The Concept of Race African Americans In Ethnic Notions

The Concept of Race African Americans are better for labor than white Americans. This is just one of the concepts that were spread throughout the country during America’s period of slaves and segregation. It was believed that the white men were superior to the African Americans and today, we know that that was a false idea. Now, we realize that race is just a concept and has nothing to do with our physical abilities, skills, or intelligence. Race has been created socially and therefore has no biological components until people connect society and race. In this essay, I will examine the connection between society and race while describing the depictions of African Americans and explain the social construction of race. Society has created roles for race and they are determined by what society thinks is appropriate for them.

Many people argue that certain behavior roles are based on gender whereas others may believe that it is based on race. For years, race has been used as a tool in the subjugation of human populations on the perceived notion of biological superiorities. For example, in “12 Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup, he explains the pain and torture he went through because the white men in his time thought that he was inferior to them. On Pg. 19 it says, “Though born a slave, and laboring under the disadvantages to which my unfortunate race is subjected, my father was a man respected for his industry and integrity.” Although Solomon Northup was born a free man, his father was born a slave and never grew up with the same rights and luxuries that Solomon grew up with. In this quote, Solomon acknowledges that at the time, race was subjected and people had very tunneled views of race and gender towards the African Americans.

Race was used as a way to control people and subjugate them into believing they were less of a human being than they actually are. Using anthropometrics, which was invented by Francis Galton and Alphonse Bertillon, “they measured the shapes and sizes of skulls and related the results to group differences in intelligence or other attributes.” These scientists then made three conclusions about race. First, they thought that races are “objective, naturally occurring divisions of humanity.” Second, they said that there is a strong relationship between “biological races and other human phenomena such as forms of activity and interpersonal relations and culture.” This means that they though each race had special skills or abilities that came along with it.

This in effect was biologizing the notion of race, as Foucault demonstrated in his historical analysis. Third, they claimed that race is a valid scientific category that can be used to explain and predict individual and group behavior. They thought that each race acts a certain way and any action that one specific person or that race can be explained and predicted. In the documentary “Ethnic Notions” directed by Marlon Riggs, the narrator says, “Political debate manipulated public fears about the so-called ‘black menace. Old stereotypes were adapted to the new politics. Increasingly blacks were identified as brutes.” In this quote, it explains how people in the 19th Century perceived race and thought each race had specific attributes. They thought that all African Americans were tyrants, brutes, and caused trouble. They were seen as menaces and didn’t deserve the same rights as the other people.

Lastly, although we have gone through many hardships and learned much about race from the past, racism still exists in the world today. Author Robin DiAngelo says, “Racism is a white problem. It was constructed and created by white people and the ultimate responsibility lies with white people. For too long we’ve looked at it as if it were someone else’s problem.” Robin believes that since white people had a big part of the division of race since the beginning, that it is their problem to fix and that if they want to fix racism in America then it should start with them. I think that racism still exists because of stereotypes and how we judge a book by its cover in today’s day in age. A Stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. It is also traits regularly associated with specific groups of people based on factors like their race, nationality, and sexual orientation.

In 2019 we still stereotype people based on their overall image and what they look like. For example, some people think that all white people are privileged and that a lot of black people are criminals. These thoughts and views about other people keep racism alive because none of it is true. Stereotyping makes people judge others based on their looks or race before even meeting them or getting to know them. In conclusion, race is not a real thing and it is just a concept that was used to control people. Not one race is superior to the other and should have more rights than the other. There is no scientific proof to prove that one specific race has a set of skills or attributes that other races can’t and it should not be in the world today. We are all made equally and should all treat one another with respect and dignity and not judge them because of how they look.