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ASSUMPTIONS “Race” socially constructed.
The concept of “race” arose concurrently with advent of European exploration as justification for conquest and domination of the globe beginning in 15th century C.E.
“Race” is historical, “scientific,” & biological myth. It is an idea.
Geneticists tell us there is often more variability within a given so-called “race” than between “races.”
No essential genetic markers linked specifically to “race.”
ASSUMPTIONS Though biologists and social scientists proven that
“race” socially constructed (produced, manufactured),
People face very real consequences in societies that maintain racist policies and practices on:
Individual,
Interpersonal,
Institutional, &
Larger Societal Levels.
CULTURAL GENOCIDE
& DECULTURALIZATION
Cultural Genocide: attempt to destroy
other cultures through forced
acquiescence and assimilation to majority
rules and standards
Works through “Deculturalization”:
process of destroying a people’s culture
and replacing it with a new culture Joel Spring, 2004
Social Construction of “Race”
CARL LINNAEUS (1707-1778)
Born Carl Linné
Swedish Botanist, Physician, and Zoologist.
“Father of Modern Taxonomy”
Book: Systema Naturae
“Linnaean Taxonomy”: System of Scientific Hierarchical Classification.
Kingdoms; Classes; Orders; Genera (Genus); Species.
(Wikipedia)
CARL LINNAEUS (1707-1778)
He is also known as “The Father of
Scientific Racism.”
Five levels under Homo sapiens,
based initially on place of origin, then
on skin color:
Europeanus
Asiaticus
Americanus
Monstrosus
Africanus
CARL LINNAEUS (1707-1778)
Europeanus: sanguine, pale, muscular, swift, clever, inventive, governed by laws.
Asiaticus: melancholic, yellow, inflexible, severe, avaricious, dark-eyed, governed by opinions.
Americanus (Native Americans): choleric, copper-colored, straightforward, eager, combative, governed by customs.
Monstrosus (dwarfs of the Alps, the Patagonian giant, the monorchid Hottentot): agile, fainthearted.
Africanus: phlegmatic, black, slow, relaxed, negligent, governed by impulse.
POST-LINNAEUS TAXONOMY
Later European scientists separated Homo sapiens in six different categories:
1. Caucasoid: Europe, North Africa, Southwest Asia
2. Mongoloid: East Asia, Siberia, the Americas
3. Polynesians:
4. Native Americans:
5. Australoid: indigenous Australians
6. Negroid: Central and Southern Africa
(Ramon)
Late 19th Century
Jews & Homosexuals
Scientific Community
Distinct “Racial” Types
Social Construction of “Race”
2010, Arizona: HB 2281
Signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer
Targets public school districts’ ethnic studies programs
Arizona School Superintendent, Tom Horne, primary supporter of the bill
The law is necessary because, in particular, Tucson, Arizona’s Mexican American, African American, and Native American studies courses teach students that they are oppressed, encourages resentment toward white people, and promotes “ethnic chauvinism” and “ethnic solidarity” instead of treating people as individuals
Immigration as “Racial” Policy & Cultural Genocide
in Historical Perspective
COLONIALISM
Exploitation
Violence
Kidnapping
Genocide
Christopher Columbus & Crew
“Puritans”
Left England to practice “Purer” form of Christianity
Divinely chosen to form “a biblical commonwealth”
No separation of “church & state” (religion & government)
Intolerant of other religious beliefs
Killed Quakers, Catholics, others
VIRGINIA COLONY: 1705
“Act Concerning Servants & Slaves”
“[N]o negroes, mulattos
or Indians, Jew, Moor,
Mahometan [Muslims], or
other infidel, or such as
are declared slaves by
this act, shall,
notwithstanding, purchase
any christian (sic) white
servant….”
SLAVERY
Scriptural justifications used to support slavery
Many slave ships had on board a Christian minister to help oversee and bless the passage.
Slave ship names included: “Jesus,” “Grace of God,” “Angel,” “Liberty,” & “Justice.”
http://propagandapress.org/2006/09/20/the-first-slave-ship-to-land-in-america-was-called-jesus/
http://www.pleasecomeflying.com/2007/10/lucille-clifton-slaveship.html
Ephesians 6:5-6
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
Luke 12:47
That servant who knows his
master's will and does not get
ready or does not do what his
master wants will be beaten
with many blows.
Jefferson Davis
“[Slavery] was established by
decree of Almighty God...it is
sanctioned in the Bible, in
both Testaments, from
Genesis to Revelation...it has
existed in all ages, has been
found among the people of
the highest civilization, and in
nations of the highest
proficiency in the arts.”
“MANIFEST DESTINY”
Hitler said he was inspired
by U.S. Indian reservation
system.
“MANIFEST DESTINY” Belief Providence destined U.S. expand Atlantic
to Pacific (“sea to shining sea”) by “Anglo-Saxon
race.”
Justified stealing Indigenous peoples’ territories
Justified war with Mexico
“MANIFEST DESTINY”
“The doctrine of ‘manifest destiny’ embraced
a belief in American Anglo-Saxon
superiority…. ‘This continent,’ a
congressman declared, ‘was intended by
Providence as a vast theatre on which to
work out the grand experiment of Republican
government, under the auspices of the
Anglo-Saxon race’.”
Ronald Takaki, 1993, p. 176
“RACE,” IMMIGRATION,
& CITIZENSHIP 14th Amendment, U.S. Constitution
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
EUGENICS MOVEMENT
“Eugenics” movement in science
1883, coined in England,
Sir Francis Galton,
Cousin of Charles Darwin
Greek word: “well born,”
“of good origins, breeding”
“Science” of improving
qualities of a “race” by
controlling human breeding
Sir Francis Galton
“RACE,” IMMIGRATION, & CITIZENSHIP
1790, Naturalization Act
Excluded “nonwhites” from citizenship
Enslaved Africans
Asians
Native Americans (“domestic foreigners”)
○ 1924, Native Americans rights of citizenship
○ Asians continued denied naturalized
citizenship
“RACE,” IMMIGRATION, & CITIZENSHIP
1882, Chinese Exclusion Act Also illegal for Chinese to marry
Whites or Blacks
1907, “Gentleman’s Agreement” Policy Restrict immigration from Japan
1917, Immigration Act further prohibited immigration
from Asian countries, “Barred Zone.”
China, India, Siam, Burma, Asiatic Russian, Polynesian Islands, Afghanistan.
CHINESE EXCLUSIONIST
SENTIMENTS
Editor of newspaper in
Butte, Montana:
“The Chinaman’s
life is not our life, his
religion is not our
religion….He
belongs not in Butte”
“Pacific Chivalry:
Encouragement to Chinese
Immigration,” Harper’s Weekly (1869).
Takao Ozawa v United States
Takao Ozawa, Japanese man, filed for citizenship under Naturalization Act of 1906
Which allowed white persons & persons of African descent or African nativity to naturalize.
Asians termed “unassimilateable race” & not entitled to citizenship.
Ozawa attempted to have Japanese classified "white.“
Claimed his skin is “white.”
1922, Supreme Court
Denied natualized citizenship status.
1896, Plessy v. Ferguson
June 7, 1892, East Louisiana Railroad
Homer Plessy, 1/8 black, 7/8 white
Forced off “Whites Only” RR Car
Onto “Colored” RR Car
Supreme Court
Sustained racial segregation
& “Jim Crow” laws
Precedent: “Separate but Equal”
Blacks Lynched A Jew Lynched
President Theodore Roosevelt 1907
But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in
very fact an American and nothing but an American.
If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own
origin and separated from the rest of America, then
he isn't doing his part as an American. There can be
no divided allegiance here. . . We have room for but
one language here, and that is the English
language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns
our people out as Americans, of American
nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot
boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul
loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.
Madison Grant 1865-1937
U.S. Lawyer, Eugenicist
Co-founder of Galton Society for Study of Origin & Evolution of Man, 1918.
Grant Influential on Immigration Restrictions & Anti-Miscegenation Policies.
Book: The Passing of the Great Race (1916) detailing so-called “racial” history of Europe -- a work of “scientific racism.”
Madison Grant 1865-1937
“Racialization” of European “Races”
European “Racial” Hierarchy:
“Nordics” (Northwestern Europe—superior)
“Alpines” (Central Europe—somewhat inferior)
“Mediterraneans” (Southern and Eastern Europe—inferior)
Jews (most inferior)
1924 IMMIGRATION ACT 1924, Johnson-Reed Immigration Act: a.k.a.
“National Origins Quota Act,” or “National Quota Act”
Restrictive quotas: Eastern & Southern Europe
Viewed as Europe’s lower “races” Jews (“Hebrew race”), Poles, Italians,
Greeks, Slaves (J-PIGS)
Prohibitions of “aliens ineligible
to citizenship”
(Asians from 1790 Naturalization Act)
Increased numbers Great Britain, Germany
1930s UNITED STATES
Great Depression
High Unemployment
Homes and farms lost
W.W.II
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
Segregated military units
UNITED STATES 1939, Congress refused to pass
Wagner-Rogers Bill
Would have permitted 20,000 children, primarily Jewish, entry from Eastern Europe over existing quotas.
“20,000 charming children would, all too soon, grow into
20,000 ugly adults.”
Laura Delano Houghteling, F.D.R. cousin
JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT CAMPS
110,000 Japanese Americans
Uprooted from homes
Transported to Internment Camps
Interior U.S.
1988 Civil Liberties Act
$20,000 survivor reparations
Have we learned anything?
Following 9/11/02 attacks
31% of U.S.-Americans
agreed with statement:
“Muslims in the U.S.
should be incarcerated
like we incarcerated
Japanese Americans
during WWII.”
1940S URBAN RIOTS
Realization German & Italian prisoners
of war treated better than People of
Color in U.S.
People of Color fighting in military but
treated poorly
AFTER W.W.II
Gender Roles rehardened
Women made to relinquished jobs
Mandated nuclear families
Racial segregation & “Jim Crow”
continued
ANTI-MISCEGENATION LAWS
Many states: outlawed
interracial sexual relations
Outlawed interracial marriage
Example: Virginia’s 1924
Act to Preserve Racial
Integrity
Mildred Deloris & Richard
Loving
Married in D.C.
Residents of Virginia
Arrested in Virginia
Judge Leon M. Bazile “Act to Preserve Racial Integrity, 1924,”
Ruling, Virginia, July 1958, Richard Perry Loving & Mildred Delores Jeeter
“Almighty God created the races
white, black, yellow, Malay and red,
and He placed them on separate
continents. And but for the
interference with His arrangement
there would be no cause for such
marriages. The fact that He
separated the races shows that He
did not intend for the races to mix.”
1967, Loving v. Virginia
Supreme Court Decision
Struck down anti-miscegenation laws in
remaining 16 states
1950s - 1960s
Tumultuous social change
Challenge underlying assumptions
Authority
Power relationships
CIVIL RIGHTS 1954, Brown v. Board of Education
(Topeka, Kansas)
Supreme Court
Unconstitutional: “Separate but Equal” in
public education
Linda Brown & mother Linda Brown attending integrated school
CIVIL RIGHTS
1955, refusal to give up seat to white person
Montgomery, Alabama
Municipal bus boycott
Rosa Parks
CIVIL RIGHTS
Lunch counter sit-in to end segregation
CIVIL RIGHTS
“Freedom Rides”
CIVIL RIGHTS
1963, National March on Washington
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
CIVIL RIGHTS
Movement to improve working
conditions, wages
Farm Workers
César Chávez Founder, National Farm Workers Association
FREE SPEECH
& YOUTH MOVEMENT
1964-1965
Student Protest
University of California,
Berkeley
Students insisted university
lift ban of on-campus
political activities
Grant students' right of free
speech & academic
freedom
STOP VIETNAM WAR
WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
Feminism
Equality between the
Sexes
Equal Pay for Equal
Work
Eliminate Violence
against Women
End Patriarchy
LGBT LIBERATION MOVEMENT
End Oppression
“Coming Out”
Expand Sexual &
Gender Expression
Challenge Capitalist
Inequities
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
Earth Day
Proposed: U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson
First, April 22, 1970
Environmental teach-in
DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
1952 MCCARRAN WALTERS ACT
Overturned 1924
Restrictive Act.
Sen. Pat McCarran (L),
Rep. Francis Walter (R),
authors, Federal
Immigration & Nationality
Act of 1952, passed over
Pres. Truman’s veto.
IMMIGRATION & NATIONALITY ACT 1965
Framed as amendment to 1952 McCarran-Walter Act.
Abolished National Origins Formula from
National Origins Act of 1924
Increased immigration from Asian & Latin American countries & religious backgrounds
Allowed 170,000 immigrants from Eastern Hemisphere, 20,000 per each country
120,000 from Western Hemisphere
300,000 total visas allowed
2010, ARIZONA: SB 1070
Mandates police officers stop and question
people about immigration status if they
suspect they may be in this country illegally,
Criminalizes undocumented workers who do
not possess an “alien registration document,”
Allows U.S. citizens to file suits against
government agencies that do not enforce the
law,
Criminalizes employers who transport or hire
undocumented workers
2010, ARIZONA: SB 1070
“…law enforcement official or
agency…may not consider race, color or
national origin in implementing the
requirements of this subsection except to
the extent permitted by the United States
or Arizona constitution.”
But…how can this NOT be a major
consideration?
Janet Murguia
President CEO of civil rights organization,
National Council of La Raza,
“By signing it, this bill, Governor Brewer has
thrown the door wide open for racial profiling.”
“RACIAL PROFILING”
“Racial profiling occurs when race is used by law enforcement or private security officials, to any degree, as a basis for criminal suspicion in non-suspect specific investigations.”
Racial profiling constitutes a form of discrimination, based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, and other identities “undermines the basic human rights and freedoms to which every person is entitled.”
Amnesty International
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT & RACIAL PROFILING
1975, U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the Border Patrol's power to stop vehicles near the U.S.-Mexico border & question occupants about citizenship & immigration status
United States v. Brignoni-Ponce: the "likelihood that any given person of Mexican ancestry is an alien is high enough to make Mexican appearance a relevant factor."
1982, Arizona Supreme Court: State v. Graciano “enforcement of immigration laws often involves a relevant consideration of ethnic factors.”
Chin
CULTURAL PLURALISM
Horace Kallen
Jewish immigrant and sociologist
Polish & Latvian heritage
Coined “Cultural Pluralism” to challenge image of so-called “melting pot,” which he considered to be inherently undemocratic
Kallen envisioned U.S. in image of a great symphony orchestra, not sounding in unison (the “melting pot”), but one where all the disparate cultures play in harmony & retain their unique & distinctive tones and timbres
