Race associatively could
be thought of as division. Historically that is exactly what it has done.
Specifically, in the Americas and more uniquely in the U.S. Race has become an
institution on its own and its maintenance is a continuous working project. Ossorio
takes into account the different societal elements that have fostered race and
nurture it. Within the first episode of Race: The power of Illusion Ossorio
explains that this divide, this supposed difference between “groups” of people
is nothing more than an orchestrated fallacy. Imposed on society specifically
in the U.S to create inorganic divisions between people. As evidence to her
claim, Ossorio turns to the use of genetics as a tool to scientifically prove
that people have little difference between each other. Her use of genetics
comes to lessen the biological gap created during the 19th and 20th
century when common belief was certain groups of people were essentially
different and therefore placed them hierarchically in respect to other groups of
people. Genetics can and has given the physical proof that as a species humans
share a similar biological foundation that links them together. Surface
variations are nothing more than environmental subjections.
Personally race has been a very obscure subject. It has
never been much of importance to me. Having to define myself has rarely fallen
on racial identification but much rather metaphysical aspects of myself that
presumably mean more to people. Among a certain group of people there is the
very common question of “what are you” which has been sarcastically answered
with “I’m human” but has that been ignorance or just the rejection of placing
myself into a category or a square it is not so clear. (Douglass, 2016) When forced and in many instances it has been, I am categorized as racially mixed, being Central
American and Irish it would seem fitting and yet there are some who see me
being either or and not the two put together. On school and government forms
other or mixed is usually the box checked off. If next to that other or mixed
box there is an underlined free space to explain then that liberty is taken,
making the reason for checking “other” more clear. (Townsley, 2007) Personally
race is not really a part of my identity because I am mixed, two cultures, two
languages and two origins it isn’t so easy to say your one without the other
for me. For most of my life I’ve laid more claim to
nationalistic categories than racial ones.
After the documentary the concept of race expanded to
mean the culmination of beliefs around difference. That being said would
following a “racial logic” make sense anymore? If science has proven to us that
race is in fact an “illusion” then would my identifying with a race not make my
entire identity in itself an illusion? Ossorio’s work has granted me the power
to concretize my identity beyond race.
Douglass, S., Wang, Y.,
& Yip, T. (2016). The Everyday Implications of Ethnic-Racial Identity
Processes: Exploring Variability in Ethnic-Racial Identity Salience Across
Situations. Journal Of Youth & Adolescence, 45(7), 1396-1411.
Townsley, E. (2007). The
Social Construction of Social Facts: Using the U.S. Census to Examine Race as a
Scientific and Moral Category. Teaching Sociology, 35(3), 223-238.
No comments:
Post a Comment