Friday, September 10, 2010
What really is race?
I liked the way Haney Lopez started off with the Wrights case and explained to us as readers that status as either a free person or a slave was determined by the maternal line in the family. I, personally thought it was crazy to generalize all humans of African-descent as having two outstanding traits, "a flat nose and woolly head of hair" (p.191). They then freed the three generations of women based on the fact that Hannah's hair was long and straight. This opening case kind of set the tone for the rest of the piece. The idea that racial status is a human fabrication and construction actually makes a lot of sense to me. While reading the second packet, keeping in mind the first, I really came to see the evolution of race. It was incredible to see how being Mexican was no longer viewed as a nationality but rather a race. The comparisons of race with science, law, government, color, blood, gender, genetics and class distinction in economies was fascinating to read about, especially when certain theories got disproved through court cases and trials. The notions that race fills a psychological necessity and that the definition of 'being white' is a double negative and is defined as not being non-white were two compelling arguments to me. To this day, I still do not believe that there is or ever can be a true definition of what 'being white' is supposed to be. The racial hierarchies also proved to be a good argument because the exclusivity of the 'white' race keeps them as superior. "For each negative characteristic ascribed to people of color, an equal but opposite and positive characteristic is imputed to Whites." (p.548) "When confronted by the falsity of White identity, Whites tend not to abandon Whiteness, but to embrace and protect it The value of Whiteness to WHites probably insures the continuation of a White self-regard predicated on racial superiority." (p.549). Though each reading provided valid information on race, and Haney Lopez actually provided a definition of race, defined "as a vast group of people loosely bound together by historically contingent, socially significant elements of their morphology and/or ancestry" (p. 193) the definition changes from person to person. So I ask you, how would you define race?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
These factors are how people try to judge and determine my race all the time. Being half-black I usually categorize myself as African American even though biologically speaking I am not. I grew up in a predominantly African American culture and was taught ideas and beliefs valued by the Black Community. But because of my multiracial status I have shifted away from self-identifying myself as African-American and instead refer to myself as a Black Multiracial American. As for "being white" as Haney Lopez referred to, I've been called that derogatorily by some Blacks.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of answers to your question on how I define race. Personally, I'll take the biological factors into play when it comes to racial composition (like my own case) but for the most part it comes down to self-identifying with the culture a person grows up in. So to wrap things up, I define race as what a person is made up of genetically and biologically and what cultural environment he/she grew up in and self-identifies with.
As Haney Lopez says, and as we discussed in the 12:30 section of the class, race formation is "sometimes volitional."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, you can define it yourself. Especially for people of Latino/Hispanic ethnicity, who can be of any race (as defined by the Census).
However, there are aspects of race which are NOT volitional, of course. No matter how many times President Obama reminds people that he had a white momma (now dead) they will not consider him a white man. Why? Because "he looks black."
Ozawa and Thind wanted to call themselves white and have the US government recognize them as White so they could become naturalized citizen and have the right to vote, lease property in california, serve on juries, etc. The US Supreme Court said NO. So, oftentimes what race one is defined as is "scripted" (Wideman) for you.