Unintentional Racism

(A make-up entry). When the topic of racism comes up at our school, I've noticed that people are often outspoken about not being racist. However, I've seen several incidents that brought to light some people's unawareness (which is a word, surprisingly) of other races; specifically in regard to depictions of them.

In Spanish class we often play games to practice the material that involve drawing on the classroom's white-board. There were several incidents in which groups drew pictures that were seen as offensive by our teacher. The first problem was when a group created a drawing of a man's face with hugely exaggerated lips. Weeks later a group drew a picture of Santa and colored the face in with black marker, which resulted in something that looked a lot like black-face. Both times the teacher erased the pictures, explaining that she was not comfortable with them and that they could be seen as offensive. Many students seemed agitated by this and demanded to know how the drawings could be offensive especially if they didn't intend for them to be. Some wondered why it mattered if it "didn't bother them." One student even said, "Isn't it racist to interpret it that way?" I sat there silently fuming, because whether or not it was racist to interpret it to be offensive (an idea that seemed ridiculous to me; realizing that possibility is simply being aware of and sensitive to others' viewpoints) the fact is that it could have bothered someone. What was more concerning than the pictures themselves was that most of the students seemed more interested in rebutting the teacher's reaction and proving themselves innocent than in realizing that they had just done something wrong. Most seemed confused as to what they had done and didn't appear to be guilty or ashamed, only irritated that they had been accused of something. I realize that sometimes people make mistakes and do things without thinking. But it concerns me that no one seemed willing to take responsibility for the drawings, willing to acknowledge that they had been ignorant and done something they shouldn't have.

Cultural Hybridization?

A couple of facts stated in "What Is Race, Anyway?" triggered my imagination. When I read that "interracial marriages have quadrupled in the last 20 years" and that "intermarriage blurs the line between races," I started thinking about how it may be blurring the line between ethnicities (and therefore culture) as well. People of different ethnicities, which can partly be defined by “race” (as in skin color) have distinct cultural traits— unique traditions and beliefs. If categories are being defied as a result of people passing their physical traits on to children, then it seems logical that cultural categories aren't sufficing either. I speculated on what the distant future might bring with continuing intermarriage of people from various regions. Will it someday lead to the creation of a sort of global "race"—defined as skin color I suppose—since people will have mixed so much that eventually there is little distinction? Will people be so exposed to other ideas and lifestyles that one day there will be little difference among cultures, and maybe instead an overall “global culture” resulting from years of hybridization? This may sound out there, but think about how life will change if over a long period of time people constantly become more aware of the world around them. Right now knowledge of foreign languages is regarded as increasingly important because businesses are going global. “More Americans are foreign born than ever before” and are having kids who “often marry outside their nationality.” Who knows how world-minded humanity will become. A global culture may sound detrimental to individuality, but on the bright side it might at least help everyone get along a little better.

And an unrelated note about something I noticed in the article, since science was a big focus: Olson stated that "according to recent studies, only a small percentage of the differences between human beings are accounted for by genes we now associate with race." Well, duh. There's hardly much to differ in human genes anyway; we share 99% of the genetic makeup of chimpanzees, so humans can't be all that different from each other scientifically in regard to race or anything really.

Watch This

ABC News and reporter John Quiñones recently created a series of reports that investigate the reactions of people (mainly Americans) to ethical dilemmas presented in staged scenarios filmed by hidden cameras. All the bits I've seen are interesting, and some of them relate to the ideas in Caucasia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8czPXxwbg5U&feature=related

There was a touching segment edited out of this video when the man who spoke up for the Muslim woman said his son was fighting in Iraq and that he was deeply offended by the ignorance and intolerance he had witnessed (and would never buy from the bakery again).

And that guy who gave the worker/actor a thumbs up and then said Quiñones isn't an American? Seriously, wtf?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIVgMvuCM_k&feature=PlayList&p=F2D287996DFD9C50&playnext=1&index=41

This video's a bit longer, so if you don't finish watching it remember that there was only one police call about the white boys vandalizing the car. During the same time period police received two calls about suspicious (black) men who were lying down in a car and supposedly looked like they were getting ready to "rob somebody." The "suspicious men" were sleeping.

Thoughts?