REVISION: The Evolution of Race

Iesha Saunders                                                                              October 3rd, 2016  

"Legacies" - Taken by Iesha Saunders in St Thomas, Xaymaca 2016

                                            The Evolution of Race

     Race, or a vast group of people bound together by historical facts and similar phenotype is a social construct. The social phenomenon came via the strategic use of African/Indigenous bodies as a means to stimulate growth within the economies of Western European nations. In Barbados, race deflected accountability among those who exploited Africans; The English and Dutch, by forcing them to work the sugar cane crops under fatal conditions. High mortality reflected harsh practices and hierarchy. The proximitity to whiteness determined ones value and power. The further a person was the more their existence was solely for working. These ideologies are seen in the language. Upon These Shores, states, “They exaggerated the variation in skin shade by calling Africans “blacks,: or using the Spanish and Portuguese term Negroes.” The English made aware their skin shade differences and what it meant among Africans. Louise Ruchames’, The Sources of Racial Thought in Colonial America explains that, “With the increase in slavery and the slave trade and more numerous contacts of Europeans with Indians and Negroes, European scholars began to give greater attention to race and racial differences. It is interesting to note that it was only during the modern period that the term "race" came into use." The term race was created and is one of the many legacies of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade that greatly affects people today.

    Currently, race is pushed to have no biological meaning, especially within conversations diverting productive discussion around how race affects communities. This disguises the real issues at hand. In Man by Stanley M. Garn, the scientist discusses human behavior regarding race. It reads, “The prejudiced person possesses a constellation of dis-likes, fears and hatreds, and lexical surgery is hardly a cure for the disease. It is highly unlikely that abandoning the term 'race' would serve any useful purpose." It is the ideologies surrounding race that cause issues, the initial reasons to use it as a tool for destruction set an unproductive tone. The pathologies that contributed to the status of blacks, still stand, making it untouchable territory to explore the idea of race sans discriminatory notions. Distinguishing could lead to breakthroughs not only socially but in areas such as Medicine. The HPV vaccine has shown little to no benefit for black women while it's working for white women. Why? Here, a grad student speaks on how "a possible biological basis for race is not scientific racism".

    The way I view race despite the attempted intellectual “no biological meaning,” cop outs exposed, coincides with how race came about. I view race socially/historically and how it impacts. Class reinforced my ideas. Intentional conversations among Africans to bubble their existence down to their proximity to greedy Europeans laid the foundation for what rears its ugly head in the contemporary. The early trauma inflicted by colonizers has set up the existing climate.

    Race continues influencing because of systems that perpetuate the original ideologies of it. White Supremacy is in many aspects of everyday life. Here, White Supremacy is explained extensively. There's power, privilege, and lack of oppression among whites (while not acknowledging their income, able-bodiness, gender, sexuality or religion). Many in our societies connote intelligence, beauty, validity, wealth and any other positive characteristic with whiteness. Whites positively reap from this. Others who intersect with what whites overwhelmingly identify as, due to the structures that were set up for them to do so, have privilege, though no power over.

    Race and its definition has evolved but its impacts have remained the same. The science heavy definition has led us to become more micro-aggressive. This is dangerous and takes us further away from healing and critically thinking about ways to achieve the betterment of a peoples that were denied their human rights, are still being exploited and suffering consequences of that. We must be aware of the realities in front of us. It is, indeed, necessary to have truthful and open dialogue about race to foster true reform.

References

1. Garn, Stanley M. (1951, August). 200.Race. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 51, 115. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/pdf/2793654.pdf
2. Martínez, E. (n.d.). What is White Supremacy? Retrieved October 3, 2016, from http://soaw.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=482
3. O'Neill-Santiago, G. (2014, June 4). No, Inquiring About A Possible Biological Basis for Race is not “Scientific Racism”. Retrieved October 3, 2016, from http://thoughtsonliberty.com/no-inquiring-about-a-possible-biological-basis-for-race-is-not-scientific-racism
4. Ruchames, Louis. (1967, October). The Sources of Racial Thought in Colonial America. The Journal of Negro History, 52(4), 251-272. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/pdf/2716188.pdf
5. Scott, W. R., & Shade, W. G. (2000). Upon these shores: Themes in the African American experience, 1600 to the present. Psychology Press, 65.