley gave me hope that this refocusing may be possible. He speaks of race being ‘a shorthand term for, as well as a system of, a “knowledge system”, a way of knowing.’ The word ‘knowledge’ reiterates that race, along with its attached views and judgments, are taught. Learned behaviors can be changed.
ReplyDeleteTo me the fact that race has been such a terrible issue is due to the lack of knowledge. While reading this chapter and looking through the comments on it, I've realized that alot of the misunderstandings come from the lack of knowing and wanting to understand what truly makes an individual different. The fact that the notion of race is really a knowledge system and is short handed to me tells a lot about the communal literacy on the subject.
ReplyDeletePlacing the focus on ethnicity and a collective culture rather than racial differences is a nice idea . However I do not believe this is possible or realistic. Unfortunately race and phenotypic differences are embedded in our culture and society and have been for many years. I have little faith that race will ever not be an issue or a deciding factor in America.These knowledge systems are taught and will continued to be taught. I say this because as long as individuals can identify as being apart of a group there will be a separation among those who do not fit into that particular group.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure one can link the evils of racism with a lack of knowledge or understanding....there are structural factors that maintain the status quo and are resistant to change regardless of people's understanding or knowledge of the issue. I also don;t share Amy Rose's pessimism about our society's inability to change its focus on race...look at all the changes we have already undergone over the past 100 years! Change is the norm in culture, not stasis.
ReplyDeleteIf we could somehow get over racial differences and adopt a new ethnic identity then perhaps racism in America will come to a standstill. However, I believe this newly formed ethnic identity can also cause problems regarding nationalism. With racial differences no longer an issue, ethnic differences would be heightened. We may shed our racist ideologies but at the same time adopt new discriminatory ideals to explain ethnic differences.
ReplyDeleteTaking into consideration the primary thesis of the book (pg 24) that race was from inception a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from the 16th thru the 19th centuries and given that theses centuries were times of exploration and expansion, it is logical to think that the worldview perception of people would come from explorers exerting the greatest power. This might explain the continuance of hierarchy and inequalities, but now that the world has met itself, and interacts daily with itself, why have we not let go of the fear of race and the stigma of inequality? Is it because of power, and specifically for the USA, that we still consider ourselves as the most powerful nation on earth? Would removing the concept of race make us no longer a hegemond? Is this part of Dr. Anemone's structural factors that keeps us stagnant?
ReplyDeleteIn going back to the first chapter after reading ahead to later chapters two and three. The concept of race is changing from the language it came from to now. In relation to the European expansion race became a way of casting peoples into groups. Which also lead to the biological ideals and then into ethnic ideals later on in the book. I feel that the idea of race is ever changing like Dr. Anemone had said in his last sentence, also from examples taken from class. We have come a long way but it will take time to change a generations idea on race and what they lived through. As for the present the example of looking at material items to profile a person is how we are moving it from "physical/biological looks" to what the individuals own. People are finding other ways to categorize individuals into larger groups. Where in this case its it a negative effect.
ReplyDeleteIn rereading the first chapter and focusing more on Smedley's five ideological ingredients of race, I think the fifth ingredient really sheds some light on why race is a social construct that has been hard for America to shake. Smedley describes this fifth ideological concept as being that each race group was believed to be unique and distinct and that the differences between each group are differences that are inherently fixed and could never be transcended. Taking these "ingredients" into consideration and viewing the concept of race in our society in America from this view, I can see that this has had a heavy effect on why race is such a predominant concept in our society, even today. From the outset of when these ideologies were established, they were continually reinforced by Europeans in cultural differences and simultaneously "proven" by natural variations that were attributed to humans at the time.
ReplyDeleteI think Smedley also sheds a lot of light on the differences between race and ethnicity. A quote from the book that really stood out to me on pg. 29 was, "One of the tragedies of the racial worldview is that certain differences in physical appearance (especially among blacks and whites), the insignia of race, are so powerful as social dividers and status markers among Americans that they cannot perceive the cultural similarities that mark them all as Americans to outsiders." Race is the primary mode for distinguishing groups in America, rather than establishing that we are all one ethnicity. I think this also relates back to the fifth ideological ingredient of race because race groups are believed to be so "fixed" and impossible to transcend in our society, we are sometimes blind to the fact that we are all one ethnic group, regardless of one particular phenotypic variation.