8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
1/26
Race and Ethnic Relations in America
Lecture Series
Outline prepared and written by:
Dr. Jason J. Campbell:
http://jasonjcampbell.org/home.phpExistingYoutube Playlist on Race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLsYNgaozQ&list=PLFD2886D1E3B158A2&index=58
ThisYoutube Playlist:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLba_fOJviSOIuHdrvWTYbodm_3dNeIokt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.0: Modernism, its Decline, and Postmodernism
Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader.
Race and Modernity:
[KEY]: By modernity we are in part referring to those discourses that
rest upon a conception of truth and knowledge governed by an ideal
value-free subject engaging in observing, comparing, ordering and
measuring in order to arrive at evidence sufficient to make valid
inferences, confirm speculative hypotheses, deduce error-proof
conclusions and verify true representations of reality, (75).
1.
European Modernity was constituted during the Age ofEnlightenmentfrom the Glorious Revolution in England to the
tumultuous French Revolution, (55).
2.
the transatlantic slave trade[was] the ignoble originsof
Western modernity and the criminal foundations of American
democracy, (51).
3.
The Paradox: African slavery sits at the center of the grand
epoch of equality, liberty and fraternity, a center often concealed
by modern myths of progress and liberation, (51).a.
See my lecture series on Human Rights to distinguish First
and Second Generation Human Rights, HERE.Libert,
galit
1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLsYNgaozQ&list=PLFD2886D1E3B158A2&index=58http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLsYNgaozQ&list=PLFD2886D1E3B158A2&index=58https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLba_fOJviSOIuHdrvWTYbodm_3dNeIokthttp://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+readerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvqd_CEHd4Y&list=PL23402E488C62AF64&index=14http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvqd_CEHd4Y&list=PL23402E488C62AF64&index=14http://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+readerhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLba_fOJviSOIuHdrvWTYbodm_3dNeIokthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLsYNgaozQ&list=PLFD2886D1E3B158A2&index=588/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
2/26
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
3/26
hedonism and narcissism[which]revealsthe dead end to
which modern paganism has come: impotent irony, barren
skepticism and paralyzing self-parody, (68).
3.
philosophical attacks on the primacy of the subject are
deepened[postmodernism]is a deepening of the decline ofmodernity, with little sense of what is to follow, if anything at all,
(68).
a.
via Nietzsche, the concept of European Nihilism creates a
condition in which, For the first time, European audiences
look to the United States for artistic and cultural
leadership[since the United States]has steadily gained
cultural self-confidence (68-9).
b.
[Me]: The solidification of Americana and exportable.
Conceptual Foundations for American Society:
American Society as: an alienated, intensely self-conscious and deeply
anxiety-ridden society, (57).
European Dependencyand National Identity
1.
is a consequence of the geographic displacement of European
peoples (57)
2.
is a consequence of the geographic displacement of the European
civilization whose superiority they[Americans] openly
acknowledged (57). See THISBasic Talk video for a reference
on the concept of trust. [Explain]
3.
is substantiated in an antagonism of the indigenous American
people, (57)
4.
1-3 all of which created a keen sense of isolation, and the
realization of their, i.e., American, newfound independence.
European Independencyand an Emerging Unified National
Identity:
1.
In his famous lecture of 1837, The American Scholar,
Emerson portrayed Europe as the symbol of the dead past, (61)
3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBiAqY5dwQwhttp://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htmhttp://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBiAqY5dwQw8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
4/26
The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law ofall naturein yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is foryou to know all, it is for you to dare all. Mr. President andGentlemen, this confidence in the unsearched might of manbelongs, by all motives, by all prophecy, by all preparation,
to the American Scholar.We have listened too longto the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of theAmerican freeman is already suspected to be timid,i m i t a t i v e , tame. Public and private avarice make the air webreathe thick and fat. The scholar is decent, indolent,complaisant. See already the tragic consequence. The mindof this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.[REF]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1: Understanding Modern Racism PART ONE
Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader
The Genealogy of Modern Racism:
The genealogy is Wests attempt to identify the emergenceor the
moment of arising, of the ideaof white supremacy, (71).
1.
the authority of science, undergirded by a modern
philosophypromotes and encourages the activity of observing,
comparing, measuring, and ordering the physical
characteristics of human bodies, (71). [As a consequenceof
Scientific Enlightenment]a.
These practices were guided by an adherence to a new
paradigm of knowledge, an experimental methodthat
attempted to testhypotheses and yieldobjective conclusions
by appeal to evidence and observation (55-56).
b.
The undeniable power [sociopolitically] derived from
Scientific Enlightenment, e.g., socially: increases in human
longevity etc, politically: militarization/weaponization fused
and weaponized social progress, via Social Darwinism etcc.
West is arguing that this weaponization [as manifested in
racism etc] is inherentwithin the Scientific process itself, as
an inevitableconsequence of our fascination with
Aristotelian taxonomic identification and hierarchical
differentiations.
4
http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htmhttp://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+readerhttp://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+readerhttp://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+readerhttp://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
5/26
2.
Wests genealogical approach to modern racism is, a conception
of power that issubjectless, i.e., they are the indirect products
of the praxisof human subjects, (71).
3.Discursive and Nondiscursive Structures of Power
Nondiscursive structures createthe conditions for the meansof the
preservation/propagation of sociopolitical power, and as such the means
functionto such end. The idea of discursive pertains to the epistemic
accessibility to the means, but not or less so to the condition for themeans.
EG, Bacon and eggsand Edward Bernays.Nondiscursive
Structures of Power[i.e., with relative epistemic inaccessibility] Meat
Industry, slaughterhouses the chicken farms etc.Discursive Structures
of Power[as means] create, in this example, the ability to answer the
questionwhy, why is it important to have a good breakfast?
Presupposesthat is it important to have
4.
[Me], [KEY]: In applyingwhat West has said, though he does not
say this directly, SINCE the genealogy of modern racism is a
conception of power that issubjectless, i.e., the indirect
products of the praxis of human subjects, but affects subjectsthe
discursive structures pertain to the observable, quantifiable,
empirically observable racism. Thenondiscursivestructures,
however, are those consequence of Scientific Enlightenment that
allowed for andjustify, albeit indirectly observable racism.
5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLudEZpMjKUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLudEZpMjKU8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
6/26
[KEY]: The scientific method, then, functions as the nondiscursive
structure that has indirectly createdthe conditions for justifying
the discursive structures of biological racism, as the meansof
securing or propagating the end, viz., socioeconomic/political power.
[Brief link to Louis Pierre Althussers discussion of the ideologicalapparatus]. [West + Althusser]
Three Structures of Modern Discourse:
I understand the structures of modern discourse to be the controlling
metaphors, notions, categories and norms that shapethe predominant
conceptions of truth and knowledgein the modern
West[which]are determined by three historical processes (1) the
scientific revolution, (2) Cartesianphilosophy, (3) the classicalrevival (72).
1.
The Scientific Revolution:
a.
Signified the authority of science, (73).
b.
Highlights two fundamental ideas: observation and
evidence (73)
2.Cartesian Philosophy:
a.
Descartes is highly significant because his thought provided
the controlling notions of modern discourse: the primacy of
the subject and the preeminence of representation, (73).
b.
the existent [thing] was definedas the objectivity of
representation, and truthas certainty of representation, (74).
i.
It isthisconception of the monopoly on truth by means
of the scientific method that postmodernist challenge
the very conception of truth.
ii.
The postmodernist position, however, was arguably
derailed by the classical Sokal Affair. [Brief
Explanation]3.
The Classical Revival:
a.
Greek ocular metaphor
b.
Classical aesthetics
6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affairhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
7/26
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2: Understanding Modern Racism PART TWO
Jacqueline Fleming, Affirmative Action and Standardized Test Scores The Journal of NegroEducation, Vol. 69, No. 1/2, Knocking at Freedom's Door: Race, Equity, and Affirmative Actionin U.S. Higher Education (Winter - Spring, 2000), pp. 27-3
Eric Grodsky, John Robert Warren and Erika Felts Testing and Social Stratification inAmerican Education,Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 34 (2008), pp. 385-404.
Richard G. Lomax, Mary Maxwell West, Maryellen C. Harmon, Katherine A. Viator and GeorgeF. Madaus, The Impact of Mandated Standardized Testing on Minority Students The Journal
of Negro Education, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 171-185
Race, Access and Standardized Testing:
[Definition]: Standardized testspresent students with identical tasksin environments that are (to the extent possible) uniform, with the hope
that variation in test performance is unrelated to variation across test
administrations and test administrators, (Grodsky, 386).
[Weber]: Weber writes, the "patent of education" came to replace
ancestry[a manifestation of European independence discussed earlier]
as a means of legitimate qualification for state office. Education in
general, and exams in particular, serve to "limit the supply ofcandidates for [socially and economically advantageous] positions
and to monopolize them for the holders of educational patents."1
The standardized testing movement has a racist history in both
Europe and the United States(Hirsch, 1981). Standardized tests have
been used to impede the social progress of Africans and African
Americans for at least two centuries, (Fleming, 28).
Five Potential Conditions for Bias in Standardized Tests:
1.
A requisite knowledge of the White middle-class experience
(Fleming, 29) [is necessary for superior scores].
1Weber M. 1978. Bureaucracy and education. inEconomy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, ed. G
Roth, C Wittich, pp. 998-1001. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press Young JW.
7
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
8/26
2.
historical [and] societal prejudice, racism, or educational
disadvantage has played a role (Fleming, 29) [in the
underperformance of minority students].
3.
the testing situation is a microcosm of society, and that
anxieties related to issues of dominance and submission areactivated among members of racial/ethnic minority groups
during test taking, (Fleming, 29-30).
a.
biased against historically disadvantaged groups, and
thus have the pernicious effects of reinforcing social
advantage and disadvantage (Grodsky, 386).
b.
because standardized tests reflect the majority culture,
minority student performance on them may not yield a fair
representation of what these students really know and cando, given their economic and educational disadvantages
(Lomax, 172).
4.
the correlation between SAT and GPA. [known as] predictive
validity, [is lower for Black students than Whites], (Fleming,
30).
5.
One impact of mandated standardized testing on minority
students cited by a growing number of researchers is its role in
the denial of opportunitiesto minorities, (Lomax, 172).
Objective Manifestations of Racism and the Criminalization of
Black Skin:
Theoretical: DiscriminationofRacial Group(s):AmongRacial Groups
1.
Essentiallya comparativeor relationalaffair.
2
2.
Identification of the dominantgroupaccompanied by the
normativization of group characteristics.
2D: dominant, S: subordinant. Dominant racial characteristics are imposed and subordinant population mimics,
emulates these characteristics by assuming the aesthetical sensibilities of the dominant group.
8
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
9/26
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
10/26
Practical: Discrimination withinRacial Group(s):Jill Viglione, Lance Hannon, Robert DeFina, The impact of light skin on prison time for black
female offenders in The Social Science Journal48 (2011) 250258
1.
Discrimination based on ones racial group has been widelyexamined in the past, but a relatively new body of research
explores discrimination within racial groups, particularly in
regard to the perceived[subjective interpretation] darkness or
lightness of a black individuals skin tone, (251).
a.
[Argument]: Sincethe perceptionor appearanceof
blackness amongthe races, i.e., in comparison between races
is used to justify violence, it followsthat the same
approach can be and is used to assess proclivities toward
violence and criminal behavior withinthe race.
b.
Colorism, then, is used to justify the similarities or
differences withina racial group, wherein those phenotypic
traits resembling the aesthetical sensibilities of the dominant
culture reap the benefitsof such resemblance.
c.
Thus, the resemblanceis itselfpowerful enough to justify
disparities in incarcerations rates.
2.
for an overwhelmingly male sample of black inmates in
Mississippi, those assessedas having a lighter skin shade bycorrectional officers received shorter prison sentences, (251).
3.
men with more stereotypically black features were more likely to
receive death sentences., (252)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3: The Emergence Modern Racism and an Aesthetical Response
Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader
Cornel West is actually identifying and justifying the preconditions forphysiological normalcy.
The First Stage of the Emergence Modern Racism:
1.
Westsnormative gaze: an ideal from which to order and
compareobservations. (75)
10
http://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+readerhttp://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+readerhttp://www.amazon.com/Cornel-West-Reader-basic-civitas/dp/0465091105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386180788&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cornel+west+reader8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
11/26
2.
These norms [a aesthetic beauty] were consciously projected and
promotedas the idealor standard against which to measure
otherpeoples and cultures. (76).
3.What is distinctive about the role of classical aesthetics and
cultural aestheticsis that they provided an acceptable authorityfor the idea of white supremacy[which]was closely linked
with the major authority of truth and knowledge [viz]the
institution of science. (76).
4.
[thus] the initial basis for the idea of white supremacy is to be
found in the classificatory categoriesand the descriptive,
representational, order-imposing aims of natural history, (77).
The Second Stage of the Emergence Modern Racism:1.
Modern racism as a consequence of the rise of phrenology(the
reading of skulls) and physiognomy (the reading of faces) (79).
a.
Phrenology and Physiognomy were consequences of
European value-ladencharacter, [KEY]. (79).
b.
For Johann Kasper Lavaters taxonomy and theory of noses
please see this thoroughly bizarre link.
2.
[KEY Assumption]: racial variations are alwaysdegenerate
ones from an ideal state (81).
a.
This assumption establishesthe needed biological hierarchy
necessary for social demarcations along racial lines.
Response to Modern Racism: Power in Defiance
Fanon The Wretched of the Earth
The first thing the native learnsis to stay in his place, and not to go
beyond certain limits. This is whythe dreams of the native are always
of muscular prowess; his dreams are of (1) actionand of (2)
aggression.I dream I am jumping, swimming, running, climbing(52)this is why any studyof the colonial world should take into
consideration the phenomena of the dance and of possession. The
natives relaxation takes precisely the form of muscular orgyin which
the most acute aggressivity and most impelling violence are canalized,
transformed and conjured away. The circle of the dance is a permissive
11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj46lfpBUlYhttp://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/e02/02125t05.gifhttp://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/e02/02125t05.gifhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj46lfpBUlY8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
12/26
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
13/26
The Social Construction of Our Ability to Recognize Race:
1.historical relations ofpower inherein our abilities to recognize
race, (24)
a. [KEY]: Society requires that the individual have the ability
to recognize race[as]a routine competence expected ofall people, (24). The expectation of race as identifiably
observable. EG the race of this man is obviousthough it is
neverstated:
A young man [clearly black] walks through chest deep flood waters after
looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday.
2.Commonsense leads us to believe that exposure to a shared
reality[i.e., the reality of race] will clarify for all what is true
(25)
Similarly:
13
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
14/26
b.
Two residents [identifiablywhite] wade through chest-deep
water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery
store
i.
Irrespective of the distinctions in finding for the
white residents and looting for the black man is therealitythat their whiteness and blacknessis never
referencedin the AP.
ii.
Thus, Pascale writes, Indeed, commonsense
knowledge that race can be seen, just by looking at a
person, [makes] face-to-face questions about [their]
racial identitycompletely absurd, (24). It would be
to ask this man if he were black:
iii.
hes identifiablyblackor this man if
hes white hes identifiablywhite.
[KEY]: it is the obviousness of this fact, however, that Pascale
wants to challenge. It is obvious,but how did it come to be obvious?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5: The Sociolinguistic Construction of Race PART TWO
Celine-Marie PascaleMaking Sense of Race, Class, and Gender
Linguistic Demarcations in Generalities and Specificities:
1.
While reporters might refer to a homeless black man, as noted
earlier, in fifteen years of articles about homelessness, I found no
comparable referencesto a homeless white man. Whiteness
was the assumed, or unmarked, category. (26) [Author is wrongabout the category being unmarked. It ismarked]
14
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Genderhttp://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Genderhttp://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Gender8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
15/26
It is possible to mark race without explanationprecisely because the
meaningof race always exceeds the context in which it is evoked. (26)
2.
[KEY]: To say man is to invoke the general formthat which issufficientfor all the manifestationsof this general form.
[Aristotelian notPlatonic, Brief Explain] [Simply]: the essential
characteristicsneeded to participate/be identified with this
categorycomprises the setof man. Thus, man is a categoryfor
organizing our thoughts and the correspondingword, man
directs our thoughtsto its general form. It includes and excludes
membership with this form. This exists a priori, thus: it exceeds
the context [Explain].a.
Thus it is tautologically true: Man = its definition,
b.
its definition = Man.
c.
Thoughthis is true, it provides no meaning
3.
The Meaningof Race attains meaningbecause of the a
posterioritendency to differentiate typologies within the general
form. E.g., A man BUT [which is conjunctive]this typeof
man].
a.
The additional content information, i.e., that which comes
AFTER BUT, is superfluous in attempting to understandingthe general form. [KEY]: i.e., the general form can be
understoodwithout this additional context-specific
information but the type/instantiation cannot be understood
withoutreference to the general form. [Explain]
15
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
16/26
b.
In terms of racethe additional information (epistemically-
superfluous) adds varying degrees of socially negative
contextto the general form, which is justified by Wests
claim that racial variations are alwaysdegenerate ones
froman ideal state (81).c.
The ideal state is man
d.IFthe references are:
i.
A man approached me at the store
ii.
A black-man approached me at the store
iii.
The additionalcontent information pertains to the
mans blackness, i.e., theformof his being black,
which is a posteriori. Thisformof blackness, exactly
like theformof man has essential characteristicsneeded to participate/be identified with the category
black.
1.
WITHINthat category black is the necessary
characteristicsof violence, danger, the unknown
etc. We have socially constructed the requisite
criteria for membership in this category
iv.
Thus to addthe content information black to man is
inherentlyto add the necessary characteristics of the
form black to man, which is to say all the negative
characteristics of the category black are added to the
category man.
e.
IFthe references are:
i.
A man approached me at the store
1.
Requires the interlocutor to inquire about the
content of the approach.
ii.
A black-man approached me at the store
1.
Requires the interlocutor to inquire about thecontent of the approach, i.e., what happenedand
the man, i.e., who is he what did he do.
16
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
17/26
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6: What are Ghetto Names?
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, (2005)Freakonomics: A Rogue
Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
1.the most likely cause of the explosion in distinctively Black
nameswas the Black Panther Movement, which sought to
accentuate African culture and fight claims of Black inferiority,
(183).
2.
[Question]: What kind of parent is most likely to give a child a
distinctively black name? [Answer]: That data offer a clear
answer: an unmarried, low-income, undereducated teenage mother
from a black neighborhood who has a distinctively black name
herself, (184).
3.
[Motivation]: such practices in naming is a black parents signal
of solidaritywith the community, (184). [Explain].
Black Names within their Social Context
1.
The authors challenge the existing assertionthat audit studies,
[ABC News on Job Prospects] are good tools for assessing the
perception and economic consequence of adopting a black name.2.
[Assumptionabout Audit Studies]: black soundingnames
carry an economicpenalty (186). Howeverthere are a litany of
complications with this approach [Explain a few].
3.[Findings]:
17
http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389312239&sr=8-1&keywords=Freakonomics%3A+A+Rogue+Economist+Explores+the+Hidden+Side+of+Everythinghttp://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389312239&sr=8-1&keywords=Freakonomics%3A+A+Rogue+Economist+Explores+the+Hidden+Side+of+Everythinghttp://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389312239&sr=8-1&keywords=Freakonomics%3A+A+Rogue+Economist+Explores+the+Hidden+Side+of+Everythinghttp://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=124232&page=1http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=124232&page=1http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389312239&sr=8-1&keywords=Freakonomics%3A+A+Rogue+Economist+Explores+the+Hidden+Side+of+Everythinghttp://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389312239&sr=8-1&keywords=Freakonomics%3A+A+Rogue+Economist+Explores+the+Hidden+Side+of+Everything8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
18/26
The data show that, on average, a person with a
distinctively black namewhether it is a woman named
Imani or a man named DeShawndoeshave a worse life
outcome than a woman named Molly or a man named Jake.
But it isnt the fault of their names. If two black boys, Jake
Williams and DeShawn Williams, are born in the sameneighborhood and into the same familial and economic
circumstances, they would likely have similar outcomes.
BUT the kind of parents who name their son Jake dont
send to live in the same neighborhood or share the same
economic circumstances with the kinds of parents who
name their son Deshawn, (188-9).
Naming as a Cultural Right
Ayanna F. Brownand Janice Tuck Lively, Selling the Farm to Buy the Cow: The NarrativizedConsequences of Black Names From Within the African American Community inJournal ofBlack Studies43(6) 667692.
1.The opportunityfor African Americans to name their own
children has not been an endowed right. As enslaved people,
African Americans names and the names of their children were
chosen by their owners, (668).
2.
[Mounting Tension]: African-Americans in the process of
deliberating about their childs name, experience the conflictbetween solidarity with the community on the one hand and the
needfor sociocultural approval mediated by the norms of
dominant society, i.e., to be accepted, on the other, (668).
3.
these names are often assumed to be signifiersof poverty, limited
education, and questionable morality,(669).
a.
Such signification discourages the adoption ofdistinctively
black namesand the cultural right to name ones own child,
since it is alleged that there are negative consequences for so
doing.
b.
While scholars assert that it is notthe name, in-and-of-itself,
that yields negative socioeconomic consequences but those
external factors influencing parents likely to give their
children distinctively black names, for the general public
distinctively black names are stigmatized as ghetto.
18
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
19/26
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.7: Race and Difference
Celine-Marie PascaleMaking Sense of Race, Class, and Gender
Power Race and Difference:1.
Race hasrelevantrather than particular meaning. (27)
a.
The relevancy of race pertains to its use
b.
Its useis a means of preserving difference
c.
The recognition of differenceis essential in conflict.
2.
Thepresenceof race is itself an effect of power, (27)
a.
As seen in Section 1.5, race is identifiable becauseit was
socially constructed to be identified[Explain]
3.
The identification of race is areificationof race and potentiallyracism.
a.
Identification reifies/reinforces the use-functionof race.
b.
Once seen race cannot be unseen
c.
Thus, one viable social resistance is to see all races.
Two Analytic Tensions with the Concept of Difference:
1.
Material: i.e., the material conditionsfor difference
a. The lived experience of difference is predicated on
samenesswithinsocial categories (e.g., women, or whites)
and differencebetweencategories (women andmen, blacks
andwhites) (28). [Explain]
b.
With respect to difference withincategories: Despitethe
perceived homogeneity of a racial/ethnical identity, e.g.,
black-American we know that difference has/can be
preserved within:
i.
E.g. (1) Colorism, (2) Jim Crowism, (3) Horizontal
Violencec.
With respect to differencebetweencategories: The political
project of social justiceattempts to equalize inequalities
between categories, (28)
d.
Equalization requires: (1) the acknowledgment of
difference, which is essential, (2) the acknowledgment that
19
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Genderhttp://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Genderhttp://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Gender8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
20/26
such difference has sociopolitical/economicconsequences,
(3) The systematic attempt to namethose structures of power
in place that unfairly advantage/disadvantage members of the
population [See the next section on the concept of
disidentification].2.
Discursive: i.e., the discursive conditionsfor difference
a.
A poststructuralist attempt to rupture the binaries of
difference, (28). The assumption is that the polemical nature
of this difference is socially constructed to enforce
distinctions that would otherwise disappear.
i.
The hegemonic discourse (29) is a discourse that
seeks to preserve interethnic/interracial hostilities
and/or violence as one means of securing power.1.
Pro: if there is said to be a benefit from this
approach it is the assumptionthat established
power is securedinsofar as racial/ethical groups
are fighting each other. This assumption,
however, is destabilized when one group
wins/dominates another ethnical group and then
seeks control of political power, emboldened by
prior success.
2.
Con: The clear disadvantage of attempting to
reconcile these existingethnical/racial
distinctions would likely result in even more
forcefully renewed attempts to preservegroup
identity through exclusionary practices. Simply,
e.g., Hes notwhite/black no matter what they
sayand hereswhy, The attempt to reconcile
these difference can have disastrous
consequences.b.
Challenges the notion of a unified subject for a fluid,
fracturedmultiple subject position(ality), (28).
20
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
21/26
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.8: Resistance and Systemic Racial Discrimination
Celine-Marie PascaleMaking Sense of Race, Class, and Gender
2 Means of Reifying Racial Difference:1.
Discriminatory categoriesbecome naturalized asself-evident,
(29).
a.
Notconcerned with the intentto discriminate. Only
concerned with the abilityto discriminate based on the self-
evidenceof the distinction. Thus, it is the self-evidenceof
the distinction that becomes problematic.
2.
In order to resist[seeing] race as self evidentone may refuse to
see race entirely, viacolorblindness, in response to the allegedself-evidence of racial identification.
a.
[Problem]: colorblindness extends inequitiesby ignoring or
disregarding the importance and impact of historical relations
of power, (29).
i.
[KEY]: race blindnessextends historical relations of
power by reducing systematic inequalities to arbitrary
inequalities, (29).
ii. Simply colorblindness trivializes racial injustices by
suggesting that (1) it is a consequence of
arbitrary/particular practices, rather than systemic, and
(2) in so doing extends the systemof exclusion on the
basis of race.
2 Necessary Conditions for Disidentification:
Disidentification: can be understood as a processof rethinking and
reconstructing discourses in ways that expose what the hegemonic
discourse conceals, (29) Accounts for and includes what the dominantdiscourse marginalizes, (30).
1.
Resistance toracial inequalitybegin(s) with [the] practices
that remove whiteness from the unmarkedcenter of daily life,
(29). [See Section 1.1 here, of my Theories of Ethnicity and
21
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Genderhttp://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Genderhttp://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Race-Class-Gender/dp/0415955378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386357425&sr=8-1&keywords=Making+Sense+of+Race%2C+Class%2C+and+Gender8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
22/26
Nationalism Lectures Series for the invisibility of ethnical
whiteness in American society, Brief Explain].
a.
The missing ethnical label reinforcesthe power of those
free of such labels to normativize their racial/ethnical identity
as the standard bearer for all otheredrace/ethnic identities.b.
the meanings of race must be made visiblethrough the
relationships that produce it, (30) which actively work to
subvertthe prevailing practices of articulation, (29).
i.
There is power in remaining invisible unnamed.
ii.
Hegemonic discourse socially constructs identityby
appeal to race and ethnicity.
iii.
Hegemonic discourse [within the US] does not itself
assume racial/ethnical identity as a means of self-identification.
iv.
This factis what is being masked and thus requiresa
refusal to allow the meaning of race to float as
everything[for those relegated to racial/ethnical
identification] and nothing [for those of the privileged
class able to forgo racial/ethnical identification] (30).
[Explain the sociolinguistic realityand the difficulties
in changing this linguist phenomena].
2.
Second[we must refuse] the apparent naturalness of whiteness
[i.e., its linguistic invisibility]by including whitenessa white
racial category, not simply white peoplemore visibly in public
discourse, (30)
a.
The concept is simple. We, Americans, userace as a
descriptor for everyoneother than white-Americans. The
means of instituting fairness, since we cannot unsayBlack-
American etc, is to begin sayingWhite-American. [This will
be a difficult task, Explain Entrenchment].b.
Simply: fairness would requirethat either everyoneis
identified racially/ethnically or no oneis identified
racially/ethnically. Since it is unlikely to undo the
racial/ethnical identification for all other Americans, White-
American need to be identifiedas such.
22
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
23/26
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.9: W.E.B. Du Boiss Double Consciousness PART ONE
Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classical Readings. Ed. Charles
Lambert 3rd
Edition.
4 Existential Dilemmas of Double Consciousness:
1.
The recognitionof 2nd
class citizenship, as a lived-experience. Du
Bois writes, I remember well when the shadows swept across
me, (164). Ive captured this experience fictionally:Maybe I could fly in de presidents plane, battle de Reds in a fighter jet!
Huh daddy? Knick-Knack spreads his arms and emulates a fighter pilot.
Pow! Pow! Pow! yells Knick-Knack.
B48! B48! Got hit on de fuel tank. Im goin down! yells Sammy. He
spreads his arms and begins shooting. Powerful fighter jets boom loudly
in the clouds above. Knick-Knack dodges the shots and flies behind hisfathers enemy plane. He has his target in sight. Im comin to get you!
yells Knick-Knack. He places his finger on the trigger.
Mayday! Mayday! yells his father. Knick-Knacks fighter jet screams
through the clouds. He nears his fathers jet, his target in sight.
Stupid ass NIGGERS! yells a passenger as a car drives by the school.
Knick-Knacks fantasy had been thwarted. His arms slowly return to his
side. His smile stifled. The plane is only a lil black boy after all.Sammy swallows his bitter rage. He nearly yelled. He nearly fought
back, for he too was lost in the fantasy. The word jarred them back
to their shared reality. A dangerous storyteller is one who believed his
own stories. [REF]
2.
Contempt for ones systematic marginalization: shut out fromtheir worldby a vast veil[with]no desire to tear [it] downI
heldcontempt[because]all their dazzling opportunities,
were their, not mine, (164)
a.
Marginalization as a consequence of exclusionary practices,
which delimit or deny accessto opportunity. #2 above
reinforcesa sense and the truth of #1, i.e., I am treated as 2nd
class becauseI have not been afforded the same
opportunities.3.
The religious conflict of being outcasted: Why did God make me
an outcast and a stranger in my own house? (164).
a.
Black academics, not all, tend to challenge the authority of
religion and characterize it as a force of control and
domination.
23
http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://jasonjcampbell.org/uploads/American_Dogwood_The_Tragedy_of_Prince_Edward_County_Brown_Board_Education.pdfhttp://jasonjcampbell.org/uploads/American_Dogwood_The_Tragedy_of_Prince_Edward_County_Brown_Board_Education.pdfhttp://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=08133421718/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
24/26
8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
25/26
slavishly accepting of this dejected identity, this excluded identity
as their identity, e.g., Music:Look at you
Now look at us
All my niggas look rich as fuckAll my niggas look rich as fuck
All my niggas look rich as fuck [REF]
LOL!! I lovethis song because so many poor people are not
offended by this song. [Pause to laugh at poor people]. The
implication is lookat yourselfyouare notrich as fuck. Nowlook
at me, I am rich as fuck. Thus, [KEY]:youridentity is constituted
as notbeing like mine, not looking like mine, not having what I
have.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2.0: W.E.B. Du Boiss Double Consciousness PART TWO
Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classical Readings. Ed. Charles
Lambert 3rd
Edition.
Understanding Double Consciousness:
1.
It is a feeling of this internal conflict:
a.
One everfeelshis twonessan American, a negro; [notice
theabsenceof the conjunctionand], two souls, twothoughts, two unreconciledstrivings; two warring ideals in
one dark body; whose dogged strength alonekeeps it from
being torn asunder, (164).
2.Need to fuse these divergent selves:
a.
He would not Africanize the AmericanHe would not
bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white AmericanismHe
simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a
Negro andan American, without being cursed and spit uponby his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity
closed roughly in his face, (164-5).
3.
It is a feeling of self doubt:
a.
The innate love of harmony and beauty that set the ruder
souls of his people a-dancing and a-singing raised but
25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx2raP3P3FQ&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJx2raP3P3FQ&has_verified=1http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx2raP3P3FQ&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJx2raP3P3FQ&has_verified=18/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America
26/26
confusionand doubtin the soul of the black artist; for the
beauty reveled to himwas the soul-beauty of a race whichhis
larger audience despised, [Explain relation] andhe could not
articulatethe message of another people, p.165.
i.
One aspect of double consciousness is the epistemicinability of the black-subject to articulate/understand
the efficacious nature of ones own culture /
ethnicity/race. [Explain in detail]
ii.
Another is the emotional and intellectual displacement
from bothhis people and the larger audience
The End