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shaswat2000-blog · 5 years

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Project 2- Final Draft

Race has been a matter of debate, which has been dividing the opinions of many scholars, authors, researchers and even common people over the years. In this research paper we will look back into the history to find the “circumstances” which led to race being a criteria of segregation, how it evolved overtime to take physical and cultural differences (in case of indigenous people) into its realm along with the contemporary and hidden forms of racism which are seen by the people as self-explanatory and natural. In the end we will also look at the negative impacts of racism on whites (which sounds hard) who without noticing play a vital part in sustaining racism. In all the research paper will reflect the history of race, and portray that racial segregation has never stopped in America, rather it has continuously redesigned itself over and over again to be a reason behind social and political security.

Method- For the references in my research paper I first looked for the sources which could explain the origins of race as a term, when it was introduced and how the term evolved, so I got a source which was rather a history book talking about colonialism, but it was effective. Looking for the sources on contemporary forms of racism was quite easy but I took those books which explicitly gave examples (in writings or images) of different forms of racism in modern society. One of the books led me to many different words in modern racism like racial profiling, institutionalized racism, minimization of racism etc and so this is how I got another source which had a plethora of these newly described words. The line which continuously repeated in all of my sources was the negative impact of racism on Blacks, something which everybody knows, so I searched for books on influences of racism on Whites and after a lot of searching I finally found a helpful book.

Methodology- I wanted a synthesis of resources from 2 different (may be opposite) views/angles in my research paper, so I got one of the books written by Englishmen David Allen talking about history and perpetuation of racism without taking a stance and a contemporary book extremely critical of racism. Then I took 2 different books but written in nearly same time so that I can get to know more about modern racism with 2 viewpoints. Both the books talked about the same thing but with different examples which helped me understand the basis of modern racism. Finally, I took a book which analyzed the relationship between young white children and what happens when they are first exposed to racism.

If we look at a brief timeline of race starting from 1600′s we will see that it was non- existent till early 1700′s, then in 1700’s and 1800’s it played a major role in determining servant and master status (which infamously led to slavery and servitude for life), was at its peak during English colonialism and Jim Crow segregation laws, became somewhat of a lesser force after civil rights and it was after the civil rights movement that the modern, indirect and unseen forms of racism developed.

Remember the Jim Crow rules?

Source- Google Images

Looking into the history we find that the term race had been used to refer to humans occasionally since the 16th century in the English language but was rarely used to refer to populations in the slave trade. It was a mere classificatory term like kind, type or even breed or stock but had no clear meaning until the 18th century (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). It was at this time the English began to have wider experiences with varied populations and gradually developed attitudes and beliefs that had not appeared before in Western history (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). The English had a long history of enmity with the Irish on their borders and out of their hostility with the Irish, created an image of “savagery” in which they (Irish) became institutionalized as “the other”. Savagery soon embedded in English life which led to the construction of their own identity as “civilized” Englishmen. Every new experience, along with growing technological superiority, political and material success widened the differences and denigrated all other people who were not part of the civilized world or who resisted the English much like indigenous people (Allen, 1994). With the early rise of merchant capitalism, development of new forms of wealth, notions about individual freedom, property rights, self-sufficiency, the English identified themselves uniquely from other Europeans and started calling them lower-class Europeans (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015).

The “invention” of the white race took place after an early, but unsuccessful, colonial revolt of servants and poor freedman known as Bacon’s rebellion in 1676 (Allen, 1994). The colonialists subsequently decided to establish a division among the masses of poor to further prevent their collaboration against government authorities. Since European servants, had the protection of English law, colonial leaders developed policies backed up by law that separated African servants and freedmen of European origin. The laws provided resources and benefits to poor, white freedmen and restricted the rights of Africans, Indians. Sooner class divisions diminished among poor whites and they started to symbolize themselves as “whites”/upper class/colonialist due to their light skins and common grounds in Europe and started to accumulate power and wealth (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). By mid 19th century racial class and racial ideology had already been established with whites being the superior and the masters and African-American being inferior and the slaves.

After knowing the history of race we shift our focus on contemporary forms of racism, something that has largely gone unnoticed and seen as naturalized or in other words it has the green light of the people. Best example that comes in the mind is that people have naturally accepted that whites and blacks cannot live in the same neighbourhood. However except for members of white supremacist organizations, few whites in the United States claim to be “racist”. Infact most whites assert that they “don’t see any color, just people”? (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, Chapter-3, 2013) (Ryan, William. 2004). So the natural question arises is that who are the people that are making this housing segregation among whites and blacks. It is because Blacks have less access to the entire housing market because whites, through a variety of exclusionary practices by white realtors and homeowners, have been successful in effectively limiting their entrance into many neighborhoods. The thing that strikes is that white people still think that race is no longer prevalent in America, but the above example was one of many methods of discrimination. Another such discriminatory method that comes in our mind is the increased mass incarceration of blacks where white cops (who are being paid by the taxes given by the citizens including black people) intentionally prison and even kill the black people for most minor of offenses and sometimes even for no offense. This is something called “racial profiling” (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Framework Essay 2, 2015). One of the example of racial profiling in Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Framework Essay 3 (2015) stands out where it says that when crack consumption increased among white people the government responded by increasing treatment tables in hospitals and extending insurance plans whereas when crack started influencing black people the government increased the prison numbers and started a “war on drugs”. This is what we call “color-blind racism” or “racism without racists” (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013).

Color-blind racism can be understood when comparing Jim Crow rules (a direct method of discrimination) and what we call “victim blaming”. Jim Crow racism explained blacks’ social standing as the result of their biological and moral inferiority, color-blind racism avoids such facile arguments. Instead, whites rationalize minorities’ contemporary status as the product of market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomena, and blacks’ imputed cultural limitations (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013). We have heard white people accusing blacks of being like thugs, lazy and advising them to work hard in order to gain wealth and power thus getting up in the societal ladder. This is the best example of what we call “victim blaming” (Ryan, William. 2004). Segregated houses are defended by saying that is natural and obvious that people from the same community and color want to live with one another and is something which has been accepted by the people (both blacks and whites) as well.

This is what the press had to say about the image- “A young man walks through chest-deep flood water after looting a grocery store”.

Source- Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008

The press said this about the image- “Two residents wade through chest-deep waters after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store”.

Source- Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008

As we know that media impacts the whole society, or its sphere of influence includes everyone. With a careful consideration we might be able to find the “race card/ race angle” as in the case of black man it is written “looting the store” whereas in case of white couple it says, “finding food from the grocery”. Without a doubt the captions and the images stirred up significant controversy with people saying that the images were racially suggestive that whites “find” and blacks “loot” (Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008).

It does require a great deal of imagination to think that how did the photographer knew that the black man looted the food whereas the white couple found the food. Had the captions been not there the same meaning would have been interpreted because race of the subjects inscribes those meanings (Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008). This stereotype that blacks are bad boys portrays the frame of mind of the people. Dr. King was not wrong saying that “people are judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.” (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013) but he must have never predicted that character of black people would be associated with murder, rapes, smuggling and of course loot and that of white people exactly the opposite. It was during the aftermath of Katrina only that the round of media speculation started where the media was showing that properties and people near the flood-affected area were being harmed, the news of rapes, murders were circulating the whole time on T.V. The people most affected from Katrina were poor black only, who were dying due to inadequate arrangements of the government after the flood and improper care of people by the government before the flood. The media changed the attention of the people from government ineffectiveness and the number of people dying to over-representation of blacks as criminals. So, media at the same time does under-reporting (what would be the future of affected people, government carelessness) to over-reporting (blacks are criminals) (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013).

Think of a renowned white person who would you call racist, you will find many examples. However, think of a renowned white person you would call anti-racist activist, you will have a hard time remembering the name of any such person, but you will ultimately find someone. Not very often we had heard of impacts of racism on white people (especially young children). Consider a young white boy growing up, according to whom everyone is equal, realizes that the people of his color/community have commited some atrocious crimes against the blacks and he is the superior race and thus privileged. If he overcomes this realization of guilt he will take one of 2 extreme steps either completely avoiding the topic of race and racism and becoming the so called “neutral” and completely assimilate oneself to the hidden structures of racism or having a lot of black people as friends, spending a lot of time in the black community and ultimately wanting to act like a black person (Tatum, Beverly, 2009). Both these steps are the reasons behind the lack of white anti-racist activist. As we might know from the two options above that people will go towards the first one or the safer one and stop critically analyzing the things around them.

“Blacks came to America because the whites brought them here. It is due to their cheap labor, the economy of America is so good so why are they being forced out of the country with titles like “freedom from negro” becoming very common”.

In conclusion we can say that the introduction of racial segregation and racial identities was done by the English because of their fear of poor whites and possibly slaves engaging in rebellions together. From all the way to contemporary times what we see is “institutionalized” racism in popular culture and is reflected in the attitudes and beliefs of the people who have naively accepted it.

Works cited-

Allen, David, Elliston. The Naturalist in Britain :- A social history, Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 1994, Print

Rosenblum, Karen E and Toni-Michelle C. Travis. The Meaning of Difference: American Construction of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, sexual Orientation, and Disability- Framework Essay 1, Framework Essay 2, Reading 1. McGraw Hill, 7th edition, 2015

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2013. Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. Plymouth, UK: Blue Ridge Summit: Chapter 1, Chapter 3, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013. 4th edition.

Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008. "Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?" in The Meaning of Difference : American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability, edited by Karen Elaine Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, c2008.5th Ed.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. 2009. "Teaching White Students about Racism: The Search for White Allies and the Restoration of Hope." Pp. 277-88 in Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education, edited by Edward Taylor, David Gillborn, and Gloria Ladson-Billings. New York: Routledge.

Ryan, William. 2004. "Blaming the Victim." in Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, edited by Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. 6th ed.

Reflections

1st reflection

With the help of multi-modal compositions, I was able to portray how media plays a role in sustaining racism and creating a vibe against Blacks. Also in the 1st project I had to give a long, written examples of contemporary racism, whereas in the 2nd project I was able to add more meaning to what I was trying to convey in less words by providing the images of a black man and a white couple wading through high waters in the aftermath of Katrina by putting the images first and then somewhat of a little explanation. By just reading the first few lines the reader will be able to understand what I am trying to say. In a way the multi-modal components created a good balance between images and words thus increasing effectiveness of my topic.

2nd reflection

In the 1st project I was not able to get the main point of in-class texts and my sources and used to write around the main points of the texts which was evident from my long summaries in annotated bibliography. However, the more sources I went through, I was more able to be more “specific” about the main theme of my research topic and was able to get the main gist of the text in general as well which can be seen in the conclusion of this project.

During my searching of sources, I encountered various sociological and modern words defining contemporary racist ideologies. Hence words like racial profiling, institutionalized racism, minimization of racism added more depth to my topic and helped me take a “critical” stance against existing racial structures and thinking.

3rd reflection

My research paper is an argumentative essay which tries to persuade the reader to think critically of the existing racial structures. Another genre that I could have used would be a blog as a research paper is less impactive in comparison to a blog, which is more effective and to the point. For a research paper we think about a certain topic and then search for our reference sources whereas in a blog we write what we think is right or wrong. In all, blog comes from the inside of a person whereas research paper comes from scholarly sources and is hence influenced.

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englishchinesetranslations · 4 years

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Thoughts on the success & decline of civilisations, colonialism & civil conflict: USA/Europe, China & Africa

This is not so much a coherent article, but more of a collection of ideas and criticisms of past policies across world history.

I've always stood by the idea that the strengths of Western civilisation that brought its success between 1500-1900 has proven to be its weaknesses since that period in today's political climates.

Altruism, entrepreneurship, individualism incorporated within communitarianism, innovation, courage and creativity are just a few virtues that made Western civilization great, but has also become something that is now hurting USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. The West has hit its peak and is now in its age of decadence and decline.

On the topic of colonialism, UK, Portugal, Spain & France spread their influence on a massive global scale. Whilst Italy & Germany did colonize with lesser success, it's safe to say the third world still looks towards the West for ideas and innovation in 2019.

I will admit I'm not an expert on European civilisations' relationship with Jews (apart from expelling said tribe hundreds of times), but somewhere down the line it seems Europeans (and possibly Jews) failed to foresee the future birth rates of non-white populations such as Hispanics, Arabs, Black Africans & Indians, which have been skyrocketing since 1900. Meanwhile white European & east Asian birth rates have slowed down massively since the 1990s, due to the success of peace treaties, industrial success, improving standards of living and the comfort of first world standards. With infant mortality at an extremely low level in the first world, that urge for women to produce endless numbers of children in the western/east Asian world has plummeted to below replacement levels of 2.4 babies per woman- in some nations such as Germany, just 1.2 babies.

A mistake made by western colonialists pre-1900 was to try to integrate the New World (Americas), tribal Africa & aboriginal Australia into the western way of living. The white male troops should have been banned from breeding children with the local women; instead, the native populations should have been isolated and cordoned off into their own living lands. In addition, the use of slave labour by the colonialists should've been restricted. The colonialists should have then captured the lands which possessed minerals, natural resources and living land area in Africa. This land area should have then been populated with white Europeans- in particular, western colonialists should have focused on capturing land areas in southern Africa, where countries such as modern South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola & Mozambique exist today. These lands should have been established and divided as white-only nation-states, with any blacks attempting to enter these provinces expelled as illegal aliens breaching borders (or killed on sight if necessary). Likewise the indigenous populations of the Americas and Australia should have isolated and left to their own living areas; again, any of them trying to enter white-only areas should have been dealt with immediate expulsion.

As for the importation of Black African slave labour, the numbers of slaves brought to the USA should been much fewer in number (i.e. 25% of the original total). Therefore it would've been much easier to return the black slaves to Africa during the early 19th century, when the decreasing profit margins gained from slave labour was making this practice moribund. This would have avoided the unnecessary American Civil War of 1861-1865, which facilitated the early foundations of today's Federal Reserve. (In addition, European colonialists could've expelled black slaves located in the Caribbean during this time to place more white people here.)

Instead, the European colonialists should have instigated a mass breeding program for white people during 1500-1900 in order to facilitate a mass white population re-distribution of southern Africa, the modern Arab states of Asia & Africa, Canada, USA, Mexico Australia & South America. In the topic of the Arab world, had the whites succeeded in invading modern Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya & Algeria, there would be a huge white populous in northern Africa. This would mean the Muslim Arabs would be probably now be living on the border areas of Mali, Niger, Chad & Sudan, with blacks pushed further south to the central Africa.

As for the mainly British colonialism of south Asia (such as India & Hong Kong), there's not much for me to say. As there was little land space for the Brits to move the Indians around, it was always going to the case that the British colonised India for economic purposes mostly. It's tempting to think the British could've sterilised the Indians, but frankly that would've seen a civil war between the British colonizers and the native population, with the Brits expelled en masse. As for Hong Kong, the region's economic and political freedoms post-1949 (when the Communists took over and created "Peoples' Republic of China") allowed ethnic Han Chinese to immigrate to that region in large numbers to escape the Cultural Revolution. For those who think Hong Kong is nothing but a British paper tiger, Hong Kong survived the invasion of the Japanese during WW2 and escaped with its traditional infrastructure unscathed.

On the topic of China, I believe the presence of warlords constantly fighting each other throughout this nation-empire's history to be a major mistake. The 1700s saw the Qing dynasty rise to become the richest "nation/empire" in the world, so the end result was a population that never felt like they needed to improve their lot in life. The ideas of Transatlantic exploration was non-existent, leaving imperial China vulnerable to colonialist invasions by the British & the Portuguese, plus the French & the Germans temporarily colonized parts of southern and northern China's seaport towns (France had some power over parts of Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan & Guangdong, whilst Germany captured Qingdao- hence why Tsingtao beer exists!) during the 19th century.

A huge mistake of Chinese emperors & warlords was to continually fight each other for land, possessions and ultimate ruling control within modern China's land area. Had any of the many Chinese tribes within the area had at least attempted to depart China in order to explore the New World, Africa & Australia pre-1900, the decline of imperial China's hegemony within the world would have not proved as problematic for its citizenry as it eventually became in the 20th century. Instead, China could have split up into 5 to 15 separate nations, with each region's languages and customs (Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka etc.) being preserved, with Mandarin (only 400 years old, having originated from the Manchus) taking a far less of a dominant presence in today's Sinosphere.

What's more, the Han Chinese should have left the Tibetans and the Uyghurs alone to their own land areas and focused instead on conquering lands outside of Asia. Had the Han Chinese succeeded in doing this, there might've been nation-states in the Americas, Africa & perhaps parts of Australia which would have a majority Chinese population today. Instead, just like the Europeans, the Chinese are on the precipice of witnessing their ethnic populations decline massively in the 21st century and becoming dominated by other ethnic groups.

In conclusion, it was a mistake by European colonialists in failing to attempt some sort of birth-rate restriction on the indigenous populations in the new world, Africa & Australia. Had the colonialists succeeded in pushing down the numbers of Hispanics, Arabs & Africans (and possibly the Indians) right into the late 20th century at least, the impending demographic apocalypse of whites (& possibly East Asians) would not be so severe in this coming 21st century. Not only was it clearly a mistake for Europeans & Americans to accept centralised banking during the late 19th/early 20th century and to become involved in two world wars, but they should've practiced isolationism with the third world. Essentially, the Europeans & Americans should've focused on fighting the instigators of Communist takeover in Russia, which would have restricted the amount of influence that the banking cartels & Jews have on today's socio-economic-political landscape.

On the subject of PRC China's "economic colonialism" in modern Africa, the issues lie within how much longer can the Chinese communist party continue to plough money and resources into Africa, only to receive little return. As the local Africans cannot afford to pay debts for new railways, utilities and other buildings, the Chinese will start to run low on manpower. Although the Chinese have built new facilities in Africa & Pacific island nations, they've done so with their own ethnic Chinese workers, but refused to give many employment opportunities to the local populous within these regions. As China's birthrate continues to plummet, China is now becoming a victim of its own success (just like the West)- as the current Chinese citizens will now increasingly demand better jobs, living conditions and political rights.

Now when I've talked about the world we live in now being one that demands social and economic equality, I never stated it was a good thing as some believed. I merely stated it was part of the new world order despite myself being aware that equality is a lie. I believe there will be a socio-political backlash from Africa & the Pacific in coming years against China's "economic colonialism", whilst China's own slowing growth will see internal issues within its nation and the Communist party struggling to hold onto power.

The only real solutions I can see for nationalists within Europe and western nations is for a huge percentage of the population to start protesting the political and economic institutions en masse immediately. Make them abandon their jobs, live off the grid, collect rainwater & develop their own independent technology. Civil unrest can also be an option, but I'm not entirely sure whether the West could be resurrected from the ruins of a massively expensive civil and intercontinental war.

However, options such as secession of states from the USA should be kept on the table. Encourage a re-distribution of various ethnic groups to divide themselves into certain areas of the States, so that dividing the USA into separate ethnic enclaves can be done as peacefully as possible.

As for China, only a major economic collapse can make its citizens rise up against the criminal Communist party, but also for the populous to agree upon splitting up the nation for every region's benefits and needs. In addition, this will restore trust, peace and security to neighbouring nations such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam & the Philippines.

As for Europe: end the European Union.

As for Australia, Canada & New Zealand: wake up to the threat of Chinese buying up property and start learning Cantonese (not Mandarin) to irritate the Han Mandarin supremacists from mainland China.

So I would everyone on Pocketnet to think deeply about the past, the present & the future of the West, but to respect differing opinions here. Thank you.

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