Garey Santano DB4

Race is a social construction created by people who refused to grasp that there are people with their own culture and history, whose identities are not defined by white European categories. They refused because it was economically beneficial to differentiate themselves as white, while forcibly categorizing all other people into races. For example, the film Race: the Power of an Illusion, states that in 1619, when slavery began in America, religion and wealth were used to determine one’s social status. However, when slave labor became increasingly more widespread and necessary to build wealth in America, race based on skin color was used to justify slavery, since those that were black could not easily disappear into the population. Therefore, slavery preceded racism, the economic benefits of slavery motivating the rationalization of racism. From the reading Asian America: Sociological Interdisciplinary Perspectives, it is also apparent that racial classifications changed over time, which is indicative of its nature as a social and political construct that is not based on biology. Chinese Americans in Mississippi changed their social status by associating and identifying themselves as white instead of black. The concept of races forced them to pick a category defined by economic interests. Another example indicating race is a social construct is the idea of the “model minority.” Asian Americans are compared to African Americans and declared to be “better off,” while African Americans are told to try harder. But from the NY Times video A Conversation with Asian Americans on Race, the Asian American immigrant experience is not uniform, and Asian Americans are not inherently, racially better than African Americans. Asian Americans have committed murder, or been part of gangs, but these are ignored when discussing the “model minority” myth because American racism needs minority achievement to prove that its supposed meritocratic system works.

An affirmation from the NY Times video I recognized was the need to sound American. My mom encouraged the idea of sounding white over the phone, as if sounding like a white American was indicative of higher education, and that therefore I would be treated better. I am also reminded of how my mom, being of Caribbean ancestry, would always tell me to identify myself as white, because she thought I would be treated better. This is probably the earliest memory I have of race and racism.