The World And Me States

In his book White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race (Revised and Updated 10th anniversary edition), Ian Haney López explores the legal construction of race, and in particular

In the essay “Color Lines” by Ralph Eubanks, the author explores the flawed logic of race from a scientific perspective. In the article, Eubanks explains the fact that a person cannot know the ancestry of another person or the nature of that person by looking at their race alone. Heritage is a much more complex concept than a simple racial categorization. In writing the article, the author sought to demonstrate that when looking at a person, you could not confirm their identity based on what percentage of a certain race they may have and that social construction meant to depict one group as being superior or inferior to another. This rhetorical analysis will therefore explore the importance of the rhetorical devices and strategies used by Eubanks to communicate with the audience.

For this week’s memo, I decided to read “Racial Formations” by Omi and Winant. The reading talks about the meaning of race as being defined and challenged throughout society in both collective and personal practices. It also suggests that racial categories are created, changed, ruined, and renewed. Omi and Winant explore the idea that the conception of race developed progressively, ultimately being created to validate and rationalize inequality. It began with the denial of political rights and extended into the introduction of slavery and other forms of forcible labor.

On a sociological basis, the notion of race is understood as a social construction. As a black student in France, Frantz Fanon writes of how the white man has made him a “slave not of the ‘idea’ that others have of [him] but of [his]

Matthew Frye Jacobson’s Whiteness of a Different Color offers innovative insight into the concept of “race” and the evolution of “whiteness” throughout American history. Jacobson focuses his analysis on the instability of racial identification over time and how race has been created and perceived throughout different stages of history. He states in his introduction that “one of the tasks before the historian is to discover which racial categories are useful to whom at a given moment, and why” (p.9) and while he is successful in some respects, his analysis is somewhat incomplete in providing a full scope of the power relations that created, altered and maintained racial identities in the United States. While Jacobson offers a detailed

In his book Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice, Ian F. Haney Lopez studies the change that in racial politics brought about by the Chicano movement. He examines why Chicano activists embrace their identity as members of the Brown race, an action that is a rejection of previous generations ' attempts to gain civil rights by claiming to be White. He analyzes this racial transformation in the context of race as a socially constructed idea meant to preserve power dynamics.

Defining someone by their skin color is an everyday phenomenon. Many people see a specific shade of skin and believe they know exactly how that person is going to speak, carry, and illustrate themselves. It seems to be embedded in one’s head at a young age to have specific views given by family, friends, and coworkers such as, believing interracial relationships are immoral, or it being acceptable to judge others according to their skin color. In the articles “Race is a Four Letter Word” by Teja Arboleda and “Mr. Z” by M. Carl Holman, the color of the authors skin plays a substantial role on how they are treated and perceived. Living in a society that doesn’t understand one’s culture can make their life extremely difficult.

Race and the different racial characteristics have been the main topic of many debates all over the United States and has been for a long time. The topic of race continues to stay relevant because of the way race is regarded. In the expert from Patricia Williams “The Emperor’s New Clothes” she establishes multiple reasons on why and how racism is viewed in today’s day and time.

Within the definitions and perceptions of race exists a dichotomy that Duster illuminates as inconsistent, transforming, and historically erratic depictions of what represents the racial categorization of “white”. Vacillating between racial portrayals of “whiteness”, embodying a divergence between the fluidity of historic and social transformation and a disingenuous reflection of bigotry, disrespect, and intolerance, Duster distinguishes race as a compilation of divergent biochemical, neurological, and social identities (Duster n.d.). Cognizant of concessions shown to the “white” race, Duster denotes an inevitability to refute the moral reality of “white’ exclusivity,

Racial grouping and categories can be effective and not effective. In the article “Racial Formation in the United States” by Michael Omi and Howard Winant they discuss their views of racial groups in the U.S and their effectiveness on people. In the article “How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America” by Karen Brodkin she discusses how in the past time Jews were considered something other than white, but now they are considered as very much white. Brodkin’s article supports Omi and Winant by addressing the same issues in a more detailed and specific way, they both talk about these racial categories and how it affects

1. For the new United States to be so treacherous for some, and so grand for others is a great example that reflects the propaganda that was being portrayed to bring early Europeans and others to the colonies for the sole purpose to take over land from indigenous people. While there is no specific answer to their claims one way or another, we can see that there must have been some ulterior motives to putting on such a showcase to those far away. In the following passages we get some insight from John Smith about exactly how the new colonies were expanding and just how growth was to be achieved, “Who can desire more content, that hath small means; or but only his merit to advance his fortune, than to tread, and plant that ground he hath purchased by the hazard of his life?” (93) From Smith’s account we can see exactly what needs to be done to grow the colonies. Now we can use two other passages from Farmer James that are in stark contrast to one another, and can lead the readers to believe that the new land was some type of utopian escape from old England. Farmer James describes it as “Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment. Here you will find but few crimes; these have acquired as yet no root among us” (608). Farmer

As a Mexican-American, Du Bois’ quote, “What after all, am I? Am I an American or am I Negro? Can I be both?” (1897) is something I have personally struggled with all my life. This question can be answered in two different time periods. To Du Bois the ideal, what Negroes should strive for, would be to be both. But in his time this was impossible due to institutionalized and taught racism. Today I feel like it is possible to be both; however it is not exactly what I feel Du Bois had in mind. Du Bois argues in his book The Souls of Black Folk, that the gap between being black and American is far too wide. This is not an unjustified view especially in his time period, where laws were set in place purposely to prevent equality of the freedman. But even today, where those laws are no longer in place, a non-white American is too ethnic to be American and is simultaneously too American to be ethnic. Du Bois entertains the idea of a Negro being both black and American but unfortunately his blackness cannot be unseen. However from personal experience, I am convinced that today ethnic Americans have created their own identity where they are not exclusively either, and they are not both, they are their own individual category. Not black or white, or black and white, but grey. In this essay I will explore what race is, whiteness, and blackness. Within the discussion of race, I will

The First State. What comes to mind when you hear about the first State. Some think of agriculture other think of the beaches, but only a few think of the history. Most people don't really know about the history of the first state they don’t really know how it got there.Delaware is known as the First State because of Caesar Rodney’s contributions to Delaware, the articles of Confederation, and the signing of the Declaration of independence.

The idolization of lighter skin colour that has occurred within black communities within America, as mentioned earlier, stems from colonization and has persisted into the modern age through racialized beauty standards, as well as economic and social opportunities. Due to their perceived proximity to white individuals within the racial hierarchy, lighter skinned black Americans are considered to be more beautiful and are presented with the opportunity to receive a higher income and level of education than darker skinned individuals based on their physical appearance, as examined by Margaret L. Hunter. Nevertheless, these individuals are still barred from reaching the same levels of opportunity as white individuals, which is depicted through a lower employment and income rate, indicating their inability to transcend beyond their social racial category. Instead, there appears to be an unhealthy racial hierarchy created within the black race which stigmatizes and divides coloured individuals from collaborating, as per the wishes of early colonizers in my perception. Through accommodating to the desires of early European colonizers, colorism exhibits tendencies of Nobles conceptual incarceration, in which coloured individuals are still submissive and uncritical towards their reasons of perceiving lighter skin as being more socially acceptable based on a European

It is not us who painted ourselves Black; although we now wear it with pride in a very “Dreamer”-esque way as Coates may view it, but rather White people who painted themselves as well as us so. Before there was White and Black, there was Welsh, or Catholic, or Yoruba, or Vodun. White and Black arose from the destruction wrought on African, Caribbean, and South American populations. Coates reflects that America suffers a misunderstanding with this ideal, believing Race to be an inherent and naturally pre-existing occurrence, however, this was merely a man made social construct, created as a tool to ensure the existence and profit of Racism would last, as it