"Race" Relations

I use quotes around the word "race" because it's a problematic word that has some very specific definitions that often get blurred together. On the one hand, race comes from an Old Italian word, razza, which means "lineage". In many ways, we use this word the same way today. At some point, though, biology commandeered "race" and applied it to animals that were part of a taxonomic category within a species, or a subspecies. And here's where part of the problem arises. There is a danger with these two definitions of people believing that the different "races" of humans are "subspecies" of humans.

Let's be clear about this. There is a human race. We are all members of the human race. There are not enough genetic differences between any two people of any two heritages to squeeze them into separate taxonomic categories. The differences in our appearances, from a biological standpoint, are purely superficial.

The other problem in the whole "race" thought process is the perceived differences between us. For the most part, these differences are based upon cultural perceptions, but the most problematic perceived differences are due to stereotypes. Stereotypes happen when someone interacts with a particular group of people and notices that multiple members of that group share certain personality traits. The fallacy in stereotypes is the assumption that these traits are inherent to all members of that group.

In a recent and fascinating Associated-Press Yahoo! News poll, conducted with Stanford University, one fourth of white Democrats ascribed at least two negative traits to blacks. Now, they didn't go on to specify whether blacks ascribed similar traits to whites or whether either blacks or whites ascribed similar traits to themselves. I would be curious to know how those questions stack up against one another. Some of the negative traits listed in the poll included "boastful", "irresponsible" and "lazy".

One wonders, though, whether or not the people who attributed these stereotypes to blacks understood the dynamics behind what might have caused these behaviors that they have either observed or have heard others observe. Surely, it is easy to understand why someone might be boastful when they think or know that most people don't expect much out of them. A similar argument might be proposed for irresponsibility or laziness. The question then becomes, are these traits really inherent to black people? Or are these traits you might possibly witness in any group of people who are part of a minority who, until fairly recently, were actually legally repressed? When prejudice and racism are a reality in your life and you don't get EVERY SINGLE opportunity that others in your supposedly egalitarian nation get, doesn't it seem reasonable that members of such a group might feel disheartened to the point of apathy or desperation?

I know that there are some who might read the above paragraph and roll their eyes and say something about picking oneself up by one's bootstraps and rising above. There are those who say that blacks are just complainers who scream "racism" at the slightest provocation, maybe even none at all. If you would say that, then I would place you in the group of people who do the exact opposite. That is to say, there are those who minimalize, even deny, the existence and effect of racism in our society. This Associated-Press Yahoo! poll seems to back this up. Whereas 57% of blacks said that the amount of "discrimination against blacks" that exists is "a lot" and all but a fraction of the rest said "some", only 10% of whites said "a lot" and 45% said "some".

That's quite a discrepancy. So, who's right? I don't think it's as clear as that. As I've said before in other posts, I think there's more racism in this country than the majority of whites are willing to admit or recognize, but there's also less than the majority of blacks claim. Regardless, any amount is unacceptable. We are not subspecies of one another, so we are all physically capable of the same things, and we are all susceptible to the same emotions and weaknesses. Before you ascribe negative qualities to someone of another "race", think about how you would react if you had to deal with the same kinds of things in your life. Also, ask yourself if you really can't think of someone, anyone, who has overcome such difficult odds to laugh in the face of such ridiculous stereotypes. Need some hints? How about Harriet Tubman? Frederick Douglass? Booker T. Washington? George Washington Carver? W.E.B. Du Bois? Rosa Parks? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Colin Powell? Barack Obama?

These are only a handful of the most well-known names in the proud tapestry of African American history. These are people who rose up to fight the misguided perceptions of a resistant society. Despite the great impact of these men and women, the perceptions they struggled to overcome still exist. We need to open our eyes as a society and stand up to fear and oppression. We are one race, the human race. Let's stand united and achieve everything we can achieve together.