Transcript Race - kjwilbur

Race
Racism and Ethnicity Unit
Opener
• What race is
President Barack
Obama?
• Father was “black
as pitch” and a
mother who was
“white as milk”
(Obama 2006)
Defining Race
• Sociologists view race
as human constructed
categories
• Connected by shared
and selected
ancestors, history and
physical features which
created the distinct
racial group
Defining Race
• Need to focus on the
SELECTED
• Choose some parts out
of the larger whole to
focus on or ignore
• Focus on some
ancestors, emphasize
some physical features
Defining Race
• Because of his
appearance, this
teenager is seen as
belonging to the race of
just her father.
• Do you see how placing
importance on skin color
and hair texture
dismisses connections
the teenager has with the
history and ancestors
associated with her
mother’s “race”?
Race as an Illusion
• No basis in logic
– 1. There are no sharp dividing lines specifying
the physical boundaries that distinguish one
race from another
– 2. Millions of people are products of sexual
unions between people of different races.
• The children cannot be classified as a singular
race
Race as an Illusion
– 3. The diversity of people within any one racial
category is so great that knowing someone’s
race tells us little about him or her
Race as an Illusion
– U.S. Asian classification: includes Cambodia,
India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan,
Siberia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam,
etc.
• People from these countries do not share
a language, country of origin, or a culture.
– Only one trait in common is that they have
had one blood relative that came from an
Asian country
U.S. Census Bureau Classification
White
79.1%
Black
12.4%
Asian
4.5%
American Indian/Native
American
Native Hawaiian/Pacific
Islander
Other Race
.8%
0.1%
4.9%
What is other Race?
• Officially recognizes 5 categories and
“other race”
• 80% of the 308 million people self-classify
as white
• Hispanic/Latino or Arab/ Middle Eastern
not official
• 5% classify themselves as other
Paper Bag Test
• One time in the
U.S., some
churches used
the brown paper
bag test,
permitting only
those with shades
no darker than
the bag to enter.
Racial Formation Theory
• Why is something that makes no logical
sense have such great importance?
• European creation used race to justify and
explain grave inequalities and
discrimination
Racial Common Sense
• Ideas people hold in common about race
that are believed to be so obvious or
natural they need not be questioned
• Unquestioned assumptions held about
anyone who holds a certain group of
physical features
• Reluctant to talk about (stereotyping)
Racial Common Sense
• Informs our expectations and interactions
that involve race
• Will persist even when shown those who
defy the rule
– Assume they are the exceptions
Race as a Social Construction
• Definitions are the products of social
beliefs and values imposed by those who
had (or have) the power to create the
labels and categories.
• Reinforced when those who break away
from these categories are seen as wrong