preview

Race Inequality In Judith Stone's When She Was White

Decent Essays

According to Michael Omi and Howard Winant, “Race is a concept, a representation or signification of identity that refers to different types of human bodies, [from the] phenotype markers of difference and the meaning and social practices that are ascribed to these differences...” (Omi and Winant, pg. 111). The term race is a very controversial concept to define not only because of its underlying relations to different ideologies and historical events but also due to the various levels of analysis. Throughout history race has played a rather significant role in distinguishing racial hierarchy within a society.
As displayed in the novel, When She Was White written by Judith Stone, one of these racially tied examples of how race influences society …show more content…

109). When analyzing the term race from an objective matter, we tend to link biological variations to the term. In other words, the different variations from our genes such as skin color and other visible differences are categorized into different features of a certain race. On the other hand, race can be viewed from an illusionary perspective. The classification of ethnicity, class, and nation are the three fundamental paradigms that are associated with the illusion of race. Nationality can be defined as the classification of belonging to a certain …show more content…

In the beginning of the novel, the audience was introduced to the vivid imagery of Sandra at her elementary school, sitting alone while “...the other children, sitting in pairs, giggled and whispered as Sandra rose from the little two-person desk she shared with no one and left without looking at them’’ (Chapter 1). By isolating her based on her different physical attributes and appearance, not only do the rest of the students view this as an acceptable treatment, but they also begin to construct the division from an early age. This caused the continuation of the Afrikaner mentality in terms of White

Get Access