Families' Main Points From the Video Series

I've looked over your revised main points from the three parts of the video series we saw and distilled them down to the following list. In a couple cases I spliced together two different points and I also made some minor changes in the revised points submitted. If I ask any questions on the midterm about this exercise, they will be based on this list. Of course, you are welcome to make up some questions as well based on this.

"Race: the power of an illusion"

Part 1: the difference between us

1. 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 effects on people's lives, greatly contributing to determining where someone will live, what socio-economic class they will belong to, the quality of their education, etc..

2. Race is not based on biological differences. Just as the saying goes, "beauty is only skin deep," well, so is race.

3. There are no genetic markers that "define race." Instead, there are more differences within a so-called race than between them. Noah, a white male, found that he had many genetic similarities with individuals from Iceland, the Balkans, and Africa.


Part 2: the story we tell

1. Initially, 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 whites.

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 slaves. The American race scientists' notion of race superiority turned out to be more a product of cultural bias than of fact.

3. The idea of race emerged as a justification for slavery and for dispossessing Native Americans of their land.


Part 3: the house we live in

1. Race is a social construction, as demonstrated by the fact that different states had different criteria to determine who was black. In Florida, for example, one had to be one-eighth African to be considered black, whereas in Virginia it was one-sixteenth and in Alabama it was ny African ancestry.

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