A thought experiment was proposed by a member of the class: “What if race didn’t exist? Would there still be some form of hierarchy and/or discriminating factor among individuals?” After contemplating for a bit I began to ask myself why is this question even being asked and especially in this particular class. It is at that moment I realized that while thought experiments or certain hypotheticals are incredibly intriguing, they do not offer practical answers to realistic issues (such as race, which cannot be removed). Additionally, the fact that someone was even implying the idea of eliminating race was especially problematic. It is not always recognized that “past instances of racism still shape current social conditions…current instances of racism can be mediated by such deep-seated  psychological attitudes and well established institutional arrangements that they can easily avoid detection” (Taylor, 126). Additionally, racial constructionism “insists that we can effectively work on shaping our lives and ourselves only if we accurately gauge the conditions under which we do this work” (Taylor, 129). This is precisely why race-thinking is crucial. It should not be our goal to merely “eliminate” or tolerate each other’s races but one has to learn to be accepting and willing to be consciously engaged in metacognition without fearing the presence or belittling of another who possesses a different exterior. It is also worth pointing out that every injustice is intertwined and that it is not simply the black race that has suffered the harsh consequences of a white supremacist, capitalist, heterosexual, and patriarchal system. It is briefly mentioned that Latinos are now dominate paid domestic work, like African Americans once did (Taylor, 144). It is no coincidence that Latinos are the new exploited group in the United States (taking the place of African Americans). And taking into consideration the interlocking nature of race and exploitation, it is also not a coincidence that minorities (i.e. non-whites) have been and still are among the most exploited groups in the world. It is incredibly easy to go about life being unconscious of your thinking and actions, keep from going through your comfortable and respectable life as slave to your head, day in and day out. However, in order to even attempt to combat any oppressive system, the individualistic internal change needs to first precede any external action. Therefore, double consciousness, especially for whites, entails an omnipresent acknowledgement of the historical legacy of white identity constructions in the persistent structures of inequality and exploitation, as well as the comprehension of the fact that looking at one self through the eyes of others and continually being paralleled to the negativities of subordinations is not an easy burden to be carried by a soul. 

Covert Racism

Most would agree that society is stratified by occupation, income, and educational attainment. However, race is equally a factor in this stratification of individuals. With reference to color coded modern races, whites remain at the top and black Americans would be near the bottom (Taylor, 81).  In context of the United States we currently reside in, significant weight should be given to the structures created by racism, which, while clearly lessened, still lingers in the form of laissez-faire racism and, of course, covert racism. It is important to note that Taylor successfully intertwines the racialized play of symbolic capital and the distribution of goods (Taylor, 83). Therefore, it is incredibly problematic that the majority of our class continually attempts to justify that it is not an individual’s race but instead their economic class that matters. Perhaps it is the presence of a black president that has encouraged so many to believe that race is simply no longer a significant factor. It is true that we have come a long way since the days of Jim Crow segregation. However, the plain fact is that race still matters. It matters with the alarming frequency in the encounters of young black men with the police and perhaps incarceration, the ability to get access and retain affordable housing, and the preservation of wealth accumulated by families. I have personally observed hints of covert racism in the language used by our class, which focuses predominantly on avoiding blatant honesty and is instead adamantly focused on “how not to offend others.” There have been a plethora of "we" statements but an incredibly few "I" confessions. Additionally, without hesitation, I am willing to admit that our class (more specifically, white members of the class) have mastered the art of not recognizing (intentionally or unintentionally) the racial privileges they experience on a daily basis. To date, I am able to recall only one white individual who has outwardly identified themselves as racist. As difficult as it might be, I firmly believe that without the honest will for this recognition and acceptance of the white race, the white privilege that accompanies this race, and perhaps the involvement in covert racism from the white members of the class, we indubitably cannot take a step forward to becoming a more racially conscious group of individuals (Taylor, 116) and engage in an utterly sincere and fulfilling exchange of sentiments. 

Biology & Race

It is not simply in class that the notion of biology has arisen. More often than not, this is the central argument that is chosen to defend why people are different, in terms of race and I have found this to be especially irksome and exceedingly disturbing. I believe that it is important to state that there is not a single biological element unique to any of the groups we call white, black, Asian, Latino, etc. There has never been a successful scientific way to justify any racial classification in biology. This is not to say that humans don’t vary biologically, we evidently do, a lot.  However, that variation is not racially distributed. If your thinking deviates from this notion, I would highly recommend doing some degree of independent research (to start, there are some links to studies I have attached below). While race is not biology, racism can undoubtedly affect our biology, especially our health.  Racial social structures, from access to health care to one’s own racialized self-image, have the ability to impact the ways our bodies and immune systems develop. This means that race, while not a biological unit, can have important biological implications because of the effects of racism. Thus, solutions to racial inequalities and the problems of race relations are not going to emerge if a large percentage of the public holds on to the myth of biological races. There is currently one biological race in our species: Homo sapiens, and that does not mean that what we call “races” don’t exist. However, an issue arises when there are constructions of racial classifications, not as units of biology, but as ways to lump together groups of people with varying historical, linguistic, ethnic, religious, or other backgrounds (Taylor, 49). Additionally, these categories are not stagnant, they change over time as societies grow and diversify and alter their social, political and historical make-ups.

There is no genetic sequence unique to blacks or whites or Asians. In fact, these categories don’t reflect biological groupings. Its was difficult for me to believe (when I first learned) that there is more genetic variation in the diverse populations from the continent of Africa (who some would lump into a “black” category) than exists in all populations from outside of Africa (the rest of the world) combined. Additionally, there are no specific racial genes and even something thought to be as omnipresent as skin color works only in a limited manner as dark or light skin tells us only about an individual’s ancestry relative to the equator, not anything about the specific population or part of the planet they might be descended from. Therefore, the biological argument is inherently flawed because it does not hold any factual evidence.

Human DNA Sequences - More Variation and Less Race:

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/62133/21011_ftp.pdf?sequence=1

Human Variation: http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/pubs/tenfacts.pdf

September 1, 2013

Language is an element which is prevalent everywhere. However, it is exceedingly imperative to realize that it is more often than not non-verbal and similarly, racism is not simply verbal but largely non-verbal. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes in The Letter from Birmingham Jail, “when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people.” Race talk is ubiquitous but it does not by any means have to be verbal. “Interpretive devices” and “expressive devices” (17) are significant in that they shape how one shapes their thinking and action in the world. Thus, race is something that needs to be deliberately thought about on a daily basis if the definitive aim is to combat racism. Pensive thoughts and scrutiny of your daily engagements are not easy tasks.  Therefore, it requires an individual to purposefully think and act in a manner where love is unconditional for everyone, which requires a tremendous degree of audacity to accomplish. We know how to categorize people and often we also involuntarily know how we are hypothetically to “treat them.” However, it takes bravery, empathy, and the effort of being cognizant to not simply tolerate but to accept and love individuals who are not similar to you, which is not an easy undertaking. bell hooks states that “Love is really more of an interactive process. It's about what we do not just what we feel. It's a verb, not a noun.” This act of loving does not and should not simply apply to race – it should apply to every “social identity” (13). It takes a conscious effort to not simply say “I don’t see color” or “I don’t see race” because if an individual is making such claims, simply put, they must be blind to not see the most important aspect of our society’s eclecticism. We as a society love compartmentalizing our lives – weather it is economic status, sexual identity, or any other marker and the same is indubitably true for race. One needs to learn to love all without normative social influence.