Sophia Heltman - Media Analysis #1 copy

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Dec 6, 2023

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1 Heltman Sophia Heltman Dr. Ennis ANTHRO 1 5 February 2020 Media Analysis #1 Yolanda Moses, professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, briefly discusses the discourse of whiteness in her article, Why Do We Keep Using the Word “Caucasian?” She presents the difficulties with language when describing race, and how some have questioned abandoning the title of “Caucasian” altogether. Language impacts our perception of things, and when discussing race, a word like “Caucasian” is nuanced and imperfect. Moses puts this best and says, “we know how powerful the concept of race is and how the use of words related to the notion of race has shaped what we call the U.S. racial worldview. So why do we continue using the word “Caucasian” (Moses)? Moses first traces the birth of the word Caucasian to the 18 th century, which is not a great place to start; humans have perceived race in many different ways throughout history, and often is is done through ill informed, willfully ignorant acts of prejudice and violence. Race science was very popular at the time, and the term “Caucasian” came from the German anatomist, Johann Blumenbach. Upon visiting the Caucasus mountains, Blumenbach claimed that the people there, which he deemed “Caucasians,” were “created in God’s image as an ideal form of humanity.” Moses then goes on to explain that the term stuck so well because it represented white people as ideal humans. And if there is an ideal, there must be something inferior, therefore, the term Caucasian justified racial discrimination and slavery. Moses explains how head-size was a measure of

2 Heltman intelligence, and superiority; white people became, “scientifically,” the most advanced, and Black people and other minorities were deemed primitive. This flawed, racial science is wrong, but the term Caucasian still holds value today. Moses introduces the fact that the term has staying power because it has been changed to fit the category of whiteness; “the term, even though its exact definition changed over time, was used to shape legal policy and the nature of our society.” The word Caucasian also continued being used because of the eugenics movement. This movement divided Caucasians into different ranks, and this allowed for discrimination based on which rank an individual found themselves in. The term Caucasian is still used today because of the history of false science behind it. Moses argues that it may still hold some scientific weight. The terminology we use to describe races today is flawed, and imperfect because race itself is a constructed idea. Moses calls for use of accurate terminology, and I do agree to a certain extent. But, I do not know if there is any accurate terminology because the thing that we are attempting to describe is a constructed illusion. This relates to our discussion of race and ethnicity, and it presents a portion of the study of languageb as well. It is interesting how humans decide to describe themselves, and their race, and I think there is a lot to unpack here. The intersection between race and language is a compelling one, and it introduces a lot of nuance and confusion. And in trying to discuss this cross-section, maybe we can uncover more flaws in our own prose, and try to fix, or at least become more aware of them.

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