"Tried to Escape Racism but Could Not Escape Race"

Class this week has had me extremely overwhelmed to say the least. This week’s readings didn’t do much to quell my high level of stress. But thank the mighty powers that be for professors. At the end of Thursday’s class, Dr. J. made the statement that Du Bois’ “Conservation of the Races” was an attempt to “escape racism but it could not escape race.” If I have never experienced the mushroom explosion of a mental atomic bomb…I totally did then.

            “Tried to escape racism but could not escape race.” I comprehend the point about studying the history of the notion of race, but what is the end goal? This talk about conserving or eliminating the races after an era of high strung pseudo-scientists trying to prove the scientific nature of race is really attempting to debunk the social outcomes of racial divisions.

            Sarah posed a wonderful question at the end of class yesterday. She asked something to the effect: “If we are playing a game built on the false concept of race, what are we to do within the reality of that game?” My response: Rid ourselves of the racism and keep the race. Many seek to isolate race into this one dimensional idea when in reality it exists as this umbrella with multiple concepts and marks of identity under it. As a raced individual, abandoning the notion of race is 1) something that is occurring in really small baby steps but 2) is something that I personally don’t want to happen. I accept and appreciate being raced as an African-American despite all of the negative connotations it evokes. I take immense pride in the experience that is black American and African-American. My pride in these experiences prevents me from completely doing away with the notion of race because I have intense personal investments and identity connections to a specifically raced experience.

            For various moral and ethical reasons we love to say, “Let’s abandon the idea of race.” However, we are operating under the assumptions that 1) all race-based experiences are negative and 2) that eliminating race will solve our problems. The idea that eliminating the notion of race will eliminate our various social problems is complete and utter bull... There are various social hierarchies that need to be resolved with or without the notion of race around. Let’s get to the heart of the matter and deal with the various power hierarchies that produce social inequality. So my question to you all: Which do you think will eliminate more social problems? Race or Racism?