Ornamentalism, How The British Saw Their Empire

In Nadine Gordimer’s short story “Once Upon a Time” she references points of racial prejudice in South Africa. “She sent the trusted housemaid out with bread and tea, but the housemaid said these were loafers and tsotsis… You only encourage them with your bread and tea”. Gordimer wrote the unemployed people on the streets as people of color to show that even in areas of the world where there is a larger population of colored people, there are still issues of white supremacy. They don’t trust their own neighbors and begin to ostracize themselves from society Also, in the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln says “ Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation… Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” He is saying that even though our country is only eighty-seven years old, we were fighting already, so maybe it was never meant to be. Furthermore, in Anna Quindlen mentions issues in the beginning of the United States in her essay “ A Quilt of a Country”. She mentions that this country is held together by “... the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone.” This compares to the ‘agree to disagree’ concept, where on the surface, humans appear to be fully capable of getting along without bickering or fighting over the simplest things, but in reality, most humans consider their opinions or themselves more important than others. Thus, it is clear that humans cannot live in harmony as ‘one human race’ because we don’t trust each other and we don’t consider ourselves

In a carefully worded essay I will discuss the aspect of ‘race’ as a hindrance to the

Even if slavery is not the presiding rule of the land on this planet any longer, segregation based on appearance still exists, just as the "social construction of ‘whiteness’ historically has implied the racial superiority of whites", and prompted the "separate but equal" doctrines of the late nineteenth century (Rundblad & Kivisto xxxi).

The book has as its principal thesis the consideration of race as “a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from 16th to 19th centuries” (Smedley, 2007, pag.24). The book also specifies three characteristics that distinguish the racial ideology in America: the absence of a category for biracial people, the homogenization of the black or African American Americans, and the impossibility to change a person’s race. (Smedley, 2007, pag.7)

Some people define race as if it is something solid or concrete, but what they don’t see is that it is a “social fabrication”(Mathew Desmond, Mustafa Emibayer,2009;2). Race is based on the difference in physical appearance which is determined, for example, by the most apparent trait; skin color. Inequality emerges when people living, whether on the same sovereign terrain or across continents, are not treated with the same amount of respect and not given the chance to engage their rights in a free and fair manner. Race and inequality are often linked together because of the “issues that began in the 1800s”(NFB;Journey to Justice;2000) such as racial segregation. Over the years issues of race and inequality have

Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant made me readjust my understanding of race by definition and consider it as a new phenomenon. Through, Omi and Winant fulfilled their purpose of providing an account of how concepts of race are created and transformed, how they become the focus of political conflict, and how they shape and permeate both identities and institutions. I always considered race to be physical characteristic by the complexion of ones’ skin tone and the physical attributes, such as bone structure, hair texture, and facial form. I knew race to be a segregating factor, however I never considered the meaning of race as concept or signification of identity that refers to different types of human bodies, to the perceived corporal and phenotypic makers of difference and the meanings and social practices that are ascribed to these differences, in which in turn create the oppressing dominations of racialization, racial profiling, and racism. (p.111). Again connecting themes from the previous readings, my westernized influences are in a direct correlation to how to the idea of how I see race and the template it has set for the rather automatic patterns of inequalities, marginalization, and difference. I never realized how ubiquitous and evolving race is within the United States.

In the world of sociology, the theory of racialization is a widely known and occasionally frustrating topic. However, two sociologists have successfully been able to define and break down the essential information behind this theory. Within their own writing, Michael Omi and Howard Winant (1986) define racial formation as,” the process by which social, economic, and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories” (Omi and Winant 16). In essence, this theory frames the very meaning of “race” itself. The stereotypes of race are rooted deep within the contexts of history, allowing these concepts to be subject to gradual change over time. In addition to the original standards of racial formations, there have been other writings that parallel very closely to the ideas set forth by Omi and Winant. Richard Wright, Pem D. Buck, and Karen Brodkin are three notable authors that have excellently highlighted the concepts set forth by Omi and Winant.

This is when race was the central topic of world history. In the mean time according to him, the color line also has significant subjective dimensions. He also examines race as symbolic and experiential reality.  With our modern society, we see a great shift in the racism, or the color line. The perfect example given in our book is about the election of Barack Obama for presidency. As we know that was one of the biggest events in the history of the US.  Having a president of color, shows how far we have come. Children today will be less likely to take white dominance, because they live in a world where there are also education African Americans, such as Obama and the first lady.  However, as mentioned in the book “racialization continues to be a powerful force in the United States” (pg 349). Statistics show that there are still more black males in prisons than other races. White communities are still healthier, and have higher educational differences than people in color.

Race is represented in many different ways to allow the attitudes and values of Elizabethan society to be revealed through it. The way race is portrayed allows us to have access to these attitudes and values.

Charles Mills, who works in the general area of social and political philosophy, promoted an idea which is linked between the political theory of gender and race. Mill`s brought up the concept of how Blacks in America have certain implications that reflect towards their individual freedom as a whole. In his essay, “But What Are You Really?” The Metaphysics of Race” he extrapolates this view to how race is defined amongst our society and how he opposes racial realism. He guides his perception through dividing his argument through examples of racial classifications. Such examples include “quace”,”horizontal”, and “vertical” systems. He is interested answering how racial classification applies to basis of nature. Mill`s main goal of his argument is to show how race raises metaphysical issues, These issues might answer the question who and what we are as individuals.

During the late twenty-first century the academic focus recognised as the ‘critical philosophy of race’ was developed with the purpose of analysing the metaphysics of race. Scholars began to conceptualise ‘race’ with frameworks other than biological determinism due to scientific findings that proposed that race, as conceptualised as a biological fact, does not exist. To ground the social reality of race, theories of social constructionism attempt to explain the social practice of interpreting difference along a constructed hierarchy. The accounts primarily of Haslanger, but also of Zack, Tattersall, and Glasglow form a complex overview of the constructionist theory of

Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s arguments from “Racial Formations” are about how race is socially constructed and is shown in Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Michael Omi and Howard Winant believe that race is socially constructed in society; therefore, the meaning of race varies within different cultures and societies. According to Omi and Winant, influences such as, media, school, politics, history, family and economy create society’s structure of race. In Caucasia, media, family and school are forces that create race by stating how one should conform to social norms for different racial groups.

In The Racial Contract, Mills aims to investigate the divisions of class and wealth by examining the profound impact of race on society. Although it is true that there are reoccurring systems of oppression where race is the dividing factor, Mills does not give enough acknowledgement to other identity determining factors such as gender nor does he elaborate on race—both of which play major roles in dividing society. He does touch upon the influence of money on decisions but links it to race alone. With a library of carefully chosen examples, Mills successfully highlights the Eurocentric influences on racist practice where each new manifesting practice is created to oppress a group of people based on physical observances.

Many are unaware of the effects that race has played in their lives over the years. Some may not understand its implications, but are very oblivious to it. Race can influence such things like attitude and behavior. Nowadays being white or black means something more than just a Crayola color. No longer are they just colors, they are races with their own rules and regulations. People of color have been inferior to the white race for centuries. In their own way Zora Neale Hurston shows this concept in her story “How it feels to be Colored Me” as does Richard Wright in his autobiographical sketch “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”.

First is the belief that race is central, not peripheral, to American thought and life. Second is the notion that racism is common and ordinary rather than rare and episodic, so that a great deal of Americans’ social life is affected by it. A third strand is material determinism, or interest convergence—the idea that racial relations maintain a white-over-black/brown hierarchy that provides benefits and profits to elite groups in the majority race and are for that reason difficult to reform. A fourth feature is the social construction thesis, according to which races are products of social thought and invention, not objective or biologically real (Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge, 2011, p. 1).