Revision: Race and its Complexity

Race and It's Complexity

Minah Whyte
9/21/16

By: Marlon Wayans editorial team. "This Girl Has A Message for All Black People." <http://marlon-wayans.s3.amazonaws.com/mw_videos/dear-black-people4.jpg>

In the documentary, “Race the power of an illusion,” answers the common misconceptions about race. In the contemporary United States, race is often regarded as a “social construct,” therefore imaginary. Yet, people still have race-based beliefs. In the documentary, students were testing their DNA to see their genetic similarities and that they would be more genetically closer to those they shared similar racial background. These short answers give a glimpse to the larger and more pervasive issue of “race” and how it affects how we view ourselves and those around us.

Race is constantly being argued as a social. In the book, Race and Racisms, identifying human difference is believed to first begin in the 1600’s through the use of religion. However, sociolinguist, Mervyn Alleyne argues that this belief that there were differences in humans originated in Roman and Greek society (Alleyne 2002). Alleyne argues that through ethnocentrism, xenophobia and making fundamental difference between fairer skin-people, and darker-skin people, laid the groundwork for prejudice in Greek and Roman society. On the contrary to the PBS documentary, this is only illustrating human variation.

The idea of human difference was solidified by botanist, Carolus Linneaus in the early 1700’s. Carlos Linnaeus created four races that parallels today. However, scientific racism only justified European superiority, resulting in many societies using “whiteness” as the standard. These affects are found in the United States as well as the Dominican Republic. In an article by Badillo, tackles gender and the construction of race in the Dominican Republic when women decide not to straighten their hair. One woman accounts her son’s response, ‘Mom I didn’t know you were like that. I thought that you were white and not black’ (Badillo 2001).” This example alone demonstrates race’s complexity, which may be more fluid in other places of the world. Therefore, doesn’t that make “race” all the more social?

In the United States, in 2016, black men the between ages 15-34 were nine times more likely to be killed by the police than any demographic (Huffington Post 2016). This is also a symptom “race” and “racism” in the United States. Social constructs impose social meanings. Therefore these saddening statistics are rooted in American society that deems African Americans as “scary” and “morally unsound.” Usually, poverty in the United States has become synonymous with African Americans. As a result, “black culture” is used to demonize and blame impoverish blacks for being in poor (Youtube 2014).

I identify as a black woman, and I do not think anyone will regard me as anything different, given my phenotype. However, by reading through my sources and Race and Racism by Golash-Boza, I came to a realization.  Often, I believed race to be phenotypically telling. However, subconsciously, it is also the meanings and values we attach to phenotype. Often, there are agendas tied to these ideas. Race is complex and also multi-faceted. Phenotype cannot be the only explanation of race, without a historical context and acknowledging that it often in falsely based in biology. 

Work Cited

Golash-Boza, Tanya (2016). Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach Brief Edition. New York: Oxford.

Alleyne, Merveyn C. (2002). The Construction and Representation of Race and Ethnicity in the Caribbean and the World. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press.

Badillo, Casadra. (2003) "Only My Hairdresser Knows For Sure: Stories of Race and Gender." NACLA Report on the Americas.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Melissa Perry Show [antilibertaran]. Youtube. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z-w0plM9Xo>

Craven, Julia (Updated: Sept. 2016) "Here's How Many Black People Were Killed by the Police." Huffington Post. Web. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-people-killed-by-police-america_us_577da633e4b0c590f7e7fb17>

Herbes-Sommers, Strain, Smith (2003). Race: The Power of Illusion (Episode 1: The Difference Between Us). In California Newsreel. PBS Documentary.