Put Race in Your Face
Homo sapien sapiens are a very complex species. Collectively, we seem to need to take the mundane world and infuse it with magic. The truth is that the mundane is pretty damn complex and that complexity is such that there is plenty that appears magical to beings with our level of knowledge (and, given that reality is most likely multi-dimensional in a way that transcends our ability to comprehend, even as our knowledge grows we may never come to a "general theory" that breaks through this barrier of incomprehensibility). Nevertheless, we must have our magic and one of the most powerful bits of magic is the notion of race. It's pervasive. So much so that racism (the belief that biologically distinct races exist and that the real human beings we confront are members of such distinct races) is probably the most powerful religion on the planet, making Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism pale by comparison. We worship this notion of actual, biologically determined races in our cultural productions, in newspaper articles, television sound bites, motion picture scripts, in daily conversation, in government statistics --- every where. It is relentless. So much so that it is difficult for anyone to escape the enculturation, no matter how insane the notion of "races" happens to be. More people believe in race than believe in Jesus' resurrection or Moses parting the Red Sea.
Don't get me wrong. Race does exist as a social phenomenon, precisely because of the pervasiveness of racism. It does not matter if you believe in biological race or not, you will be classified by others and that classification will have profound consequences on your life and the lives of those you care about. Racism permeates every aspect of social life, especially in the old slave states, like the United States. It shapes the life chances of human beings even before their birth. It is one of the determinants of quality of life and life expectancy. It produces significant differences in blood pressure averages for individuals classified in different racial categories, and so on. And the culture of the U.S., in particular, has spread around the globe, carrying this religious notion as a virus reshaping other cultures, blending with them, and carrying the message of racism even to places where it was not present. The more pervasive the religious belief, the less it appears to be a belief, rather than a reality.
Racism had an immediate impact on the most recent exercise of national "democracy" in the United States, with implications for geo-politics, torture tactics, and civil liberties in the U.S. and beyond. The U.S. presidential race of 2004 was shaped by racism. Everyone knows that, even the neoconservatives who refuse to publicly admit it. Racism is so powerful that it tends to batter down all other forms of identity and to reshape perceived interests. Thus, male homo sapien sapiens who think of themselves as "white men" were far more likely to vote for G. W. Bush than for John F. Kerry, even if it might be in their economic and health interest to have the latter serve as president. But that's how religion works. It drowns out what people like to call "common sense" (common sense is generally thought to be something like the general knowledge that doing x (sticking your finger in the fire) leads to y (getting burned), but of course "common sense" is another fiction, since what is generally thought to be true may, in fact, be completely wrong --- in the sense that, for example, attacking and conquering Iraq may NOT make Americans safer, in either the short or long term. Thus, racism is common sense to the extent racism is pervasive. It is common sense and still wrong. So I guess racism doesn't really drown out common sense, it drowns out reality with a reconstructed and wrong common sense). Racism creates cultural pollution that erodes the intellectual health of the society. I guess the real question is --- who does racism serve? Why is it perpetuated in the practices (and often the rules) of just about every institution in the society? Why do news reporters continue to refer to race in their reporting (as if that man really is a "caucasian (has he any clue where the Caucasus Mountains are?) male" and the world made up of "black" and "white" as clearly distinct categories of being)? Why does the government ask us to self-identify as belonging to one of a small number of distinct racial categories (I either refuse to answer or write in homo sapien and/or all of the above)? Why are discussions of diversity often couched in these same terms (including by those who claim to be struggling against racism -- how can you struggle against racism if you reproduce the lie that race is a biological/genetic phenomenon)?
And what would happen if we abandoned the notion that this concept has a biological reality? What if we actually listened to what genetics has been telling us for a very long time (no matter who you are, your genetic brothers and sisters will include people whose skin pigmentation and other physical attributes would place them in a different one of these constructed racial categories than the one you get dumped into)? What would happen? How would it change the social dynamics? How would it change our identity if racism were finally no more pervasive than a belief in witches (the odds of completely ridding the world of racism isn't very good, but I'd settle for making it marginal)? How would it change the future?
Don't get me wrong. Race does exist as a social phenomenon, precisely because of the pervasiveness of racism. It does not matter if you believe in biological race or not, you will be classified by others and that classification will have profound consequences on your life and the lives of those you care about. Racism permeates every aspect of social life, especially in the old slave states, like the United States. It shapes the life chances of human beings even before their birth. It is one of the determinants of quality of life and life expectancy. It produces significant differences in blood pressure averages for individuals classified in different racial categories, and so on. And the culture of the U.S., in particular, has spread around the globe, carrying this religious notion as a virus reshaping other cultures, blending with them, and carrying the message of racism even to places where it was not present. The more pervasive the religious belief, the less it appears to be a belief, rather than a reality.
Racism had an immediate impact on the most recent exercise of national "democracy" in the United States, with implications for geo-politics, torture tactics, and civil liberties in the U.S. and beyond. The U.S. presidential race of 2004 was shaped by racism. Everyone knows that, even the neoconservatives who refuse to publicly admit it. Racism is so powerful that it tends to batter down all other forms of identity and to reshape perceived interests. Thus, male homo sapien sapiens who think of themselves as "white men" were far more likely to vote for G. W. Bush than for John F. Kerry, even if it might be in their economic and health interest to have the latter serve as president. But that's how religion works. It drowns out what people like to call "common sense" (common sense is generally thought to be something like the general knowledge that doing x (sticking your finger in the fire) leads to y (getting burned), but of course "common sense" is another fiction, since what is generally thought to be true may, in fact, be completely wrong --- in the sense that, for example, attacking and conquering Iraq may NOT make Americans safer, in either the short or long term. Thus, racism is common sense to the extent racism is pervasive. It is common sense and still wrong. So I guess racism doesn't really drown out common sense, it drowns out reality with a reconstructed and wrong common sense). Racism creates cultural pollution that erodes the intellectual health of the society. I guess the real question is --- who does racism serve? Why is it perpetuated in the practices (and often the rules) of just about every institution in the society? Why do news reporters continue to refer to race in their reporting (as if that man really is a "caucasian (has he any clue where the Caucasus Mountains are?) male" and the world made up of "black" and "white" as clearly distinct categories of being)? Why does the government ask us to self-identify as belonging to one of a small number of distinct racial categories (I either refuse to answer or write in homo sapien and/or all of the above)? Why are discussions of diversity often couched in these same terms (including by those who claim to be struggling against racism -- how can you struggle against racism if you reproduce the lie that race is a biological/genetic phenomenon)?
And what would happen if we abandoned the notion that this concept has a biological reality? What if we actually listened to what genetics has been telling us for a very long time (no matter who you are, your genetic brothers and sisters will include people whose skin pigmentation and other physical attributes would place them in a different one of these constructed racial categories than the one you get dumped into)? What would happen? How would it change the social dynamics? How would it change our identity if racism were finally no more pervasive than a belief in witches (the odds of completely ridding the world of racism isn't very good, but I'd settle for making it marginal)? How would it change the future?
posted by Satya | 7:07 AM
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