I am going to explore the question, ‘Discuss the understanding of race in terms of the slavery debates before abolition. You may focus on the pro-slavery or abolitionist side.’ I believe that how people perceived and understood race was vital to the way that people understood different cultures and how slavery began. People who were pro-slavery and abolitionists had very different understandings on race: people who were pro-slavery thought it was acceptable to have black slaves as black people were not thought to be fully human, whereas abolitionists thought it was wrong to treat other human beings in this way. The understanding of race is a very important topic, as I believe that the way other races were viewed and understood is the root of slavery and is the reason why slavery began. In order to explore the question further, I have researched the background of slavery and why it began.
Concrete Responses The essays included present a compelling but biased study within the context of class, race and gender. History shows racism has been clearly practiced in the past; however much has been done to correct the unbridgeable and immutable differences in race, gender and class status in the United States. Rothenberg emphasizes, in the collection of essays, past views of Euro-Americans’ superiority in intelligence and abilities over darker skinned races. Throughout the history of the United States, discrimination against race and gender has been documented thus creating various classes according to race and gender. Racism has been defined as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2010).
Nevertheless, a wealth of research on racial politics at the local level may lay a framework by which we can understand whites’ opinions of black politicians in general. In his landmark book Changing White Attitudes Toward Black Political Leadership, Zoltan Hajnal, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, categorizes existing scholarship into two camps: the prejudicial camp, which points to evidence that the racial attitudes of white Americans are so profoundly ingrained that they cannot be modified by the prospect or reality of black politicians,36 and the white backlash camp, which argues that the political successes of blacks inspire whites to attempt to upend these achievements, given the incentive to maintain an advantageous racial hierarchy37. On the other hand, Hajnal finds evidence that black officeholding can actually improve race relations and whites’ opinions of blacks in general. He writes that many whites initially fear that black politicians will favor
The inequalities that people of various genders and races experienced and dealt with in the early days of racism is validated through the texts of Oliver Cromwell and Anne McClintock. Through their eyes one is able to grasp the development and methods used in order to understand the historical context of racism and how racial antagonism and racial antipathy influenced the social attitudes of our society. To understand racism, the lack of equal treatment that many encountered in the past, one also needs to understand how race aggression played a pivotal role. In the late 19th Century, some important aspects to ponder were albeit, racial exploitation, assimilation, lynching and marriage restrictions, as well as gender inequality, which ultimately led to the expansion of racial stratification. In conclusion, "making sense of the meaning of race and the character of race relations in American life requires an understanding of capitalism as a social system and it's specific history of this country."
The Constitution, until recently, did not apply to blacks; blacks feel they deserve payments from 310 years of slavery, destruction to their minds and culture. Dr. Martin Luther King's dilemma in the United States was of a different kind. He was torn between his identity as a Black man of African descent and his identity as an American. He urged Americans to judge based on the content of the character not by skin color and also believed in non-violent protests. Martin Luther King Jr’s main perspective during the fight on racism was equality.
Racial Formation – is a theory in which is thought that the government uses to identify certain traits to define the quality and value of certain racial groups. In doing so the government is hoping to effectively hinder minority groups by using specific socioeconomic statistics and factors. (Lecture Notes and Tutoring) 2) Compare and Contrast Prejudice and Racism- Definitions – Prejudice means to draw a preconceived thought about something without knowing fully of its workings. While racism does also stem from prejudice ways or ideology it in contrast means that someone has formed a conclusion of how a specific race or races behave or conduct themselves throughout life. Similarities and Differences – Although someone who is prejudice may not be racist, because it is possible to be prejudice against anything from religion to food or music; someone who is racist is most definitely prejudiced as well.
Race and ethnicity are hard concepts to define. Race according to our lecture notes refers to not only the physical characteristics of a person but also the mental attributes they possess. Ethnicity refers to selected cultural and sometimes physical characteristics used to classify people into groups or categories; race is broken down into ethnicities. In lecture we discussed physical isolation and the distinctive gene pools that have formed do to outward migration. The professor stated that the development of different racial groups was due to the theory of genetic drift; we all originally started in the same location and spread outward.
I believe that racism does operate like a web. An article to support this idea would be Michael O. Emerson’s “Race, Religion, and Color Line (Or Is That the Color Wall?)”. Emerson quoted, “Religion contributes to racial division and inequality, then, in that it increases racial categorization, which is a by-product of congregational segregation” (207). By growing up in a certain area, the majority of American citizens tend to carry out connections with the people they see and share the same beliefs with. It’s going to be hard to overcome this racial segregation if you have grown up with it, but it is something that can be
Race is associated with biology, the dominant racial ideology uses skin color to determine an individual race. According to Omi and Winant (1986), “The truth of race lies in the terrain of innate characteristics, of which skin color and other physical attributes provide only the most obvious, and in some respects most superficial, indicators” (p. 59). Racial differences are entrenched solely on physical appearances. The quote, “Race is not born: race is made”, implies race is not biological but socially constructed by society and society gave meaning to race. The article, Racial Formation, the authors Omi and Winant gave an example of the social construction of race.
Walter Benn Michaels' argument makes more sense than Giroux's, because the idea of keeping diversity apart of our lives keeps America from becoming truly "united." Benn Michaels says that focusing on race as the thing keeping America seperate is entirely wrong. The main problem comes down money and class. Class differences are the sole reason why America is diverse and not united. When focusing on race and ethnicity the real problem of social class differences gets brushed under the rug.