Is Race "Skin Deep"? - from R&M, page295-302

First off I have to admit that the title of the reading has me confused. I'm not sure if it's asking if race is equal to skin color OR if it's saying race is real because it holds a greater significance to individuals beyond skin color.

The reading basically focuses on statements about race, how we define it, how we perceive it and the consequences of allowing a biological fiction to become a social reality.

The first major statement analyzed comes from an exhibition at the Am. Museum of Natural History in NYC. The key parts say, "differences of culture and society distinguish one group from another but these distinctions are not rooted in biology." Their belief was that mapping the genome is a step to promoting unity. I found that theory questionable because these concepts are not written to hit the average person and average people can't change social policies, thousands of years of negative racist histories or racial disparities in society.

Jared Diamond is the 1st scholar that is highlighted and he writes that "most people regard the existence of race as obvious" - something you can physically see. Which is true in most cases, but what about people who can "pass"? I couldn't help but think, too, of the fact that oppressed peoples (or those that perceive themselves as oppressed) have lived through racism and have difficulty letting go of what they've seen. Although the writing was a bit lengthy, I appreciated his use of scientific language and scientific classification as a way to show the problems with race theories. Diamond talks about the fact that there are certain human traits, like race, that really serve no function to survival while there are others that do. However, because things are the way they are, race is seen by many as necessary for their cultural survival if not their physical survival. I concur with his notions of skin color being linked to ideas of who's beautiful or not.

Barbara Kath Rothman raises interesting issues as it relates to "Blackness" (who is Black, who isn't) and how the American definition of Blackness differs greatly from how the Dutch perceive it. If race = skin color then anyone with dark skin is Black, according to America (whether they were born here or in India or in Jamaica or in Africa). I would take it a step further and say that among African Americans, there are differing views on being Black or "not being Black enough." She says, "What confuses us is that the differences exist physically, but matter socially. There are physical differences and even physical consequences."