So here is my first post. I am a freshman in college in NC. Well there goes my bio... anyways I am taking a class which I am doing homework on and the topic is interesting. Social inequalities whether its Race, Gender, Sexuality, or Class.
The book we are reading is ce.3 The Social Construction of Differences and Inequalities. I don't want to even try and act like I fully understand the topics written in this anthology, but reading it has introduced new concepts and ideas in the way society is formed in addition to how/why we must categorize each other.
Race for example at first seems obvious. But when we were asked to define race I became confused. I could say the human race, the color of skin, or nationality. How can we define race?
Historically we have defined and redefined race. Early America enslaved the 'blacks', obviously stating the superiority of 'whites'. But why did this happen?
In the first article we are told how race can be and has been interpreted three ways; by scientific interpretations; religious perspectives; and political contention.
Scientific interpretations were done mostly in the 1800-1900's. Scholars attempted to categorize race by distinct biological characteristics. Did they fail? Yup. Despite some seemingly obvious characteristics, there are no distinct biological differences in our DNA that make us difference from race to race. Dr. Morton tried to study the populations' cranial capacity with no avail. We can compare this attempt with Nazi Germany's attempt to classify its people by their facial structure (nose, head shape, etc).
As stated earlier, the settlers were surprised at what they found in N. America. These people were definitely different from they and their society and ideals totally contrasts that of the Europeans. Theories of polygenesis were debated where God created more than one species of man. The new settlers honestly questioned whether the natives had redeemable souls or not.
Politically the slave trade was initiated as a means of supplying the demand for labor. The slaves were imported from Africa and were darker in pigment. Naturally it was easy to enslave them as they were so different from the new Americans and they were categorized by their color, black. With that, there were laws established to categorize and maintain the system.
The first article brought about many ideas to mind, a few of which I mentioned in this post. One last thought that I have is what is race. I have always been white/Caucasian on paper. But do I have the right to claim myself black? Do I have the right to claim my self Hispanic? What makes me white/Caucasian?
In the 1980's Susie Guillory Phipps unsuccessfully sued Louisiana to change her race on her birth certificate. The state law stated that anyone having at least one-thirty-second "Negro blood" is to be considered as being black. Why not 1/64? 1/2?(****) A retired Tulane University professor (unknown name) cited research claiming that most whites have one-twentieth "Negro" ancestry. Despite having a white pigment could I be black? If a seemingly black person had 1/64th "Negro blood" would/should that person be considered 'white'??
With that said should we be allowed to claim our own race/ethnicity on official documents and elsewhere? Why not? Why so? PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS, I know my writing on this article isn't good but still the idea is clear.
MY OPINION:::: I will try and separate my direct personal opinions here. I believe the race issue is confusing and discouraging as many people are proud of what they are whether its white, Hispanic, or black. Despite this, I cannot define a race without using typical stereotypes that are inaccurate on the individual. On paper I am white, but why is that important? Why did we have the need to create categorizations for races? Assistant Attorney General Ron Davis claims its important for federal record-keeping. But doesn't inequality arise by categorizing people by race? We make our self different from the rest and assume superiority over those different from us. I don't believe in 'forgetting' races and racism, but building awareness of our mistakes and admitting to them.
****In early America(possibly still today) you could be considered black in one state and white in another! The laws which set limits on race varied from state to state.... ah!
CREDITS: these are mostly my interpretations from the anthology/book stated above.
Here is an old thread discussing the Susie Phipps case (I didn't really read any of it, but in case someone is interested): http://www.backintyme.com/ODR/about213.html
