Video Documentary Title: Race – The Power of an Illusion
Write on the concept of “structural racism” using parts from the documentary. My expectation is that you will think on the documentary’s aspects to describe and analyze how racism becomes established in our culture. This article is open in terms of the many topics covered in the documentary as well as your interpretation of the term structural racism.
A excellent essay, on the other hand, will use examples of racism from the documentary to show how the social construction of race as a historic and continuing process has become ingrained in our society, as manifested by continuous forms of racial inequality.
A strong essay will also show how historic forms of racism have transformed over time into the modern forms of racism that we see today. Think about and utilize sociological concepts such as socialization, social institutions, norms, ideology, etc…
Overview
The Distinction Between Us
This three-part documentary begins with a dozen pupils, including African American athletes and Asian American string players, sequencing and comparing their own DNA. The results astound them—and us—when they realize that their closest genetic matches are just as likely to be with persons of other “races” as with those of their own. Much of this episode is devoted to figuring out why. When we examine skin color variances, sickness, human evolution, and even genetic features, we discover that there is no single attribute, trait, or even gene that distinguishes all members of one “race” from another. Our beliefs about race, including “natural” superiority and inferiority, are being dismantled one by one.
The Narrative We Tell
The second episode of this series calls into question the assumption that race has always existed. Ancient peoples stigmatized “others” based on language, habits, and, most importantly, religion, but they did not categorize people as “races.” This episode takes the concept of race back to the European conquest of the Americas, including the establishment of the first slave system, in which all enslaved people shared one physical trait: dark skin. Ironically, it wasn’t until slavery was challenged on moral grounds that early prejudices crystallized into a full-fledged ideology of white supremacy, emboldened by the necessity to defend slavery in a nation that professed a genuine conviction in freedom. By the mid-nineteenth century, race had become white America’s “common sense” understanding, explaining everything from individual differences to social class.
