Racial Paradigms

In certainty, the model of racial equality has not always been performed, nor has it been fully accomplished in the world. This is because the acceptance in racial equality has been said to “counter” deeply rooted beliefs in racial inequality and political, legal, and customary practices of racial discrimination and oppression. Therefore, racial equality is stated in antiracist philosophy and in antiracist political mobilization.

I read The Back of the Bus, by Mary Mebane. In this essay Mebane tells us about a real life situation that she witnessed as a young girl. The situation occurred in the 1940's, while segregation was almost at it's worst. Mebane talks about the tension between the people on the bus when a white man got on and there was only one seat left, next to a black man. During all the tension the bus driver tried to tell the black man to move but, as he did a black woman stood up fighting for the black man and his seat. The bus driver realized they were at the last stop and let the situation go, as if nothing happened. I believe that the black man shouldn't have had to move but for his sake, he should have moved so he wouldn't have had to face the harsh

To many people across a variety of different nationalities and cultures, race has been proven to be a key factor for how society views you in the eyes of those who are prominently in charge. The term race has been brought up in recent years, to be considered a form of identification, as the word race is used to describe physical characteristics such as a person’s color of skin, hair, and eyes. When in reality, the correct term they should be using is Ethnicity. As a result, the term race is used to separate people into sub-categories based on the color of their skin. This type of classification, is a man-made creation used by society to classify certain groups of people into lower classes, while keeping the predominate group in charge at the top.

The social construction of race is a topic that is worth discussing. In the United States the black/white color line has historically been rigidly defined and enforced. People have been stereotypical and afraid as long as I can remember. Labeling people as we think they should be based on the color of their skin or just thinking it’s in their biology so they must be this or they must be that. Race is socially constructed and is not a biological construct.

When we hear the word "race" we're more than likely inclined to automatically think of the color of someone's skin. Though this isn't entirely inappropriate, there is so much more to race than that. Sociologists say that race is a social construction created in society, meaning it's basically a set of "stories" we tell ourselves and hear overtime to make sense of the world. Since we hear these stories over and over again, we act on them, ultimately making them true. This can be said of many aspects of culture and society, however, it seems to happen with race without our realization.

As freed black men escaped their captivity as being enslaved in the South, racial equality in society was not reciprocated by white Americans. Even though African Americans were away from the constraints of slavery, they held a lower social status and were racially inferior by their community. Racial hierarchies were not only imposed in society but also in the military during the Civil War. As the Civil War broke out between the Union and the Confederate, President Lincoln believed that an all-white army had the capability of fighting off the Confederate units and that this war would be swift. The war progressed and the Union soon realized that they needed more reinforcements which would come from the freed black men in the North. During the Civil War, black soldiers would challenge and reinforce the existing racial hierarchies because the dispute of manhood amongst races would be enforce by violence that deterred black men from challenging their social status.

First, Caballero backs her claim by using an emotional appeal. Throughout her paper, she references “white spaces” which are places where she feels like she and her son are unwelcomed and treated differently because the areas are meant for white people. The specific “white space” described in her storytelling was the Huntington Library located in southern California that contains an exhibit that she had visited. Caballero goes on to explain how a staff member, who happened to be a white male asks that her kid doesn't go unattended, doesn't play with toys, and doesn't sit on the ground. This was a concern for her because “remaining inside the exhibit [were] white mothers with their children and their toys. The docent [didn’t] speak to them” (Caballero, “Mothering” 2). But what draws the line, is when the staff member suggests that her kid should physically leave the exhibit and says that her son ““can sit on the bench over here"” (Caballero, “Mothering” 2) which is an explicit and direct example of how they were unwelcome. The bench that the white male docent was “gestur[ing] with his hand trailing behind him, almost like an afterthought, [was giving Caballero and her son] an idea about how to get rid of [them]selves. [Caballero looked] over and "over there" meant outside of the exhibit” (Caballero,

People tend to deny, rationalize and avoid discussing their feelings and beliefs about race and ethnicity because they are sensitive topics that people want to avoid. People also deny race and ethnicity because there are uncomfortable feelings, because they are uncomfortable feelings they tend to deny they rationalize because they do not want to hear anything negative about their background, I also think it is part of stigma many people would deny their background. According to out lecture states “Some people by virtue of their ethnic heritage (something they individually had no decision in) believe they are superior or inferior to other simply based on their race or culture”. Therefore, people deny their beliefs, race and ethnicity because

The PBS series “Race: The Power of an Illusion” effectively works to expose race as a social construct and deconstructs the false notions that race is a biological marker. The series first discusses that all human beings originated from Africa but dispersed about 70,000 years ago to various places in the world. As a result of this migration, people were spread to different locations throughout the world with different environmental conditions that affected their physical traits. It was many years after the migration in which people began to display these new physical traits such as slanted eyes, fair skin, and differing hair textures. While the series notes the physical changes that occurred during the migration it also emphasizes that race while it may seem apparent in skin color and other physical features has no real biological basis.

The first time the reader sees evidence that the children are of a different race is when they are compared as salt in pepper. Knowing that the children are different races raises the question of which one is which. In the argument that Twyla is a Minority and Roberta is a Caucasian, when the two children and their mothers go to church, Twyla’s mother goes and reaches to shake Roberta’s mother and Roberta’s mother scoffs and rejects the hand shake. In that time period, blacks were “less than” a white person, and for a white person to be seen shaking a black person’s hand is almost abnormal.

In the article “Taking a Public Stance, Nearly Alone,” by Spence Halperin, the author finds himself in a situation where on a train, in front of approximately thirty people, a mother began hitting her child. As she continued hitting her, he was disturbed by the situation, and spoke up to tell her to stop. Upon reflection on this event, he noticed that of the only three people besides him to acknowledge his stopping her, the one who spoke quietly to the mother was African American, like the mother herself, and the two people who patted him on the back to acknowledge that they approve of what he did were white. He said he wished more of the blacks had stood up against the mother, and wondered if it was something cultural. His Arab-Canadian friend’s opinion was that this

Social construct may be defined as the social mechanism or a category which has been created by the society. It may either be a perception which is created by an individual or an idea which is constructed as a result of the culture. The present society has created a large number of constructs which are not good. In this paper, the discussion will be done on the social construction of race and gender and the problems associated with the same. In addition to this, how can social construct forms to be the basis for discrimination and prejudice will be discussed? Further, racism and sexism will be discussed with examples. Further discussion will be done on patriarchy and its role in racism and sexism will be added.

Philosophy is all about exploring the different perspectives people have in their minds. This was my initial thought of what philosophy was. I knew that many of the topics that we discussed in this class would stimulate my mind. Learning new theories that contribute to the better understanding of my history is something that I enjoy greatly. No matter the level of difficulty of the subject matter, I enjoy learning what I consider to be reality. Discussing not only where the ideas of race and racialized categories came from, but how they created and adopted by society at the time. Part of me became pleased that this topic was even introduced since most students choose not to talk about anything that has to do with race, even if it is assigned to them. I was pleasantly surprised with the explicitness of this philosophy class as well.

Racialization often depends on binary antagonism as the prevailing discourse of race and racism often focuses on a black-white racial binary paradigm. For example, the African-American enslavement of black people by white Europeans is a black-white binary antagonism. However, I will argue that race does not always depend on these binary antagonisms, such as the black-white paradigm. Although the black and white paradigm is often used for binary antagonisms, there are other forms of racialization that should be taken into consideration. Racialization can depend on other factors such as culture, social interaction (e.g. languages), geographical proximity, assimilation, and even, hegemonies. Nevertheless, the binary antagonisms of black and white

Every author I have reviewed in this paper believe in discussion as key to acknowledgement so I would like to share the encounter that provoked my first true conversation about race. One day after school, I was walking with one of my black friends to our school’s gym, in a very wealthy part of town, when we were stopped for “acting suspiciously” by two white, male police officers. One of the police officers pulled me aside and asked, “Are you in danger? Is there someone I can call for you?”. I did not understand what was happening at the time, but I told him that I was fine and I was just walking to my gym. The other officer proceeded to yank the backpack off my friend and dump everything out on the ground. When he was done searching through