Is Race an Illusion?

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm

William Edward Burghardt Dubois, in his book Souls of Black Folk, said that the biggest problem of the 20th century would be race. Now, in the 21st century, this still seems to be the issue of the day. This series breaks down the race problem into 3 parts. I was only required to view the 1st episode for the sake of staff development, but was moved to watch the entire series. I viewed it when it was on PBS awhile ago, but unfortunately seeing it again in 2008 only reminded me that we still have a long way to go as a nation.


Episode 1 - "The Difference Between Us"

• This episode brought to mind the works of Bacon, Rousseau, Crevecoeur and Montesquieu - all writers I was introduced to in a grad course entitled, "Racism: In Theory & In Fact" at the Ctr for Inner City Studies here in Chicago. In these works, we examined the concept of man as a natural being, in a natural state of freedom and what happens when there are varying views on those natural states. We also debated the role of scientists and "think tanks" in the development of social policies while reading modern works like An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem & Democracy, Tribes or The Rich & The Superrich.
• In another grad course, we talked about the Lake Mohonk (NY) conferences on the Negro and Indian question (what was to be done with the Negro and the Indian? These were the issues of the early twentieth century).
• Of course, there were instant connections to the scientists discussed in Race and Membership - the bewildering manner in which scientific theory becomes social policy.
• The fact that certain races were seen as inferior and were thus, treated a certain way based on their scientifically proven inferiority called to mind The Willie Lynch Letter and his step by step plan to "make a negro," i.e. slave.
• Science was be used as a justification social policies and actions, like Indian removal or the Trans-Atlantic slave trade or Jim Crow legislation. This is not all that different from the ways in which the Bible (or religion) was used as a form of justification.
• I was intrigued by Hoffman's theory of "negro extinction" because I don't feel we are innately inferior I do believe that certain social conditions have led to the repetition of destructive behavior patterns in the African American community. It is as though some Blacks have internalized the stages of economic and cultural racism described in Merlin Stone's Three Thousand Years of Racism. Perhaps it was unconsciously passed down or taught to them through the generations since slavery, but there is a definite lack of adequate housing, equal access to educational resources and in some cases, a reliance on public assistance for living rather than taking care of one's self.
• In the document, "Means proposed for cutting off the supply of human defectives & degenerates" (shown on screen), they listed 8 steps in the process. I had the following questions about those steps:

1. Have these steps been applied in places other than America and with the Nazis?
2. Was birth control a by-product of this movement? The Tuskegee Experiment? Injection of small-pox into blankets disseminated to Native Americans?
3. Was this the ideology used in Brazil when government officials encourage European immigrants/settlers to mate with indigenous women?

Episode 2 -"The Story We Tell"

It was intriguing to consider the works of Thomas Jefferson in Notes on the STate of Virginia, knowing his sordid past with his slave & if I remember correctly, half sister-in-law, Sally Hemings. The fact that he writes on the one hand that all men are created equal and on the other hand systematically writes of the inferiority of the African seems a bit two-sided. How can a man so well read and international, be so prejudice in his writings? In his support of the Back to Africa movement, did he really feel Africans were capable of governing themselves? I also didn't realize that TJ was probably the first to publicly call on scientists to prove white superiority over the darker peoples of the Earth, specifically the African as the Native was essentially a white man that had gone astray.

Also interesting was the systematic way in which poor whites were put against Blacks. It was as though they'd forgotten that as immigrants or poor people, they, too had been mistreated by the land holding democrats of the early Americas! It did bring to mind the book, How the Irish Became White.

Other ideas that came to mind as I viewed episode 2 were:

• manifest destiny vs. gentrification today
• "Rabbit Proof Fence" (film about aboriginal people & eugenics)
• "500 nations" (series on nations of indigenous peoples of North America)
• "The Patriot" (film)
• Gen. Philip Sheridan's quote "The only good Indian is a dead Indian"
• The Lake Mohonk Conferences (on the Indian and on the Negro)
• The poems "We & They" vs. "Foreign Children" vs. "The White Man's Burden"
• The book, The West & the Rest of Us
• the experience of Native Americans vs. 1st Nations peoples of Canada

Episode 3 - "The House We Live In"

One of the most important points noted in these episodes is that physical ability, physical apperance and current behaviors do not reflect one's genetic makeup. What is perhaps more important to note are the "environmental affects" on an individual. So, stereotypes about certain diseases being attributed to one race were proven false. Subsequently, to support these points the series documents the experience of a high school class that did experiments with their own mtdna. When all the experiments were done, it was clear that their preconceptions about who they would be most similar to (genetically) was incorrect- white students weren't more alike to other white students. This was an interesting segment and cause me to go and review my own mtdna sequence (I took an AfricanAncestry.com dna test to search for which African nation my maternal line is linked to - the Balanta people of Guinea-Bissau). It was reassuring to note that science is now in many ways, working to refute many of the racist notions of the past.

Episode 3 struck me on a personal note because since my 1st viewing, I became a home owner. It was disturbing to hear the history behind the reason for Chicago's segregated and gentrified communities. For those communities that aren't completed segregated, gentrification has forced the removal of the lower and lower-middle class residents along the lakefront, near south side, near north side and south loop area. My limited knowledge of the complicated nature of home-ownership and lending, led me to wait until I was well into my 30's to finally buy a home. I was in no hurry because I knew I wouldn't be able to afford to own where I wanted - centrally located in an area bordered by Lake Michigan on the east, Halsted on the west, 35th street on the south and Fullerton on the north. My top choice area would place me within 30 minutes of work, school, community service work, family/friends and entertainment. My condo in South Shore puts me within that time frame, locates me near 90/94 Expy & Lake Shore Drive and close to several public transportation options (15 minutes from South Loop/Bronzeville or 95th Street, 30 minutes from downtown), but is an area where my goddaughter doesn't feel comfortable coming home on public transportation at night. It's a changing neighborhood due to gentrification, but that change isn't seen as a positive one by all its residents. South Shore was historically an area filled with well-to-do African Americans, like Bronzeville or Chatham or Beverly, but with desegregation laws in effect, the affluent began to leave the city for suburban environs. Even still, being a lakefront community, South Shore never completely lost its value and is slowly on the rise again. As evidenced by new condo rehabs and the need for parking permits!


I'm not really sure whether or not this series was proposing a solution for racism or if they were merely presenting the facts. Is the answer interracial relationships? Integrated communities? Learning more about white privilege and the history of America? I am left with many questions as I ponder this film:

1. Even though factual evidence point to race as an illusion, will racism ever end?
2. How can an open dialogue on race and racism begin when the dominant worldview seems to still support the idea of "white supremacy"?
3. How do you have a dialogue about "white privilege" with white citizens?
4. "If biology is destiny," how do you account for the rise of Asian culture (power struggle for global domination in 21st century)?
5. If biology is destiny," what is America (the world) destined for as the multiethnic populations are on the rise?
6. Is race pride acceptable as long as it doesn't encroach on the rights of others outside of that race?
7. What made Black men volunteer to fight in wars for America knowing the kind of treatment that their people were receiving?
8. How can this episode be used as a dialogue between suburban and urban schools?