Ian F. Haney Lopez “The Social Construction of Race”

Four Problematics of Race

1. Hudgins vs. Wright

2. Physical characteristics

3. Biological determinism

4. Racial illusions

RACE

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Legal Precedent •  US in 1806, racial status followed maternal line •  person born to a free woman was free; person

born to a slave was a slave •  3 generations of Wright women sued for freedom

based on the mother who was a free ‘Indian’ •  freedom was granted based on physical

characteristics, e.g. long straight hair

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1. Hudgins vs. Wright

The Confounding Problem of Race race is perceived as ‘common sense’ race dominates everyone’s lives

•  economics, jobs and professions •  food, speech, everyday routines and behaviours •  real estate financing, inheritance, hopes & dreams •  government allocation of funding, law enforcement •  housing, marriage, child care provision

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2. physical

characteristics

definitions of race 1.  “vast group of people loosely bound together by historically

contingent, socially significant elements of their morphology and/or ancestry” (966)

2.  “Race is neither an essence nor an illusion, but rather an on-

going, contradictory … process subject to the macro forces of social and political struggle and the micro effects of daily decisions” (966)

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2. physical

characteristics

What does the author say about his racial identity? Why is this relevant?

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physical characteristics

Race is not Genetic there is no biological basis to racial categorization rather—race is a part of a social, interactive process

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3. biological determinism

Ideologically misused the illusion of race is such that some white people in positions of power find it difficult to give up the notion of biological race BUT biological race is an illusion

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4. racial illusions

Four Facets of Racial Fabrication

1. Race is produced by

humans

2. Race is part of a complex social fabric

3. Race significance

changes quickly

4. Race is constructed relationally

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produced by humans rather than abstract social forces or natural differentiation

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fabricated (racialization)

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intersectionality race is constructed not as a category in isolation, but in relation to or intersecting with other axes of identity

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social fabric gender, class, sex

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not stable but fluid responds to historical conditions changes across geographies and time

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changes quickly (historically contingent)

perception of differences perceived superiority of Anglo-Europeans used to justify slavery

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relational

Next 2 classes Thursday, January 10 •  Watch The Help •  Interrogating ‘Whiteness’

(Fishkin 975)

Tuesday, January 15th •  The Blackness of Blackness

(Gates 987)

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