The truth is there really isn’t a biology of race. Getting down to the nitty gritty of chromosomes and proteins, I might be virtually identical to a pacific islander and quite different from another white person. Phenotypes don’t account for much. Race is a culturally constructed idea used to classify and create a caste-like system of access to power and privilege. People mis-used science to explain it, claiming that some races had smaller cranium circumferences than others, therefore having less brain matter and being scientifically inferior beings. All of the above has been overwhelmingly proven false. We constructed race as a means of validating our choices and efforts to colonize, to Christianize, to civilize, to racialize… etc. The fact is, race doesn’t actually exist.
Now that I’ve said all of that, I might contradict myself. Race IS real. Race is real because we’ve made it real. It is a cultural construction that we believe in to the point that we base opinions, make decisions, fight wars, end relationships, and segregate ourselves according to our races. We are aware of race from a young age, we learn to racially profile and stereotype, we learn to love and hate and avoid based on race, and we are ALL playing a part in its perpetuation. I am not saying we all use racist slurs and consciously hate on other people (many of us do and aren’t aware of it), nor am I saying that that is my definition of racism. Racism is in our systems, our institutions, our policy making, our personal relationships (blatant or not), our history...
In my entry about my shame for my racist white culture, I was hoping to deal with a number of things. First, I think we do a disservice to our future generations of children to teach about leaders and Founding Fathers without acknowledging the terrible truths of their character. Granted, they were, as we are, products of the times. Perhaps at the time, Andrew Jackson’s assertion that Black people were not actually a part of the human species was grounded in his cultural beliefs. But, today, I should hope with all of my being that we recognize how absolutely wrong he was, and how far his poison has spread. I should hope with all of my being that we could recognize what we have done wrong in the past, that we could be real about our skeletons in the closet, that we could use them as a means to dismantle the injustices that linger due to story after story of such practices. We should learn that the original Statue of Liberty was a Black woman and we sent her back! We should learn that Asian-Americans have been rounded up from their neighborhoods, separated from their families, and forced to keep quiet about their oppression so as not to be associated with other activists; that indigenous peoples are fighting, today, just to have their existence recognized from the federal government, though their grandmothers and grandfathers were the greeters of the pilgrims. We should know that various ethnic groups gave up their cultural practices to “become” white, to get citizenship, to have access to privilege.
We should know that white people have a culture. It’s a culture of domination, colonization, genocide, privilege, and a history of denying access. We are terribly fearful, but I don’t think it has anything to do with a recessive gene or a natural instinct. It’s a socialization, a process we learn from birth due to our white supremacist culture, and it seeps into every dark corner of our reality. We’re afraid of losing our automatic seat at the table, our place at the peak of the hierarchy, our privilege and our dominance. It’s embarrassing, it’s anything but admirable, and it’s REAL. It’s also terrifying, because the majority of us hold onto it without even knowing it exists, practice it without realizing what we’re practicing, and fight for it based on our need to believe that we are rugged individuals and part of a democracy.
I cannot discount the power that having a race, having a people, having a box to check provides. Now that race is so real, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist we have to find a new way to use it. There are People of Color groups fighting to be recognized so they have a place to stand and a collective to return to with issues of importance. Already labeled and grouped, now having an official collective allows for community building and strategic power and identity.
I have lots of thoughts. I’m continuing to read and do my own research, but I recommend Race: The Power of an Illusion, a 3-part video series from PBS, released in 2003. It is very, very well done and organized in a way that does not jump before the viewer is mentally ready to make a leap.
Here are a couple of clips I found on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voTIVY-2iys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0pvWW-zSP8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOKATxddus&feature=related
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Okay, I have yet to contribute my thoughts to any of the ideas you've posted to this point, but I have some time and feel as though an outside opinion might be useful. I do agree with and support your opinion/practice that different phenotypes are not tied to inferior/superior genotypes. Technically, differing phenotypes are the result of a different genotype, however evolutionary superiority or inferiority of particular phenotypes have become less important due to modern science and creature comforts.
Please do not take what I say now as anything more than a constructive opinion from a brother that loves/supports you. I understand you are taking multiple classes that deal with the issues of racial equality/prejudice and are deeply immersed in the dark side of human behavior on a daily basis. You cannot help but want to do make things better. However, I do get the impression that the span of your thought process has grown somewhat narrow during the previously mentioned immersion. You cannot pretend to understand what the circumstances were during the formation of our country. All you have is the information or opinion someone else has obtained & published which, as you know, is rarely 100% unbiased. Please continue your passionate pursuit of knowledge and understanding, but do so with an understanding that there is usually a flip side to that coin. - J.D.
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