Race and Ethnic Relations in America

8/11/2019 Race and Ethnic Relations in America

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Race and Ethnic Relations in America

Lecture Series

Outline prepared and written by:

Dr. Jason J. Campbell:

http://jasonjcampbell.org/home.phpExistingYoutube Playlist on Race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLsYNgaozQ&list=PLFD2886D1E3B158A2&index=58

ThisYoutube Playlist:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLba_fOJviSOIuHdrvWTYbodm_3dNeIokt

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1.0: Modernism, its Decline, and Postmodernism

Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader.

Race and Modernity:

[KEY]: By modernity we are in part referring to those discourses that

rest upon a conception of truth and knowledge governed by an ideal

value-free subject engaging in observing, comparing, ordering and

measuring in order to arrive at evidence sufficient to make valid

inferences, confirm speculative hypotheses, deduce error-proof

conclusions and verify true representations of reality, (75).

1.

European Modernity was constituted during the Age ofEnlightenmentfrom the Glorious Revolution in England to the

tumultuous French Revolution, (55).

2.

the transatlantic slave trade[was] the ignoble originsof

Western modernity and the criminal foundations of American

democracy, (51).

3.

The Paradox: African slavery sits at the center of the grand

epoch of equality, liberty and fraternity, a center often concealed

by modern myths of progress and liberation, (51).a.

See my lecture series on Human Rights to distinguish First

and Second Generation Human Rights, HERE.Libert,

galit

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hedonism and narcissism[which]revealsthe dead end to

which modern paganism has come: impotent irony, barren

skepticism and paralyzing self-parody, (68).

3.

philosophical attacks on the primacy of the subject are

deepened[postmodernism]is a deepening of the decline ofmodernity, with little sense of what is to follow, if anything at all,

(68).

a.

via Nietzsche, the concept of European Nihilism creates a

condition in which, For the first time, European audiences

look to the United States for artistic and cultural

leadership[since the United States]has steadily gained

cultural self-confidence (68-9).

b.

[Me]: The solidification of Americana and exportable.

Conceptual Foundations for American Society:

American Society as: an alienated, intensely self-conscious and deeply

anxiety-ridden society, (57).

European Dependencyand National Identity

1.

is a consequence of the geographic displacement of European

peoples (57)

2.

is a consequence of the geographic displacement of the European

civilization whose superiority they[Americans] openly

acknowledged (57). See THISBasic Talk video for a reference

on the concept of trust. [Explain]

3.

is substantiated in an antagonism of the indigenous American

people, (57)

4.

1-3 all of which created a keen sense of isolation, and the

realization of their, i.e., American, newfound independence.

European Independencyand an Emerging Unified National

Identity:

1.

In his famous lecture of 1837, The American Scholar,

Emerson portrayed Europe as the symbol of the dead past, (61)

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The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law ofall naturein yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is foryou to know all, it is for you to dare all. Mr. President andGentlemen, this confidence in the unsearched might of manbelongs, by all motives, by all prophecy, by all preparation,

to the American Scholar.We have listened too longto the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of theAmerican freeman is already suspected to be timid,i m i t a t i v e , tame. Public and private avarice make the air webreathe thick and fat. The scholar is decent, indolent,complaisant. See already the tragic consequence. The mindof this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.[REF]

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1.1: Understanding Modern Racism PART ONE

Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader

The Genealogy of Modern Racism:

The genealogy is Wests attempt to identify the emergenceor the

moment of arising, of the ideaof white supremacy, (71).

1.

the authority of science, undergirded by a modern

philosophypromotes and encourages the activity of observing,

comparing, measuring, and ordering the physical

characteristics of human bodies, (71). [As a consequenceof

Scientific Enlightenment]a.

These practices were guided by an adherence to a new

paradigm of knowledge, an experimental methodthat

attempted to testhypotheses and yieldobjective conclusions

by appeal to evidence and observation (55-56).

b.

The undeniable power [sociopolitically] derived from

Scientific Enlightenment, e.g., socially: increases in human

longevity etc, politically: militarization/weaponization fused

and weaponized social progress, via Social Darwinism etcc.

West is arguing that this weaponization [as manifested in

racism etc] is inherentwithin the Scientific process itself, as

an inevitableconsequence of our fascination with

Aristotelian taxonomic identification and hierarchical

differentiations.

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2.

Wests genealogical approach to modern racism is, a conception

of power that issubjectless, i.e., they are the indirect products

of the praxisof human subjects, (71).

3.Discursive and Nondiscursive Structures of Power

Nondiscursive structures createthe conditions for the meansof the

preservation/propagation of sociopolitical power, and as such the means

functionto such end. The idea of discursive pertains to the epistemic

accessibility to the means, but not or less so to the condition for themeans.

EG, Bacon and eggsand Edward Bernays.Nondiscursive

Structures of Power[i.e., with relative epistemic inaccessibility] Meat

Industry, slaughterhouses the chicken farms etc.Discursive Structures

of Power[as means] create, in this example, the ability to answer the

questionwhy, why is it important to have a good breakfast?

Presupposesthat is it important to have

4.

[Me], [KEY]: In applyingwhat West has said, though he does not

say this directly, SINCE the genealogy of modern racism is a

conception of power that issubjectless, i.e., the indirect

products of the praxis of human subjects, but affects subjectsthe

discursive structures pertain to the observable, quantifiable,

empirically observable racism. Thenondiscursivestructures,

however, are those consequence of Scientific Enlightenment that

allowed for andjustify, albeit indirectly observable racism.

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[KEY]: The scientific method, then, functions as the nondiscursive

structure that has indirectly createdthe conditions for justifying

the discursive structures of biological racism, as the meansof

securing or propagating the end, viz., socioeconomic/political power.

[Brief link to Louis Pierre Althussers discussion of the ideologicalapparatus]. [West + Althusser]

Three Structures of Modern Discourse:

I understand the structures of modern discourse to be the controlling

metaphors, notions, categories and norms that shapethe predominant

conceptions of truth and knowledgein the modern

West[which]are determined by three historical processes (1) the

scientific revolution, (2) Cartesianphilosophy, (3) the classicalrevival (72).

1.

The Scientific Revolution:

a.

Signified the authority of science, (73).

b.

Highlights two fundamental ideas: observation and

evidence (73)

2.Cartesian Philosophy:

a.

Descartes is highly significant because his thought provided

the controlling notions of modern discourse: the primacy of

the subject and the preeminence of representation, (73).

b.

the existent [thing] was definedas the objectivity of

representation, and truthas certainty of representation, (74).

i.

It isthisconception of the monopoly on truth by means

of the scientific method that postmodernist challenge

the very conception of truth.

ii.

The postmodernist position, however, was arguably

derailed by the classical Sokal Affair. [Brief

Explanation]3.

The Classical Revival:

a.

Greek ocular metaphor

b.

Classical aesthetics

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1.2: Understanding Modern Racism PART TWO

Jacqueline Fleming, Affirmative Action and Standardized Test Scores The Journal of NegroEducation, Vol. 69, No. 1/2, Knocking at Freedom's Door: Race, Equity, and Affirmative Actionin U.S. Higher Education (Winter - Spring, 2000), pp. 27-3

Eric Grodsky, John Robert Warren and Erika Felts Testing and Social Stratification inAmerican Education,Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 34 (2008), pp. 385-404.

Richard G. Lomax, Mary Maxwell West, Maryellen C. Harmon, Katherine A. Viator and GeorgeF. Madaus, The Impact of Mandated Standardized Testing on Minority Students The Journal

of Negro Education, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 171-185

Race, Access and Standardized Testing:

[Definition]: Standardized testspresent students with identical tasksin environments that are (to the extent possible) uniform, with the hope

that variation in test performance is unrelated to variation across test

administrations and test administrators, (Grodsky, 386).

[Weber]: Weber writes, the "patent of education" came to replace

ancestry[a manifestation of European independence discussed earlier]

as a means of legitimate qualification for state office. Education in

general, and exams in particular, serve to "limit the supply ofcandidates for [socially and economically advantageous] positions

and to monopolize them for the holders of educational patents."1

The standardized testing movement has a racist history in both

Europe and the United States(Hirsch, 1981). Standardized tests have

been used to impede the social progress of Africans and African

Americans for at least two centuries, (Fleming, 28).

Five Potential Conditions for Bias in Standardized Tests:

1.

A requisite knowledge of the White middle-class experience

(Fleming, 29) [is necessary for superior scores].

1Weber M. 1978. Bureaucracy and education. inEconomy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, ed. G

Roth, C Wittich, pp. 998-1001. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press Young JW.

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2.

historical [and] societal prejudice, racism, or educational

disadvantage has played a role (Fleming, 29) [in the

underperformance of minority students].

3.

the testing situation is a microcosm of society, and that

anxieties related to issues of dominance and submission areactivated among members of racial/ethnic minority groups

during test taking, (Fleming, 29-30).

a.

biased against historically disadvantaged groups, and

thus have the pernicious effects of reinforcing social

advantage and disadvantage (Grodsky, 386).

b.

because standardized tests reflect the majority culture,

minority student performance on them may not yield a fair

representation of what these students really know and cando, given their economic and educational disadvantages

(Lomax, 172).

4.

the correlation between SAT and GPA. [known as] predictive

validity, [is lower for Black students than Whites], (Fleming,

30).

5.

One impact of mandated standardized testing on minority

students cited by a growing number of researchers is its role in

the denial of opportunitiesto minorities, (Lomax, 172).

Objective Manifestations of Racism and the Criminalization of

Black Skin:

Theoretical: DiscriminationofRacial Group(s):AmongRacial Groups

1.

Essentiallya comparativeor relationalaffair.

2

2.

Identification of the dominantgroupaccompanied by the

normativization of group characteristics.

2D: dominant, S: subordinant. Dominant racial characteristics are imposed and subordinant population mimics,

emulates these characteristics by assuming the aesthetical sensibilities of the dominant group.

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Practical: Discrimination withinRacial Group(s):Jill Viglione, Lance Hannon, Robert DeFina, The impact of light skin on prison time for black

female offenders in The Social Science Journal48 (2011) 250258

1.

Discrimination based on ones racial group has been widelyexamined in the past, but a relatively new body of research

explores discrimination within racial groups, particularly in

regard to the perceived[subjective interpretation] darkness or

lightness of a black individuals skin tone, (251).

a.

[Argument]: Sincethe perceptionor appearanceof

blackness amongthe races, i.e., in comparison between races

is used to justify violence, it followsthat the same

approach can be and is used to assess proclivities toward

violence and criminal behavior withinthe race.

b.

Colorism, then, is used to justify the similarities or

differences withina racial group, wherein those phenotypic

traits resembling the aesthetical sensibilities of the dominant

culture reap the benefitsof such resemblance.

c.

Thus, the resemblanceis itselfpowerful enough to justify

disparities in incarcerations rates.

2.

for an overwhelmingly male sample of black inmates in

Mississippi, those assessedas having a lighter skin shade bycorrectional officers received shorter prison sentences, (251).

3.

men with more stereotypically black features were more likely to

receive death sentences., (252)

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1.3: The Emergence Modern Racism and an Aesthetical Response

Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader

Cornel West is actually identifying and justifying the preconditions forphysiological normalcy.

The First Stage of the Emergence Modern Racism:

1.

Westsnormative gaze: an ideal from which to order and

compareobservations. (75)

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2.

These norms [a aesthetic beauty] were consciously projected and

promotedas the idealor standard against which to measure

otherpeoples and cultures. (76).

3.What is distinctive about the role of classical aesthetics and

cultural aestheticsis that they provided an acceptable authorityfor the idea of white supremacy[which]was closely linked

with the major authority of truth and knowledge [viz]the

institution of science. (76).

4.

[thus] the initial basis for the idea of white supremacy is to be

found in the classificatory categoriesand the descriptive,

representational, order-imposing aims of natural history, (77).

The Second Stage of the Emergence Modern Racism:1.

Modern racism as a consequence of the rise of phrenology(the

reading of skulls) and physiognomy (the reading of faces) (79).

a.

Phrenology and Physiognomy were consequences of

European value-ladencharacter, [KEY]. (79).

b.

For Johann Kasper Lavaters taxonomy and theory of noses

please see this thoroughly bizarre link.

2.

[KEY Assumption]: racial variations are alwaysdegenerate

ones from an ideal state (81).

a.

This assumption establishesthe needed biological hierarchy

necessary for social demarcations along racial lines.

Response to Modern Racism: Power in Defiance

Fanon The Wretched of the Earth

The first thing the native learnsis to stay in his place, and not to go

beyond certain limits. This is whythe dreams of the native are always

of muscular prowess; his dreams are of (1) actionand of (2)

aggression.I dream I am jumping, swimming, running, climbing(52)this is why any studyof the colonial world should take into

consideration the phenomena of the dance and of possession. The

natives relaxation takes precisely the form of muscular orgyin which

the most acute aggressivity and most impelling violence are canalized,

transformed and conjured away. The circle of the dance is a permissive

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The Social Construction of Our Ability to Recognize Race:

1.historical relations ofpower inherein our abilities to recognize

race, (24)

a. [KEY]: Society requires that the individual have the ability

to recognize race[as]a routine competence expected ofall people, (24). The expectation of race as identifiably

observable. EG the race of this man is obviousthough it is

neverstated:

A young man [clearly black] walks through chest deep flood waters after

looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday.

2.Commonsense leads us to believe that exposure to a shared

reality[i.e., the reality of race] will clarify for all what is true

(25)

Similarly:

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b.

Two residents [identifiablywhite] wade through chest-deep

water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery

store

i.

Irrespective of the distinctions in finding for the

white residents and looting for the black man is therealitythat their whiteness and blacknessis never

referencedin the AP.

ii.

Thus, Pascale writes, Indeed, commonsense

knowledge that race can be seen, just by looking at a

person, [makes] face-to-face questions about [their]

racial identitycompletely absurd, (24). It would be

to ask this man if he were black:

iii.

hes identifiablyblackor this man if

hes white hes identifiablywhite.

[KEY]: it is the obviousness of this fact, however, that Pascale

wants to challenge. It is obvious,but how did it come to be obvious?

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1.5: The Sociolinguistic Construction of Race PART TWO

Celine-Marie PascaleMaking Sense of Race, Class, and Gender

Linguistic Demarcations in Generalities and Specificities:

1.

While reporters might refer to a homeless black man, as noted

earlier, in fifteen years of articles about homelessness, I found no

comparable referencesto a homeless white man. Whiteness

was the assumed, or unmarked, category. (26) [Author is wrongabout the category being unmarked. It ismarked]

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It is possible to mark race without explanationprecisely because the

meaningof race always exceeds the context in which it is evoked. (26)

2.

[KEY]: To say man is to invoke the general formthat which issufficientfor all the manifestationsof this general form.

[Aristotelian notPlatonic, Brief Explain] [Simply]: the essential

characteristicsneeded to participate/be identified with this

categorycomprises the setof man. Thus, man is a categoryfor

organizing our thoughts and the correspondingword, man

directs our thoughtsto its general form. It includes and excludes

membership with this form. This exists a priori, thus: it exceeds

the context [Explain].a.

Thus it is tautologically true: Man = its definition,

b.

its definition = Man.

c.

Thoughthis is true, it provides no meaning

3.

The Meaningof Race attains meaningbecause of the a

posterioritendency to differentiate typologies within the general

form. E.g., A man BUT [which is conjunctive]this typeof

man].

a.

The additional content information, i.e., that which comes

AFTER BUT, is superfluous in attempting to understandingthe general form. [KEY]: i.e., the general form can be

understoodwithout this additional context-specific

information but the type/instantiation cannot be understood

withoutreference to the general form. [Explain]

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b.

In terms of racethe additional information (epistemically-

superfluous) adds varying degrees of socially negative

contextto the general form, which is justified by Wests

claim that racial variations are alwaysdegenerate ones

froman ideal state (81).c.

The ideal state is man

d.IFthe references are:

i.

A man approached me at the store

ii.

A black-man approached me at the store

iii.

The additionalcontent information pertains to the

mans blackness, i.e., theformof his being black,

which is a posteriori. Thisformof blackness, exactly

like theformof man has essential characteristicsneeded to participate/be identified with the category

black.

1.

WITHINthat category black is the necessary

characteristicsof violence, danger, the unknown

etc. We have socially constructed the requisite

criteria for membership in this category

iv.

Thus to addthe content information black to man is

inherentlyto add the necessary characteristics of the

form black to man, which is to say all the negative

characteristics of the category black are added to the

category man.

e.

IFthe references are:

i.

A man approached me at the store

1.

Requires the interlocutor to inquire about the

content of the approach.

ii.

A black-man approached me at the store

1.

Requires the interlocutor to inquire about thecontent of the approach, i.e., what happenedand

the man, i.e., who is he what did he do.

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1.6: What are Ghetto Names?

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, (2005)Freakonomics: A Rogue

Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

1.the most likely cause of the explosion in distinctively Black

nameswas the Black Panther Movement, which sought to

accentuate African culture and fight claims of Black inferiority,

(183).

2.

[Question]: What kind of parent is most likely to give a child a

distinctively black name? [Answer]: That data offer a clear

answer: an unmarried, low-income, undereducated teenage mother

from a black neighborhood who has a distinctively black name

herself, (184).

3.

[Motivation]: such practices in naming is a black parents signal

of solidaritywith the community, (184). [Explain].

Black Names within their Social Context

1.

The authors challenge the existing assertionthat audit studies,

[ABC News on Job Prospects] are good tools for assessing the

perception and economic consequence of adopting a black name.2.

[Assumptionabout Audit Studies]: black soundingnames

carry an economicpenalty (186). Howeverthere are a litany of

complications with this approach [Explain a few].

3.[Findings]:

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The data show that, on average, a person with a

distinctively black namewhether it is a woman named

Imani or a man named DeShawndoeshave a worse life

outcome than a woman named Molly or a man named Jake.

But it isnt the fault of their names. If two black boys, Jake

Williams and DeShawn Williams, are born in the sameneighborhood and into the same familial and economic

circumstances, they would likely have similar outcomes.

BUT the kind of parents who name their son Jake dont

send to live in the same neighborhood or share the same

economic circumstances with the kinds of parents who

name their son Deshawn, (188-9).

Naming as a Cultural Right

Ayanna F. Brownand Janice Tuck Lively, Selling the Farm to Buy the Cow: The NarrativizedConsequences of Black Names From Within the African American Community inJournal ofBlack Studies43(6) 667692.

1.The opportunityfor African Americans to name their own

children has not been an endowed right. As enslaved people,

African Americans names and the names of their children were

chosen by their owners, (668).

2.

[Mounting Tension]: African-Americans in the process of

deliberating about their childs name, experience the conflictbetween solidarity with the community on the one hand and the

needfor sociocultural approval mediated by the norms of

dominant society, i.e., to be accepted, on the other, (668).

3.

these names are often assumed to be signifiersof poverty, limited

education, and questionable morality,(669).

a.

Such signification discourages the adoption ofdistinctively

black namesand the cultural right to name ones own child,

since it is alleged that there are negative consequences for so

doing.

b.

While scholars assert that it is notthe name, in-and-of-itself,

that yields negative socioeconomic consequences but those

external factors influencing parents likely to give their

children distinctively black names, for the general public

distinctively black names are stigmatized as ghetto.

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1.7: Race and Difference


Power Race and Difference:1.

Race hasrelevantrather than particular meaning. (27)

a.

The relevancy of race pertains to its use

b.

Its useis a means of preserving difference

c.

The recognition of differenceis essential in conflict.

2.

Thepresenceof race is itself an effect of power, (27)

a.

As seen in Section 1.5, race is identifiable becauseit was

socially constructed to be identified[Explain]

3.

The identification of race is areificationof race and potentiallyracism.

a.

Identification reifies/reinforces the use-functionof race.

b.

Once seen race cannot be unseen

c.

Thus, one viable social resistance is to see all races.

Two Analytic Tensions with the Concept of Difference:

1.

Material: i.e., the material conditionsfor difference

a. The lived experience of difference is predicated on

samenesswithinsocial categories (e.g., women, or whites)

and differencebetweencategories (women andmen, blacks

andwhites) (28). [Explain]

b.

With respect to difference withincategories: Despitethe

perceived homogeneity of a racial/ethnical identity, e.g.,

black-American we know that difference has/can be

preserved within:

i.

E.g. (1) Colorism, (2) Jim Crowism, (3) Horizontal

Violencec.

With respect to differencebetweencategories: The political

project of social justiceattempts to equalize inequalities

between categories, (28)

d.

Equalization requires: (1) the acknowledgment of

difference, which is essential, (2) the acknowledgment that

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such difference has sociopolitical/economicconsequences,

(3) The systematic attempt to namethose structures of power

in place that unfairly advantage/disadvantage members of the

population [See the next section on the concept of

disidentification].2.

Discursive: i.e., the discursive conditionsfor difference

a.

A poststructuralist attempt to rupture the binaries of

difference, (28). The assumption is that the polemical nature

of this difference is socially constructed to enforce

distinctions that would otherwise disappear.

i.

The hegemonic discourse (29) is a discourse that

seeks to preserve interethnic/interracial hostilities

and/or violence as one means of securing power.1.

Pro: if there is said to be a benefit from this

approach it is the assumptionthat established

power is securedinsofar as racial/ethical groups

are fighting each other. This assumption,

however, is destabilized when one group

wins/dominates another ethnical group and then

seeks control of political power, emboldened by

prior success.

2.

Con: The clear disadvantage of attempting to

reconcile these existingethnical/racial

distinctions would likely result in even more

forcefully renewed attempts to preservegroup

identity through exclusionary practices. Simply,

e.g., Hes notwhite/black no matter what they

sayand hereswhy, The attempt to reconcile

these difference can have disastrous

consequences.b.

Challenges the notion of a unified subject for a fluid,

fracturedmultiple subject position(ality), (28).

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.8: Resistance and Systemic Racial Discrimination


2 Means of Reifying Racial Difference:1.

Discriminatory categoriesbecome naturalized asself-evident,

(29).

a.

Notconcerned with the intentto discriminate. Only

concerned with the abilityto discriminate based on the self-

evidenceof the distinction. Thus, it is the self-evidenceof

the distinction that becomes problematic.

2.

In order to resist[seeing] race as self evidentone may refuse to

see race entirely, viacolorblindness, in response to the allegedself-evidence of racial identification.

a.

[Problem]: colorblindness extends inequitiesby ignoring or

disregarding the importance and impact of historical relations

of power, (29).

i.

[KEY]: race blindnessextends historical relations of

power by reducing systematic inequalities to arbitrary

inequalities, (29).

ii. Simply colorblindness trivializes racial injustices by

suggesting that (1) it is a consequence of

arbitrary/particular practices, rather than systemic, and

(2) in so doing extends the systemof exclusion on the

basis of race.

2 Necessary Conditions for Disidentification:

Disidentification: can be understood as a processof rethinking and

reconstructing discourses in ways that expose what the hegemonic

discourse conceals, (29) Accounts for and includes what the dominantdiscourse marginalizes, (30).

1.

Resistance toracial inequalitybegin(s) with [the] practices

that remove whiteness from the unmarkedcenter of daily life,

(29). [See Section 1.1 here, of my Theories of Ethnicity and

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Nationalism Lectures Series for the invisibility of ethnical

whiteness in American society, Brief Explain].

a.

The missing ethnical label reinforcesthe power of those

free of such labels to normativize their racial/ethnical identity

as the standard bearer for all otheredrace/ethnic identities.b.

the meanings of race must be made visiblethrough the

relationships that produce it, (30) which actively work to

subvertthe prevailing practices of articulation, (29).

i.

There is power in remaining invisible unnamed.

ii.

Hegemonic discourse socially constructs identityby

appeal to race and ethnicity.

iii.

Hegemonic discourse [within the US] does not itself

assume racial/ethnical identity as a means of self-identification.

iv.

This factis what is being masked and thus requiresa

refusal to allow the meaning of race to float as

everything[for those relegated to racial/ethnical

identification] and nothing [for those of the privileged

class able to forgo racial/ethnical identification] (30).

[Explain the sociolinguistic realityand the difficulties

in changing this linguist phenomena].

2.

Second[we must refuse] the apparent naturalness of whiteness

[i.e., its linguistic invisibility]by including whitenessa white

racial category, not simply white peoplemore visibly in public

discourse, (30)

a.

The concept is simple. We, Americans, userace as a

descriptor for everyoneother than white-Americans. The

means of instituting fairness, since we cannot unsayBlack-

American etc, is to begin sayingWhite-American. [This will

be a difficult task, Explain Entrenchment].b.

Simply: fairness would requirethat either everyoneis

identified racially/ethnically or no oneis identified

racially/ethnically. Since it is unlikely to undo the

racial/ethnical identification for all other Americans, White-

American need to be identifiedas such.

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.9: W.E.B. Du Boiss Double Consciousness PART ONE

Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classical Readings. Ed. Charles

Lambert 3rd

Edition.

4 Existential Dilemmas of Double Consciousness:

1.

The recognitionof 2nd

class citizenship, as a lived-experience. Du

Bois writes, I remember well when the shadows swept across

me, (164). Ive captured this experience fictionally:Maybe I could fly in de presidents plane, battle de Reds in a fighter jet!

Huh daddy? Knick-Knack spreads his arms and emulates a fighter pilot.

Pow! Pow! Pow! yells Knick-Knack.

B48! B48! Got hit on de fuel tank. Im goin down! yells Sammy. He

spreads his arms and begins shooting. Powerful fighter jets boom loudly

in the clouds above. Knick-Knack dodges the shots and flies behind hisfathers enemy plane. He has his target in sight. Im comin to get you!

yells Knick-Knack. He places his finger on the trigger.

Mayday! Mayday! yells his father. Knick-Knacks fighter jet screams

through the clouds. He nears his fathers jet, his target in sight.

Stupid ass NIGGERS! yells a passenger as a car drives by the school.

Knick-Knacks fantasy had been thwarted. His arms slowly return to his

side. His smile stifled. The plane is only a lil black boy after all.Sammy swallows his bitter rage. He nearly yelled. He nearly fought

back, for he too was lost in the fantasy. The word jarred them back

to their shared reality. A dangerous storyteller is one who believed his

own stories. [REF]

2.

Contempt for ones systematic marginalization: shut out fromtheir worldby a vast veil[with]no desire to tear [it] downI

heldcontempt[because]all their dazzling opportunities,

were their, not mine, (164)

a.

Marginalization as a consequence of exclusionary practices,

which delimit or deny accessto opportunity. #2 above

reinforcesa sense and the truth of #1, i.e., I am treated as 2nd

class becauseI have not been afforded the same

opportunities.3.

The religious conflict of being outcasted: Why did God make me

an outcast and a stranger in my own house? (164).

a.

Black academics, not all, tend to challenge the authority of

religion and characterize it as a force of control and

domination.

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slavishly accepting of this dejected identity, this excluded identity

as their identity, e.g., Music:Look at you

Now look at us

All my niggas look rich as fuckAll my niggas look rich as fuck

All my niggas look rich as fuck [REF]

LOL!! I lovethis song because so many poor people are not

offended by this song. [Pause to laugh at poor people]. The

implication is lookat yourselfyouare notrich as fuck. Nowlook

at me, I am rich as fuck. Thus, [KEY]:youridentity is constituted

as notbeing like mine, not looking like mine, not having what I

have.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2.0: W.E.B. Du Boiss Double Consciousness PART TWO

Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classical Readings. Ed. Charles

Lambert 3rd

Edition.

Understanding Double Consciousness:

1.

It is a feeling of this internal conflict:

a.

One everfeelshis twonessan American, a negro; [notice

theabsenceof the conjunctionand], two souls, twothoughts, two unreconciledstrivings; two warring ideals in

one dark body; whose dogged strength alonekeeps it from

being torn asunder, (164).

2.Need to fuse these divergent selves:

a.

He would not Africanize the AmericanHe would not

bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white AmericanismHe

simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a

Negro andan American, without being cursed and spit uponby his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity

closed roughly in his face, (164-5).

3.

It is a feeling of self doubt:

a.

The innate love of harmony and beauty that set the ruder

souls of his people a-dancing and a-singing raised but

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx2raP3P3FQ&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJx2raP3P3FQ&has_verified=1http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Multicultural-Classic-Readings/dp/0813342171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386861537&sr=8-1&keywords=0813342171http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx2raP3P3FQ&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJx2raP3P3FQ&has_verified=1


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confusionand doubtin the soul of the black artist; for the

beauty reveled to himwas the soul-beauty of a race whichhis

larger audience despised, [Explain relation] andhe could not

articulatethe message of another people, p.165.

i.

One aspect of double consciousness is the epistemicinability of the black-subject to articulate/understand

the efficacious nature of ones own culture /

ethnicity/race. [Explain in detail]

ii.

Another is the emotional and intellectual displacement

from bothhis people and the larger audience

The End

Race and Ethnic Relations in America

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