One Step From Suicide: The Controversy Of Race In Society Essay, Research Paper

One Step From Suicide: The Controversy of Race in Society

As Mos Def states in a song on his album Black On Both Sides, some folks get on a plane go as they please/but I go over seas and I get over-seized/London-Heathrow, me and my people/they think that illegal is a synonym for Negro/they say they want you successful/but then they make it stressful/you start keeping pace/they start shaking up the tempo . This state of affairs is worth exploring because this situation summarizes the stigmatizing effect of negative status determining characteristics, in this case, race, in America. In order to discuss race critically and analyze its effects on society, one must first find a comprehensive definition of race. The opinions about race, reality or construction, must be defined as well as the aspects of American life. Race can be defined as the identity imposed on one group by another for the purpose of its domination. This definition is not accurate in that it has a very forceful connotation. However, this definition is found in most modern dictionaries. Race can also be defined as an artificial concept created by White Americans to justify the genocide, exploitation, and discrimination of non-White ethnic groups. Although this definition is more accurate than the first, it does not fully define race s sociological connections, nor does it touch on the concept of ethnicity, an important factor in defining race. A better definition of race is a categorization of people based on ethnicity and biological characteristics with ethnicity being the social definition of people based on cultural ties (i.e., language, customs, beliefs, dress, etc.)

The two popular schools of thought on race are whether it is a reality or a construction. Dealing with race as a reality means that race permeates into most facets of mundane life. The world is viewed in black and white (so to speak) and nothing is disguised or warped to be more or less than what it actually is. Examples of this include health, social unrest, and socialization. Hence, a construction is just the opposite; it is something that has been fabricated and is usually a facade of sorts. By dealing with race as a construction, reality is often overshadowed and manipulated through stereotypes that are a part of American life; the main illustration of this construction in terms of race is racism. Aspects of American life are the key here because they contain both reality and construction. They are also important parts of popular culture because of their prevalence in society. Examples include the notion of being colorblind. Although these definitions and terms have been clarified, the stance of race in society is still unclear. The main question is whether or not race is a reality or a construction. If it is either one, how helpful or harmful is that to aspects of American life?

Being Americans , people may feel no need to see themselves as anything else. Still, others see American life as something they are not living. In either case, there are people whose families have been living here for generations. It is not hard to notice that many of the former group are White Americans and many of the latter group are Americans of color. Why can t we all just be Americans? asks the former group. Characteristic of the reply is Brent Staples, who said in a New York Times column, My Americanness promises to deliver the American dream, but my Africanness explodes this dream, exposing its true lack of reality.

Race is both a reality and a construction. Just as there is discord among the races, there is a discord in the very conception of race itself. Race is no more a reality than a construction, or vice versa, but it is definitely more harmful than helpful because of the aforementioned constructs defined therein. Therefore, race is both a construction and a reality; in addition, both the term and idea are harmful in that they subject those in an ethnic group to the stereotypes and preconceptions that accompany race on a regular basis.

Race s conventional constructs play a destructive role in society and touch on cultural and sociological aspects of American life. As a whole, America has continually been defined in terms of black and white. This simplistic racial interpretation creates a we/they dichotomy between whites and blacks. White skin denotes trustworthiness, while black skin is strongly associated with crime and distrust. This is evident in most aspects of socialization, as is shown in Lawrence Otis Graham s The Black Table Is Still There. In the story, Graham returns to his largely white junior high school and discovers to his dismay how little has changed since the 1970s. Graham felt that the black table was an act of blatantly racist behavior and a comment on the superficial inroads that integration has made in society. In addition to this, the harmful construct of race extends further onto the sociological development of people. From birth, people are brought up to be one of two things: racist or colorblind. Mainstream society certainly favors the colorblind side. Conventional wisdom says to be colorblind is good and to be racist is bad. If this were an ideal society, that might be the case. As teenagers, race becomes a more prevalent issue as far as acceptance and popularity goes. Graham s black table becomes an everyday occurrence (as well as Asian tables, Jewish tables, and football tables) and not just in terms of who sits with whom at lunch. The black table could refer to cliques of people as well. Teenagers also tend to associate themselves with and imitate those of other races, often in an attempt for attention. As adults, the experiences with race from childhood and adolescence serve to reinforce the preconceptions of race today. Negative racial experiences with race (i.e., being called racial slurs, getting beaten up for being a certain skin color, being discriminated against, etc.) often grow into deep racial hatred, whereas positive racial experiences can grow into a naive and myopic racial viewpoint.

Speaking of viewpoints, another harmful construct of race is in forms of the media such as literature and the news. In my opinion, White Americans have a habit they do not refer to their racial identity in a self-conscious way. Think about it: how often have you seen statements written by White Americans using the pronouns I , we , and us in a racial context? It is seldom done. Whether it is a jovial football game or telling their highest aspirations, they do not get down to the basic essentials. There may be a place for colorblind statements, but colorblindness that permits White authors to escape from detailing their inner experience and feelings, or that fails to call upon common elements of White experience, is exclusionary. The effects of this are that it excludes people of color from understanding and discussing what really underlies the experience of being White in America.

The news also contributes to this detrimental role in society. Whenever something happens in the Black community, it appears that the reporter finds the most stereotypical Black person they can, often having two or three gold teeth, bad grammar, and even worse hair. That is not to say that a Black person on Wall Street should be interviewed, but the news should be more reflective of the community it claims to serve. The effects of such lackluster media representation could, in turn, lead to little or no positive representation for the ethnic community, a community that makes up 17% of the American population.

More common problems that arise from the prejudicial constructs of race are not only people s relations with other races, but their relations with their own race and relations with personal racial identity as well. Blacks are a prime example of this. They have created an environment in which there are not just tensions between dominant white society and themselves, but interethnic strife also. Ever since the Willie Lynch Theory was carried out to separate the Black race, there have been the divergences of fair skin versus dark skin, regional disputes (e.g., North versus South, New York versus California, East Coast versus West Coast, etc.), and just recently, natural hair (e.g., locks , afros, dreads , etc.) versus processed hair. Light, bright, and almost white is now preferred over The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice amongst members of the Black community which results in a type of reverse affirmative action when viewed in terms of employment. Kenneth Capers, a professor of English at Morehouse College is known for a clever observation at the nation s all-male, historically Black college known solely as the Soul Patrol , a mythical group of individuals who validate the requirements for Blackness wherever it may be needed. This is a very ingenious example of how the stereotypes that people feel they have to embody to belong to a part of an ethnic group becomes an issue. According to the Soul Patrol , if a Black person does not play basketball, rap, sing, or have big gold chains, then they must have their ghetto pass reinstated. Pressure from other members of that race may perturb the person because, in their eyes, they do not symbolize the average Black person but with well over 33,800,000 Blacks in America, who is average? Harmful effects can come from this sort of situation because the person may feel that they have something to prove to their race in order to belong , and could, in turn, cause themselves some major embarrassment, especially in the adolescent stage of life, which could have deeper sociological implications because they don t feel black.

Racism is one of the more destructive by-products of the construct of race. Racism, in my opinion, is an ideological, structural, and historic stratification process by which the population of European descent, through its individual and institutional distress patterns, has been able to sustain, to its own best advantage, the dynamic mechanics of upward or downward mobility (of fluid status assignment) to the general disadvantage of the population designated as non-White (on a global scale) using skin color, gender, class, ethnicity, or non-Western nationality as the main indexical criteria used for enforcing differential resource allocation decisions that contribute to decisive changes in relative racial standing in ways most favoring the population designated as White. In any event, the definition of race presumes the presence of force as violence within a society because race has continuously been used as a tool of domination.

Race as an actual reality presents even more destructive functions in aspects of American life because of the potentially hazardous ramifications of America as a whole. Social unrest is one of the more destructive by-products that race has. Take for example the Rodney King verdict. After America found out about the racist policies of the Los Angeles Police Department and the guilty verdict was announced to the nation, the Black population of Los Angeles reacted by rioting. The efforts of the 1960 s were only accomplished through protests against Whites who refused Blacks their civil rights. Even hate crimes like the dragging of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas only spawned out of the racist beliefs of White supremacists. Racial discrimination can also contribute to health problems. David Williams of the University of Michigan s Institute for Social Research says everyday discrimination can have even a more detrimental effect on people s health than more blatant discrimination in schools, housing, and work. Everyday hassles can produce higher blood pressure in Blacks. A lot of the stress may come from the fact that one s race cannot be changed. Whites tend to develop mental health problems (i.e. anxiety, phobias, depression, panic attacks, etc.) in response to discrimination. Our stereotypes may have some impact on other people s health, says Yale University psychologist Mahzarin Banaji. These minor events of stereotyping can add up and the effects may be destructive for other people.

Possibly the most prevalent cause of tension with regards to race is that White culture is American culture. We are all Americans, but for White Americans to insist that all non-Whites just be Americans without acknowledging differing cultural experiences of peoples of color is a thinly disguised way of saying everyone should act like white Americans. This makes no more sense than insisting everyone act like Black Americans or Asian Americans. In other words, America has failed to meet her ideals. White Americans have proudly opposed foreign tyranny and political oppression in the name of freedom and equality (as have other ethnic groups in America), but they have been oppressors within their own country. This contradictory aspect of American culture has been called the American Dilemma. America will fail to meet some of her most cherished ideals through lack of courage to confront, examine, and be accountable for changing her own culture.

In conclusion, race is a construction and an actual reality because of its harmfulness to those who belong in a certain racial group. It is said that to be a black person in White America is one step from suicide, and that is probably true for other races as well. People cannot change simply by defining themselves as changed. Awareness of race and of the culture is necessary to changing its negative status in America. In order to understand how cultures shape and influence people, it is necessary to understand how one is shaped and influenced by their own culture. If a person is ignorant of his or her own cultural influences, they are more likely to misunderstand and misinterpret the cultural experiences of other people.

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