Race: An Illusion
The concept of race has no place in today's globalizing world. In fact, it is a damaging illusion. Not only does the idea of race allow false beliefs to develop, but it allows the concept of "them against us" to develop. In such a reality, race becomes a pride-producing rallying point around which blatant discrimination, injustice, and atrocities spring.
The idea of race as a meaningful concept is no longer useful in today's globalizing world. Increasingly the physical boarders that once separated groups possessing distinct racial characteristics -- characteristics thought, perhaps to represent evolutionary changes allowing environmental survival, are no longer static. Indeed, the fairest Irishwoman can be found living in the deepest depths of the Sahara, while the darkest Ghanaian can be found shivering in the bitter Wisconsin winter. Race no longer divides geographically. However, the illusion of race as a significant division based on other characteristics is a false illusion that lingers.
Today, when one discusses "race" one is usually most often referring to ethnic groups, defined by distinct cultural traits and social beliefs. For example, for the South African White minority, the term "Black" represents their Black South African neighbors, while for the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, the term "Jew" means their Israeli occupiers. Although both groups use the racial term for the groups next to them, they are hardly referring to the Jews of Brooklyn or the African-Americans of the Southern United States.
The problem with this is that, by focusing on the political problems of one's region in terms of "intrinsic" characteristics of race, one begins to view problems between groups as "natural," or a product of some fundamental incompatibility between "them and us." It sets the stage for conflict, discrimination...
Race: Power of an Illusion This second episode of the PBS series, "The Story we Tell" discusses how race and racism developed in this country. Surprisingly, the series experts believe race has a history, and develops over time, and "that it is constructed by society to further certain political and economic goals" ("Race"). The episode begins with narration that leads into the controversial words of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that he
Nowhere on earth is a thirteen-pound, six-foot long unit of 'scandal' or 'integrity' to be found, for example. Nor apparently can someone find a benchmark unit of 'race'. The second thread runs through the slides 1887, 1934 and 1997. Jim Crow led to better homes for whites than Blacks even after they fought WWII side by side. What this demonstrates is one clear way we very literally live within the
Race: The Power of an Illusion The constructed notion of race, as reinforced through good science, is also reinforced throughout the first episode of this PBS documentary. In the past, poor and racist science has attempted to classify human individuals according to racial categories and failed miserably. However, good science shows that the very notion of racial separations between individuals of different geographies and cultures is in fact specious, and genetically,
After all, it was only a few generations ago that the FHA was discriminating against black applicants. Schools are still highly segregated. Race in many ways determines access to social and cultural capital, as well as financial capital. Throughout successive generations, it has been difficult if not downright impossible for the sons and daughters of non-white individuals to achieve social and economic parity with whites. The government could do
Race exists, suggests the social view, even in the biological categorizations of science, out of cultural customs and habits not reality. Race is a powerful illusion in culture, even amongst certain pockets of the culture of the scientific community, but it is just that -- an illusion and a delusion. Question Who has benefited from the belief that we can sort people according to race and that there are natural or
Race Personally, I define race as the different tribes of the earth. In my definition, race has a strong affiliation with color. In terms of color, there are a couple of different races such as Blacks, Whites, Asians (who are more or less yellow), Native Americans (red), and the various hybrids associated with the intermingling of these races. Race was defined in the movie "Race the Power of an Illusion" somewhat
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