Appiah’s critique of DuBois’ change of thought about the
concept of race is, what I believe to be extremely understandable, and proves
to be a good argument. As Appiah states that the logic of race “is the sane
logic that has brought us to speak of genders where we spoke of sexes…” Hearing
this made the notion of race more understandable than ever. When gender was
explained to me, it was explained as a social construct. Reading Appiah’s conclusion
about race, the reality of what race actually is and its impact on society is
understandable in this excerpt:
“If we can now hope to understand
the concept embodied in this system of oppositions, we are nowhere near finding
referents for it. The truth is that there are no races: there is nothing in the
world that can do all we ask “race” to do for us. The evil that is done is done
by the concept and by easy-yet impossible assumptions as to its application.
What we miss through our obsession with the structure of relations of concepts
is, simply, reality.”
The concept of race is what has killed so many for
centuries. It is astounding to think that an insane concept that has lead to
the thought of some people being inferior to others has been the cause of
murders and hate crimes. While Dr. J has stated that she doesn’t believe that
the south is more racist than the rest of the United States, I must say that,
unfortunately, from experience, small rural towns still believe that race is
purely biological, and they think that their habitus is something that is
genuinely biological. The things that people from my hometown say are absolutely
astonishing. They legitimately believe that culture and personality is
something that is genetic and inherited. It’s just astonishing to me that these
things are still relevant.
While it is very infuriating that this kind of crap is still going strong, I have to say that I don't find it shocking at all. Not even a little bit. Martin Luther King Jr got shot barely 46 years ago. Plenty of people are still alive today that were teenagers or young adults when it happened.My grandfather would've been around 22 in 1968. Let's not pretend that the wounds that slavery and segregation and systematic oppression have left will be erased in one or two generations. The Civil Rights Act that ended unfair voting practices was signed in 1964, meaning America has only had true democracy (if we can even really call it that, considering how much shady shit goes on behind the political curtains) for 50 years.
ReplyDeleteIt can't be surprising that rural areas are even slower to pick things up.Honestly? We probably won't see any good leaps forward in society until the baby boomers and their kids retire. The scars are still too fresh for them. Hell, even our generation is doing a lot of harm believing themselves to be over racism. I'm skeptical of anyone my age that proudly declares that they don't care at all about race. They're usually awful people.
Ask any person of color, and they'll tell you that racism in the year of our lord 2k15 is not shocking. Disappointing, disillusioning, heartbreaking--yes. But we live with it every single day, and it's really unsurprising by this point that most people are still racist as hell deep down.
While it is very infuriating that this kind of crap is still going strong, I have to say that I don't find it shocking at all. Not even a little bit. Martin Luther King Jr got shot barely 46 years ago. Plenty of people are still alive today that were teenagers or young adults when it happened.My grandfather would've been around 22 in 1968. Let's not pretend that the wounds that slavery and segregation and systematic oppression have left will be erased in one or two generations. The Civil Rights Act that ended unfair voting practices was signed in 1964, meaning America has only had true democracy (if we can even really call it that, considering how much shady shit goes on behind the political curtains) for 50 years.
ReplyDeleteIt can't be surprising that rural areas are even slower to pick things up.Honestly? We probably won't see any good leaps forward in society until the baby boomers and their kids retire. The scars are still too fresh for them. Hell, even our generation is doing a lot of harm believing themselves to be over racism. I'm skeptical of anyone my age that proudly declares that they don't care at all about race. They're usually awful people.
Ask any person of color, and they'll tell you that racism in the year of our lord 2k15 is not shocking. Disappointing, disillusioning, heartbreaking--yes. But we live with it every single day, and it's really unsurprising by this point that most people are still racist as hell deep down.