The genetic diversity within populations that share visible physical traits is just as great as the diversity between populations. ……Race can therefore be understood as a set of social relationships, which allow individuals and groups to be located, and various attributes or competencies assigned, on the basis of biologically grounded features (Giddens, 2013:676)
In this quote, Giddens is both accepting a sense of ‘race’ but also rejecting it as a basis of biological difference. This idea of race as a biological essence was entirely invented in the 18th century.
Separating humans into categories followed developments in natural sciences, which also looked for categories (species etc) within animal and plant types called zoological taxonomy. Extending the categorisation of plants and animals, the 1735 classification of Carl Linnaeus divided the human species Homo sapiens into continental varieties of europaeus, asiaticus, americanus, and afer, each associated with a different humour: sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic, respectively. (Brace and Loring, 2005).
The term “Caucasian race” was coined by the German philosopher Christoph Meiners in his The Outline of History of Mankind (1785). He considered Caucasians to be more physically attractive than Mongolians, notably because they had paler skin; he claimed Caucasians were also more sensitive and more morally virtuous than Mongolians. Later he would make similar distinctions within the Caucasian group, concluding that the Germans were the most attractive and virtuous people on earth. He proposed that Caucasians had the “whitest, most blooming and most delicate skin” (Mueller and Herminghouse, 1998). The popular belief at the time was that the different ‘races’ had different origins, and no common ancestors.
Here, in both Linnaeus, and to a greater extent in Meiners, you see them go beyond mere description, and assign moral categories and behaviour traits to these categories, based on their personal tastes and prejudices. This is racial prejudice.
This film briefly mentions ‘Jim Crow’. This was a legal and social system of caste discrimination in American until the 1950s. I mentioned in the Sociology of Sociology section about the different uses of the pronouns ‘Tu’ and ‘Vu’ to signify authority and status. Note this simple list of behaviours that blacks were not allowed to engage in at the time:
Never assert or even intimate that a white person is lying.
Never impute dishonourable intentions to a white person.
Never suggest that a white person is from an inferior class.
Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence.
Never curse a white person.
Never laugh derisively at a white person.
Never comment upon the appearance of a white female.
Ethnicity
“Ethnicity refers to a type of social identity related to ‘descent and cultural differences’ which become effective or active in certain social contexts….ethnic differences are wholly learned… What marks out ethnic groups is often the use of exclusionary devices, such as the prohibiting of intermarriage, which serve to sharpen and maintain socially constructed boundaries….The term ‘ethnic’ is applied in this way to cuisine, clothing, music and neighbourhoods to designate practices that are ‘non-British'” (Giddens, 2013:677)
Minority ethnic groups
There are many minority groups in a statistical sense, such as people over 6 feet tall or those wearing shoes bigger than size 12, but these are not minority ethnic groups according to the sociological concept…..members of a minority ethnic group are disadvantaged when compared with the more dominant group- a group possessing more wealth, power and prestige [than one would expect, given their numbers]- and have some sense of group solidarity, of belonging together…..The term ‘minorities’ draws attention to the pervasiveness of discrimination by highlighting the commonality of experience of various subordinate groups” (Giddens, 2013:678).
Prejudice and discrimination
Racism is ‘prejudice plus power’. Anyone can be prejudiced (or just plain rude) but only those with power and privilege can truly be racist.
Prejudice refers to the [unjustified or unfounded] opinions and attitudes held by members of one group towards another… often based on hearsay rather than direct evidence [or from a single experience rather than extensive proof] and are resistant to change even in the face of new evidence”
The phrase “prejudice plus power” was created in 1970 by Pat Bidol and popularized by Judith H. Katz in her 1978 book White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training.
Prejudices are frequently grounded in stereotypes– fixed and inflexible characterizations of a social group. Some stereotypes contain a grain of truth; others are simply a mechanism of displacement, in which feelings of hostility or anger are directed against objects [or subjects] that are not the real origin of those feelings” (Giddens, 2013:680)
“If prejudice describes attitudes and opinions, discrimination refers to actual behaviour [deliberate or implicit] towards another group or individual…..(which) disqualify members of one group from opportunities open to others…..People may have prejudiced attitudes that they don’t act upon….Equally important, discrimination does not necessarily derive directly from prejudice. (Giddens, 2013:680-681).
Institutional racism
The concept…was developed in the USA in the late 1960s….that racism pervades all of society’s structures in a systematic manner. There is a “collective failure…which can be seen or detected in processes; attitudes and behaviours which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people” (MacPherson, 1999 in Giddens, 2013:682)
Cultural racism
“The use of “cultural ideas to exclude certain groups” (Barker, 1981*). ….hierarchies of superiority and inferiority are constructed according to the values of the majority culture [not always majority in number, but certainly in power]. Those groups that stand apart from the majority can become marginalised or vilified for their refusal to assimilate” (Giddens, 2013:682)
Prejudice, racism or institutional racism?
“Can blacks be racist? The answer, of course, will depend on how you define racism. If you define it as “prejudice against or hatred toward another race,” then the answer is yes. If you define racism as “the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race,” the answer is yes. And if you define racism as “prejudice and discrimination rooted in race-based loathing,” then the answer is, again, yes. However, if you define racism as “a system of group privilege by those who have a disproportionate share of society’s power, prestige, property, and privilege,” then the answer is no. In the end, it is my opinion that individual blacks can be and sometimes are racists. However, collectively, blacks are neither the primary creators nor beneficiaries of the racism that permeates society today.”
From http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/question/march09/ [Accessed 12 oct 2016]
The hidden ‘knapsack’ of white privilege
One way of thinking about the advantages that being white comes with, and why it is so difficult for white people to see, is the think about a rucksack (in American a ‘knapsack’). It’s on our back, so we don’t see it in front of us, but it is full of privileges that white people own without having earnt them.
Watch this film that lists them.
References
Brace, C. Loring (2005). Race is a four letter word. Oxford University Press. p. 326.
Magda Mueller & Patricia Herminghouse, (1998) Gender and Germanness: cultural productions of nation”. p. 28.
Martin Barker.(1981) The New Racism: Conservatives and the Ideology of the Tribe. Author, Edition, reprint. Junction Books,
Pat A. Bidol (1970) Developing New Perspectives on Race: An Innovative Multi-media Social Studies Curriculum in Racism Awareness for the Secondary Level,
Go here for a summary of the relevant Giddens chapter
Here’s a chapter on Race in Social Work
