At this
point in class, we have come across a wide range of writings, all of which deal
with the topic of race in slightly different ways. Some like claim that race is
biological fact that determines part of our essence as human beings while
others such as Locke and Montague deny this idea and proclaim that this
construct of race is false and meaningless. Yesterday in class, Professor J
left us to question the role of race in our own lives today. In his time, Locke
insisted that though race and culture are not fixed, they do share a
significant (non-casual) relationship. For Locke, race needed to be redefined
because the current understanding was flawed. He agreed with Montague who
argued that race is an artificial construct which leads to the perpetuation of
errors which proves its lack of meaning/false nature. However, unlike Locke,
Montague called for the complete erasure of the term race altogether. This
solution, however, seems extremely problematic. Though race may not be
genetically/biological real, it is still a cultural force which carries a lot of
power in our society.
Locke
argued that race does not express culture; rather, culture produces race. This
belief is better illustrated in the following quote: “Frequently enough, what
is assumed to be an innate racial characteristic turns out on closer study to
be the resultant of purely historical causes. A mode of thinking, a distinctive
type of reaction, gets itself established in the course of a complex historical
development as typical, as normal; it serves then as a model for the working
over of new elements of civilization (93).” I found Locke’s argument as
expressed in this selection to be quite compelling, and found myself agreeing
with the majority of his argument.
So, how
what is the role of race today? I would argue that it could be defined in
sociological jargon as an example of a “social fact”. According to Durkheim,
the “founding father” of sociology, social facts are non-material forces which
are external, objective, and coercive. Their existence pre-dates and will
post-date the life of the individual. They exist in spite of the will of the individual,
and they impose themselves on the individual in a way that is consequential
regardless of our intentions. Additionally, they maintain a “sui generis” quality;
they are self-generating or self-perpetuated. All of these things seem to hold
true for race in our current society. Completely ignoring the existence of race
(as Montague encouraged) would be counter- productive. Race exists regardless
of its status as a biological myth and continues to act on us in everyday life.
We live in a society that pushes us to choose/align ourselves with the “correct”
behavioral traits which we can based on the normalized modes of classification
such as race as well as class, gender, religion, etc. We are socialized into a
society that reifies these classifications norm. But, we cannot make the
mistake of reifying race; we must remember that it is a social/human construct
but one that has power.
We
cannot ignore race. Only through acknowledging its existence and examining the
ways in which it structures our lives as individuals and a society can we hope
to move forward in a positive direction. This is a song that I think does a
good job at bringing the complex issues of race into perspective. It recognizes
historical significance of race as well as calling attention to current issues
by questioning his own social location especially in relation to his music/work.
I cannot disagree that race continues to play an important role within our society, and all racially heterogenous societies around the world; however, I wonder if that role is a necessary one. While we, as a population, give race significance, it undermines other, more important, differentiating faculties. Each race carries a number of social, political, religious, and economic assumptions that, more and more, are becoming outdated. Not to mention that racial categories are so general--Black and White, to name two--that they tend to cause more confusion than anything else. Especially for individuals at the periphery of these racial categories. Does not allowing the continuation of the racial categories in some ways efface their subjective experience?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think you and Tim raise a number of interesting questions about the line between recognizing the reality of the impact of racial categories in life, especially in the lives of those people of color who are denied the privileges of caucasians, or those who can pass as caucasians, and the problems of continuing to identify one another using racial categories, a process which reinforces the cultural legitimacy of race and its power to grant and deny privilege. As a white person, I hope that I can be half as conscious as Macklemore of the privileges that come to me every day, and I want to be critical of the assumptions or stereotypes that I myself employ in the judgment of others or perpetuate when I do not question people, movies, or songs that adopt them as facts. That being said, I don't think it's healthy for race to be the primary identifier in conversation and other interactions the way that it was for my parents and grandparents because that was a marker of life in twentieth-century Mississippi, where race determined almost everything and because, as Tim said, things are complicated and taking race, with all of its baggage, along with us to the future seems dangerous. To answer a question with a question: How do we walk the line between recognizing the impact that race has on us as individuals and as a society while also moving away from race as a primary identity category?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think we might be taking for granted that most people agree that race should be abandoned as a primary category of identification. Should we be?