Our little exercise in criticism yesterday (Thurs. 9/18) did not go as well as I thought it might when I dreamed it up. But I still think it has merit and can be a learning experience. However, since by my tally it appears the families basically tied in offering criticisms last time, I am not going to award any bonus points. I am going to re-think how we will critique the points on the next two parts. Nonetheless, do be thinking about how the points made on parts 2 & 3 of the video series could be improved, and do make sure to submit your revised points which may be the basis for a couple midterm exam questions.
REMINDER: I will be handing out a write-up of our first out-of-class essay on Tuesday, 9/23, and it will have directly to do with the video series and class discussion on it.
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Part 1 Revised
Red Group
1)There is no biological basis for race.
2)Even though we have determined that race is empty of any biological meaning, we must still acknowledge its significance as a social and historical concept that has real affects on people’s lives (greatly contributing to the likelihood of where they will live, socioeconomic class, quality of education etc.).
1. Race is not based on biological differences. Just as the saying goes “beauty is only skin-deep”, well, so is race.
2. Humans are all very similar genetically; more so than a penguin, which happens to be very similar in looks, yet are completely different. Genetics cannot be used to define race.
Red Group
Part 2 Revised:
1)Indians were thought to be able to assimilate, while blacks were not, based on the notion that culture and not race separated the Indians from the whites.
2)Justifying slavery with race opened the door to future discrimination, because it placed the idea that blacks were inferior to whites in people's minds.
Part 2 Revised
Yellow Group
1. A quote in the very beginning of the video stated "race is how people assign meaning to how you look." This quote shows how race is a by-product of our culturally biased society.
2. Thomas Jefferson called upon science to prove the inherent inferiority of slaves so he could use the phrase "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence without having to include the slaves. The American race scientists' notion of race superiority was more a product of cultrual bias than actual fact.
Yellow Group Pt 1 Revisions:
That there are no genetic markers that “define race”. Instead, there are more differences within a single so-called race than between them. From the movie, Noah (a white male) found that he had genetic similarities with Icelandic, Balkan, and African DNA.
Race is more of a social construct than a biological reality. Because of this, race has become a social reality to those denied rights because of how they look even though they could be genetically the same as those who are denying them rights.
Part 3 Revised
Red Group
1. Race is a social construction.
2. The race of the majority of inhabitants within a given neighborhood (following World War II) directly influenced the neighborhood's desirability.
Yellow Group
Part 3 Revised
Race was socially constructed by the state. In Florida for example one had to be 1/8 African to be considered black, in Virginia it was 1/16, and in Alabama it was any African ancestry.
The stratification of whites enabled them to be more subsidized by the housing market in comparison with Blacks and Latinos. Whites held 1/8th the wealth of what Blacks had due to where they lived.
Black Family:
Part 2 Revised: The Story We Tell
1) The idea of race emerged as a justification for slavery and for dispossessing Native Americans of their land.
2) White society's acceptance of examples of "differences" between races illustrated how the power of the ideology of race can change minds. This has been exhibited because even years after the abolition of slavery, the rationalization behind it still remains.
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