01:920:108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: One-Drop Rule, White Supremacy, Negroid
15 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
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Had presentations on Sakai articles in class today
a.
Race originated in Middle Ages, as a physical quality (originated in 18th century)
b.
Defining race important in U.S.--> maintained white supremacy, citizenship, prevented
interracial marriages, and deeply tied to systems of racial inequality (keeps dominant group
in power).
c.
Race was based on physical features
d.
3 main races that people were taught--> Caucasian (White), Negroid (Black/African), and
Mongolian (Asian).
i.
Ex: Jews--> in Nazi Germany
e.
Racialization--> when a group is defined by a society as a race
f.
Brazil--> "money whitens"--> money more important than skin color
g.
One drop rule--> discussed in reading
h.
2000 Census--> you could check off more than one race
1.
Defining Race (Sakai Reading)
i.
Biological, ethnic groups, racial formation, self-definition, social construction, and
social class or prestige rank.
ii.
But the definitions can be reduced to 2--> biological and social construction
a.
Defining race--> know the 6 definitions (no definition is dominant over the other)
i.
Because of definitions provided about race were socially constructed.
ii.
Learn through socialization and interaction process (narrowing down of social
construction)
b.
Why are there 6 definitions of race?
c.
Socialization--> process through which you learn norms, rules, and values of your society
(takes place through socializing)--> goes from birth and it is an ongoing process.
2.
Professor's Notes on Defining Race Article
a.
Historical piece (slavery in U.S)-->explains how it emerged in the U.S.
b.
Called chattel slavery in U.S.--> enslaved person who is enslaved forever (children continue
to be slaves)--> treated as property
c.
Africans were used as slave labor for 100 years→their helplessness made enslavement
easier (torn from their land and culture, forced into a situation where their heritage and
culture and families were obliterated except their persistence.
d.
Their culture was only inferior in military capability (to the whites with guns and ships).
e.
Slavery in Africa was more civilized than slavery by European colonists→they had feudalism
used, and they faced harsh servitude but had rights→some could marry, be adopted into
family, own land over time
f.
2 elements that made slavery in the U.S. more cruel--> 1)the frenzy for limitless profit that
comes from capitalistic agriculture, 2) the reduction of the slave to less than human status
by use of racial hatred, w/ that relentless clarity based on color.
g.
How slavery was made possible?--> physical (discipline of hard labor, disunity btw slaves,
separating slaves’ families, and power of law and overseers who could kill and mutilate
them), and psychological (slaves told they were inferior, to order respect of masters, to
match their interests to their master, to see blackness as sign of subordination).
h.
1 condition for elimination of exploitation→to prevent poor white indentured servants from
uniting with the enslaved Africans (prevent class consciousness: recognizing that “we are
being exploited)-->did this by giving certain rewards to white indentured servants in order
to prevent a revolution where an attempt is made to overthrow capitalists and make new
society as stated by Marx from occurring.
3.
Drawing the Color Line (Sakai article)
Lecture: Day 5
Thursday, February 1, 2018
4:07 PM
Minority Groups in American Society Page 1
