Christopher
Colon
Ethnic
Minority Groups 25300
Dr.
Lewis McCoy
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Survival of the Fittest
The mistreatment of people of color throughout history was
justified with religious and scientific racist ideologies. Hierarchical racial concepts
were used to make sense of the physical and culturally differences between
people while also promoting white supremacy and Black inferiority. Race is a
complex concept that is constructed to maintain white superiority perpetuating
ideologies that are still lived out today. For those who held positions of
power in the United States, “scientific racism was central to most human and
social inquiries” (Golash-Boza pg.23). Our society can’t help to judge
individuals off phenotype and place them into racial categories. I recognize the
power race has on my everyday life experiences.
In the documentary, “Race: The Power of Illusion, Episode
1”, Pillar Ossorio’s claim that there is just as much or more genetic
differences within the same racial group debunks the racist biological and
scientific ideologies scientists created to explain differences between races. The
Eugenics movement of the 20th century, “promoted the idea that not
only intelligence but alcoholism, laziness, crime, poverty and other moral and
cultural traits can be inherited”, which was a scientific attempt to explain
why people of color were “biologically unfit” (Golash-Boza pg.27).
These ideologies influenced the passing of racist laws such
as Law 116 in 1936, that made forced sterilization legal and free for women in
Puerto Rico (Presser 1969). Colonialism, eugenics and population control has
played a huge part in hindering the upward mobility of Puerto Ricans creating
stereotypes like laziness and violent. Racist laws and actions from the past
has paved the way for racist ideologies that has negatively shape the lives of
people of color worldwide. People of color are still feeling the ill-effects of
slavery and colonialism which has also shape the way people think of each
other.
My parents were born in Puerto Rico but I was born in
Brooklyn, New York. Growing up people will always tell me “I look Dominican”
but once I talked, they would say I “act Black”. I always wondered what it was
to “act Black” because according to me, I acted like myself. I grew up proud to
come from Puerto Rican descent. My living experience alongside African
Americans in New York influenced me to embrace my Black identity. As I grew
older I began to identify as Black, though people would insist in telling me
I’m “Spanish”. However, I wanted to break away from that “Spanish” colonial
mind state and embrace my African roots. I now identify as being a Nuyo-Rican
or Afro-Puerto Rican.
Though I understand how race is not biologically proven, I
do realize how race determines the way I get treated by police and how my
family has been socially affected by this concept. Race is a concept I am
trying to understand more than ever because I take pride in the perseverance
people of color have endured throughout history. This counters scientist
Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” theory that claimed Natives were
naturally inferior to explain their decimation (Golash-Boza 2016). People of
color are still experiencing the racist ideologies of yesterday which can be
heard today in presidential candidate Donald Trump speeches. However, racist
ideologies have forced to me to love the things they hate about my culture.
Links:
Citations:
- Golash-Boza, T.M. (n.d.). Race and racisms: A critical approach. Oxford 2016·
- Gooding-Williams, R., and West, C. (1995). Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America. The Philosophical Review, 104(4).
- Presser. H.B.(1969). The Role of Sterialozation in Controlling Puerto Rican Fertility. Population Studies, 23(3), 343. Doi:102307/2172875.2307/2172875
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