Making Races

What is race? Views of three American scholars.

​

• Historian Robin D.G. Kelly: “How people assign meaning to how we look.” (quoted in Race the Power of an Illusion: Episode One, video, 2003)
• Sociologist Walter Roy: [Paraphrase]. Groups of people who are viewed as physically distinct and who are believed to inherit similar physical characteristics that correspond with behavioral qualities. (from Making Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2001)
• Law Professor Ian Haney Lopez: “[Race] is primarily a function of the meanings given to [physical appearance and ancestry].” In addition, “racial categorization finds its origin in social practices.” (White by Law:  The Legal Construction of Race. New York:  New York University Press, 1996)

​

What do these definitions share?

​

• Historian Robin D.G. Kelly: “How people assign meaning to how we look.” (quoted in Race the Power of an Illusion: Episode One, video, 2003)
• Sociologist Walter Roy: [Paraphrase]. Groups of people who are viewed as physically distinct and who are believed to inherit similar physical characteristics that correspond with behavioral qualities. (from Making Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2001)
• Law Professor Ian Haney Lopez: “[Race] is primarily a function of the meanings given to [physical appearance and ancestry].” In addition, “racial categorization finds its origin in social practices.” (White by Law:  The Legal Construction of Race. New York:  New York University Press, 1996)

​

Race is cultural, not biological

Racial identifications vary across time and space

• US Census categories
• OMB Directive
• South Africa--United States---Haiti
• Brazil

Record evidence from the video

How were European and American racial categories constructed?

Cultural elements

• Labor systems and social classes
• Slavery caused racial thinking
• Legal classifications
• Royalists concepts of “blood” inheritance
• Folk tales and beliefs
• “Science” (esp late 1600s - 1900s)

Science

Five races, according to Blumenbach (1795)

1. Tungusae, Tungus (a native Siberian people), “Mongolian”
2. Caribaci, Carib (the Kalingo Indians of the Caribbean islands) “American”
3. Feminae Georgianae, Female Georgian, “Caucasian” (this skull is the origin of this term)
4. Otaheitae, Tahitian “Malay” (Pacific Islands, not the Malay peninsula)
5. Aethiopissae, Ethiopian “Ethiopian” (although he also described this as Guinea, which is West Africa)

Whiteness

Racial category constructed to maintain privileges

• Control over the labor and resources of others
• Freedom
• Safety
• Economic advantage

Colonial Latin America

• Influences on racial thinking
• Forced labor
• “blood” purity ideas
• Government classifications
• White/European
• Peninsulares, from Spain
• Criollos (creoles), born in America
• Many, many labels for mixed ancestry
• Mestizos
• Mulatos
• Indios
• Negros

​

From Spaniard and Indian, Mestiza

From Spaniard and Mestiza, Castiza

From Spaniard and Castiza, Spaniard

From Spaniard and Negra, Mulato

From Spaniard and Mulata, Morisco

From Mestizo and Indian, Coyote

From Negro and India, Lobo

From Lobo and Indian, Albarazado

From Albarazado and Mestizo, Barcino

1863

Note the caption

Homer Plessy

Refused to give up his seat