Thinking about race…
Oct 29th, 2007 by maoch
For October 30, think about your responses to the following questions to prepare for our discussion of the art and readings assigned.
Race Questionnaire
The following is adapted from B. Schneider, Race, An Anthology in the First Person (New York: Crown, 1997).
1. How was race explained to you as a child? Was it explained to you at all?
2. What messages did your parents communicate to you about race issues?
3. How does this differ from the way you communicate with your with your peers about race?
4. What are your most basic fears about race?
5. What is your race?
6. How important is race to your sense of self?
7. In what ways do you organize your identity and resources around race? How consciously does race affect your choice of where to live, shop, or go to school?
8. How do you account for the fact that the distribution of wealth among whites, blacks, and Native Americans is nearly the same now as it was in 1866, as slavery formally came to an end?
9. Should whites in America think of themselves as a race?
10. How have your views about race and your own position in the racial scheme of things changed in the last ten years?
11. How did the O.J. Simpson case affect your sense of the American racial landscape?
12. What do you see as the dangers or positive effects of ethnocentricity, such as Eurocentricity or Afrocentricity?
13. What does the concept of America as a melting pot mean to you?
14. What are your hopes and fears for a multiracial America?
15. What questions would you add to this list?
I don’t really remember how race was explained to me as a child, but I did know that people were different but we shouldn’t treat them differently. I try to be politically correct when I can but I do feel odd when I try to describe what a person looks like and the first thing I mention is their race. That shouldn’t be the defining charachteristic of a person but it is the easiest way to get a point across.
I always check the “white or caucasian” box on forms but I never really think about my race. I guess that might be because I haven’t had to deal with too much discrimination or obstacles related to my race.
In my Anthropology class last semester I did a short paper on race. I asked people how many races they thought existed in the world. The general consensus was four: white, black, asian, and hispanic. I don’t think that there are races, only ethnicities. People often confuse nationality with race as well.
I don’t think that the idea of race will ever go away, unless sometime in the future we all look the same and have the same skin tone (gray). But I think that as America becomes more diverse, inter”racial” marriages and multi”racial” children will continue to blur the lines of race in this country.
I attribute my feelings about race and discrimination to my family’s ethnic diversity. My mother grew up with her parents and two sisters in Collier, a small, predominately white town in Western Pennsylvania. My mother married my Father, an Armenian from Aleppo, Syria. My mom’s twin sister, by coincidence, married a Muslim from Damascus, Syria. Recently, my mom’s other sister married a Moroccan Muslim. These three men, radically different from anyone my Grandparents had ever encountered in Collier, were welcomed with open arms into the family. Aside from appearances and religious differences, they were equals in the eyes of my Grandparents when it came to family values and personal integrity. My Grandparents are the people I look to as models of how beneficial it can be to keep an open mind about people, devoid of any prejudice. They could have easily rejected the notion that my father and uncles could have made good partners for their daughters. Thanks to them, my entire life I have been surrounded by family and friends both culturally and aesthetically diverse. I don’t remember my parents ever telling me not to judge based on appearances, but it never occured to me to do so. I never thought of my uncle as black, but rather I welcomed him to our family and I love him for the culture, richness, and passion that he offers.
Discrimination has many origins and a long history. In some cases, discrimination can come from fear, and fear is derived from the unknown, or an unfamiliarity with different cultures and races. If all you know of a race is a negative stereotype, it is easy to judge based on these presumptions. Language, culture, and religious differences tend to create barriers and it is easier to stay within them instead of learning to communicate and discover equal grounds. Until we as a human race overcome these differences and work to establish the emotional connections that exist among us, discrimination and hate will continue to thrive.
Here is the story I was talking about in class about James Watson, a leading DNA researcher, who has made some rather controversial comments about the intelligence of African people as compared to Europeans. As a result, he has been suspended from his affiliated research institution in the US.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7052416.stm