Race to the Finish Line

Here's another anonymous student paper from the fall semester of my Introduction to Ethnicity/Race course.

The Starting Line
So you are probably wondering why this post is in sections. Well I’d like to bring this into focus so that you can understand where I am coming from and take the most out of this piece. Think of it as a race to the finish line in three distinct laps or sections. The Starting Line is the first section: it is the beginning and meant for clarification. The first lap is Race and Ethnicity: Classifiers. This section is used to provide a definition of race and ethnicity. It provides a basic understanding of the topics I am going to cover in the other sections. Lap number two is I Used to Speak in Stereotypes. In this section it deals with my identity on race and connects who I am with the stereotypes that are me. In this section it also discusses the stereotypes of other races and how stereotypes make people less than human. The final lap or section is I Judge in Colors Which Makes Me a Racist. In this section I talk in great detail about my personal experiences with race and how they have made me the person I am today. The final section is The Finish Line; in this section I tell where I am in the present day as well as wrap up the paper, finishing the race.

Race and Ethnicity: Classifiers
“Race refers to differences in biology; ethnicity refers to differences of culture and geographic origin” (Ferrante 410). There you have it; proof that these two words do not mean the same thing. At one time I believed they were interchangeable; however, with the help of this course I found out they are not. With the diversity of the world it has become impossible to judge someone solely by their skin color to figure out their race and guess at their ethnicity. Blacks are mixed with whites, whites with Hispanics the list goes on and on making the one bubble for race on the census a flawed and failing design.

“Webster’s Dictionary defines race as any of the major biological divisions of mankind, distinguished by color and texture of hair, color of skin and eyes, stature, bodily proportions, etc.” (Ferrante 410). This however, is not my definition of race. If one wants to accept a dictionary’s stuffy view as the only truth, they are missing the main picture. Race to me is skin color but not just the pigment that we see but also the colors that are hidden. A lot of the population would agree with this view: “Most people in the United States equate race with physical features. In their minds racial categories are assumed to represent ‘natural, physical divisions among humans that are hereditary, reflected in morphology and roughly but correctly captured by terms like black, white, and Asian” (Ferrante 113). I like this view because the majority of America goes along with it. Yet, it’s flawed. Where does it say mixed races? Nowhere at all! Going back to what I said earlier, races are mixed and not cut and dry any more. People have sex; look at your parents, your friends, or your neighbors. Is not one of them mixed of different races? Of course one is! Thus race is a slippery slope that is diverse. Right now I am confused on how to sum up race. Yet, the best way I found is to accept everyone and look past the skin color because you don’t know what races that person is and what’s it to you anyway? So what if the person is black, white or Asian! They are still a person nonetheless. Yet, for all those who want a clear distinction of race here is one for you: “Race is simply a way in which one group designates itself as ‘insiders’ and other groups as ‘outsiders’ to reinforce or enforce its wishes and/or ideas in social, economic, and political realms” (Ferrante 384).

On to ethnicity which to me is merely another word for where your grandparents and their grandparents were born. Yet “Webster’s Dictionary defines the term ‘ethnic’ as designating any of the basic divisions or groups of mankind, as distinguished by customs, characteristics, language, etc.” (Ferrante 411). I believe in today’s time it is just another word that allows you to go deeper into your roots. Not merely stopping at I am American, but going farther and saying I am German, Irish, and English. However, this word causes problems also. If you look to the past with the Armenian Genocide and World Wars, ethnicity played a factor. These conflicts were over what ethnicity you were. Religion also played a role in ethnicity which can be seen in the Armenian Genocide as well as within World War II. Ethnicity has become nationalism by supporting ones own country. However, this view soon turns into a battle over religion as well as ethnicity. If someone is from Germany and is Muslim, they are German. However they don’t fit into the mold of white and Christian, thus it makes ethnicity a hot bed for trouble. One also has to look at ethnicity as being born in that country. So if I was born in China, but live in America with American parents, technically I am Chinese American, because I was born in that country. Yet, would the Chinese accept me as one? Certainly not, because I am not Chinese looking which goes back into race itself. Yet, for the sake of argument here’s another more cut and dry definition of ethnicity.

Social scientists use the term ethnicity very broadly. It can refer to people who share (or believe they share) a national origin; a common ancestry; place of birth; distinctive and visible social traits such as religious practice, style of dress, body ornaments, or language; and/or socially important physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and/or physical build. (Ferrante 215)

So it all comes down to you choosing your own ethnicity. You are born into certain groups such as German, Italian, Scottish, Irish, etc. Yet, if you want to “join” a Muslim ethnicity no one can stop you. Ethnicity is like a “choose your own ending” story. You choose what you want to believe your ethnicity is or should be and what it is not. It’s entirely your choice, no one’s but yours.

I believe the best way to describe these concepts is that race and ethnicity run on a slippery slope. They both can inter-mingle with each other, which allows them to cause conflict and spread hatred. This hatred is not just because someone is a certain race or ethnicity. It is solely because we let stereotypes take control and then let them brew in us and slip out in times of anger or just in general. The best way to end this is that race and ethnicity are two diseases within society that can plague us if we give into the notion that one race or ethnicity is better than another race or ethnicity.

I Used to Speak in Stereotypes
As I sit and ponder the question of my identity, ideas and thoughts bounce off my brain like a ping pong ball. I question as to where do I start and what do I write. Then I think just shut up and write, let the words speak for themselves to explain who I am. This is what I initially thought. Looking back on it again I realized that I should side-step my identity and be honest with everyone. I believe in stereotypes and use them against people everyday. I judge people and so does every person we meet or see within our life. I am sitting here in Saint Lucia writing this where I have been stereotyped by the locals. Being white as well as American means that I am rich, am going to freely give anyone who asks: free money, always is in need of a taxi, and smokes Cuban cigars, wrong! Thus I ask you to think the same how many times do you judge people on looks or color? Every day and every new person we meet or see we subject them to our underlying stereotypes.

Getting back to my identity. I am a white American, and I am proud of that. In this I am not saying I am going to run off and join the Klan; I am saying I am a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities blended into me. Every American young or old is just like me, not in features or color but in experience. We are all the grandchildren of yesteryear. However, I am a stereotype! You are a stereotype; every person is a stereotype and has an identity. However some would like to disagree with me and say that if you’re not a stereotype you don’t have an identity. I back this up with a quote from the novel Tropic of Orange: “And considering someone like herself--so distant from the Asian female stereotype--it was questionable if she even has an identity” (Yamashita 19). Everyone has an identity, everyday and every experience carves out our identity. Stereotypes do not make us who we are. Go look at yourself in the mirror and look at who you are; if your white, black, Asian, or mixed you are still you. Identity is who you are. Me I would like to identify myself as a student at SUNY Fredonia. You may not think this is part of me, but really it is. Going to Fredonia molded me into what I am today. If I would have gone somewhere else I would in essence be a different person and could have a very different identity. I would also identify myself as an upstate New Yorker, which means I live on a farm and don’t conform to the New York City life style. Finally I identify myself as a man, which is clearly obvious by now.

Reader, please note that I didn’t identify myself by my ethnicities. I personally feel that they are not that important in explaining to you who I am, but I feel that since I am an American my past should be touched on. I am Irish and English and German. I am a white American which would be a category on the census. However I am not just the white American, I am me. Do I have friends who don’t fit into the white category? Indeed I do! Do I have cousins who are African American? Indeed I do! Yet, when I say that I am white American can I be so sure that I am completely white American? Dusk of Dawn brings this into perspective with the quote “Later, in the high school, there came some rather puzzling distinctions which I can see now were social and racial; but the racial angle was more clearly defined against the Irish than against me. It was a matter of income and ancestry more than color” (Du Bois 14). Am I truly white then, if at one time in America being Irish was being a sub-species of whiteness? No, I was a half-white in the 1900s but today I am clearly seen as white. This means that my identity would be greatly different back then as compared to now because of stereotypes.

However, my identity is not the only one that had been plagued by stereotypes; thus in order to diversify my paper I am going to bring out other stereotypes, ones of Whites, Blacks, Americans, Chinese, and Japanese. I would like to first start off with whites. Andrea Kim writes about white discrimination within Hawaii in “Born and Raised in Hawaii, But Not Hawaiian”: “It was like senior corner, Hawaiian corner, and for the whites, we called them haole (means foreigner, and usually applies to white people) corner” (Ferrante 43). We can see here that even white people can be the minority within different cultures and areas. This proves that no one is exempt from stereotypes.

The next would be that of the Chinese. In California the Chinese were banned from the state in 1872 due to these stereotypes. “Burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, and from aliens otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the well-being or peace of the State” (Ferrante 308). However, in 1952 this law was repealed. It just shows us that uncontrolled stereotypes can lead to banning and hatred of a certain type of people, because they were believed to have diseases and were predestined to become homeless as well as vile people. This just goes along with how one person who aligns to a stereotype can ruin an entire race.

Blacks too faced stereotypes throughout their history, even in court cases with the trial of Guy v. Daniel where it was argued “[T]hat as a slave she must be black, because only blacks are slaves” (Ferrante 177). This is a clear stereotype against anyone of African origins because other cultures have enslaved people of different races not just ones who were black. Another clear defined stereotype is that all black men are dangerous. In “Apologizing for Being a Black Male” Paul Dawkins tells about being black and the stereotypes that come with it especially around white women. “Sometimes I catch myself slowing down as I walk to my car in a parking lot if there’s a White woman heading to a nearby car ... I either reach loudly for and obviously for my keys, or hold back until she is safely in her car, for fear that she thinks I’m a potential rapist, purse snatcher, or carjacker” (Ferrante 68). These stereotypes are still out there and can happen to anyone of any race, that’s what we as humans have to see. Our identity is filled with stereotypes and it is not just racial, it is also stereotypes of one particular country.

Japanese during World War II were subjected to stereotypes by Americans. They “[D]escribed the Japanese as ‘hissing’, a snakelike impression where witting or not” (Dower 84). This was not the only stereotype that was given to Japan “[T]he most common caricature of the Japanese by Westerners, writers and cartoonists alike, was the monkey or ape” (Dower 84). Stereotypes were used to identify people that were Japanese to dehumanize their identity. Americans were viewed much in the same way in Japanese eyes. “The demon or devil was in fact probably the most popular Japanese characterization of the English and American enemy” (Dower 236). We as humans face the same problems and stereotypes of days gone by. Yet we have to look into ourselves and seek forgiveness because stereotypes can be expelled. “The abrupt transition from a merciless racist war to an amicable postwar relationship was also facilitated by the fact that the same stereotypes that fed super patriotism and outright race hate were adaptable to cooperation” (Dower 302). This allowed for the Americans to accept the Japanese as friends and comrades. The Japanese too changed their stereotypes of Americans upon the completion of the war. They finally saw Americans as just people not as killers. “The Americans were not demons, as the Japanese discovered when they were not raped, tortured, and murdered as wartime propaganda and rumors had forecast” (Dower 301).

My identity is plagued with stereotypes but that is what makes me the person I am today. It also makes me who I am and when I prove those stereotypes wrong I am breaking the tensions of hatred; as well as infusing my identity within the building blocks of progress. The less I judge on predetermined stereotypes the less others judge me on mine thus allowing for a mutual respect of culture, identity, and personhood to take a stronghold. Also the friends I keep as well as the relationships I have, and the things I do all make up my identity and shape me into who I am. I guess through all my rambling my main point is that I’m a male college student from New York who is unique just like everyone else in the world. I am the melting pot of America and my identity is the past, the present, and the future to come!

I Judge in Colors Which Makes Me a Racist
Having traveled to South Africa, Bulgaria, as well as numerous other places in the world, I have been embraced with the feeling of acceptance from the people within these countries. They have accepted me with open arms and I with them. Yet when I return back to America I transform into a racist and I judge people by their race, skin color, and actions. Is it wrong? Yes! Does it dehumanize them? Yes! Do these people not bleed the same blood as me? Yes they do! In my experiences in America, people cast judgments on the past as well as play the race card; whereas in other places of the world people cast judgments based on knowing a person and talking to them.

“A stigma is an attribute that is deeply discrediting. That is, when someone possesses a stigma, he or she is reduced in the eyes of others from a multi-faceted person to a person with one tainted status” (Ferrante 21). We as Americans possess stigmas. An example of this is I work for a cell phone company in the mall; I also have a black male co-worker. All of us like to go to the cookie store to get cheap pops and such. One day he asked me to go get him one. Upon going over to the cookie shop the girl asked me who the pop was for and I told her the black individual’s name and she said “Can I spit in it?” I replied “No, I work with this guy!” Clearly one can see that racism runs true even within the youth of today even in Northern States. A couple times at work I was told by that same black kid that I “was going as Hitler for Halloween” and “You look like a Nazi with your new haircut.” I cannot think of another better example of being dehumanized because of color. This is not the only example of dehumanization within America. When we look at World War II, as an example, we see the in-human treatment of Japanese Americans. “For many Japanese- Americans, the verbal stripping of their humanity was accompanied by humiliating treatment that reinforced the impression of being less than human” (Dower 82). Yet, when we look at other countries they speak in acceptance not in colors.

I would now like to begin with South Africa. Upon getting on the plane and not knowing from Adam who anyone was, to leaving the country with people whom to this day I still talk to is quite an experience in itself. The people in the group itself were diverse. Me being white and from the north, I was outnumbered by Southerners. Not only white southerners but also African Americans, which was odd at first I will admit. I didn’t have any black friends before the trip so this was a different experience for me. Skipping ahead I talked to these people, I bonded with these people, and I became friends with these people. This really opened my eyes. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg. We went to orphanages where children had AIDS. The sadness was indescribable. Yet that’s not the point. The kids didn’t see a skin color they saw a playmate. When we did activities with them they saw us, for us, not any preconceived notion of what an American is. I guess what it comes down to is they had play in their eyes and innocence in their heart. We went also to the slums where people lived in basically shacks. The people invited us into their homes and saw us not as a money sign, but as people. This I feel was a great and amazing way to break the tensions that breed hate and racist views within our society. They didn’t cast the race card stone and thus I never had to respond by defending my white race. All I had to do was smile, play, and be happy.

The next racial experience was going to Bulgaria. In essence I was going alone, not knowing anyone from the school and I was nervous. It was a whole new world, experience, and a four-month journey. What it became was probably for now, what I consider the best time of my life. It was an amazing experience. The people there, just like in South Africa were accepting and caring. They treated everyone with respect and dignity. However, they did hate gypsies and their notions of gypsies soon turned into my bias. This is where I would like to throw a twist into this paper and counter balance with a negative experience that I witnessed while in Bulgaria. I was coming back from the school and walking down the trail back to the dorms. By one of the news paper stands there was a gypsy who I believe was whacking off or peeing. As I passed, I tightened up a little and continued to the dorms. Thinking nothing of it, I decided to chill at the RA's desk, when I saw a girl I was friends with come in battered and bruised. What had happened to her was that the gypsy that was shining his rocks at the stand attacked her and tried to rape her or take advantage of her. This really cemented my view on gypsies. it also made me hate gypsies. The problem of this racism is it kills a part of the victim; whether or not the gypsy did it because she was white or just because, she was still a victim of racism. “As Tori Morrison writes: The trauma of racism is, for the racist and the victim, the severe fragmentation of the self” (Ferrante 301).

As much as we think that other countries have it as bad as America, we are wrong. The race card is still played everyday within many different contexts within America. Calling a person mulatto is racist because it means “young mule”. It also “tells us once again sexual union between the two groups will not go unpunished” (Ferrante 306). This means that we cannot intermingle with different races because it is punishable as well as wrong. Being white is no different that being black, I have come to realize as Du Bois pointed out in Dusk of Dawn, “White people were just the same as I: their physical possibilities, their mental processes were no different than mine; even the difference in skin color was vastly overemphasized and intrinsically trivial” (Du Bois 136). It is not only color these days; it is symbols that have been used to play the race card. On our discussion board the topic of the noose was discussed and how this one woman was forced to take down a Halloween noose because it was racist. Things have gone too far! Was that noose meant to harm black people? No, in the context of Halloween purposes, it meant no harm. Yet the race card was thrown in just to bring out attention. It disgusts me on how people in America have to use paltry examples to beat a dead horse. Everyone is equal under the constitution. Thus maybe it is time we follow the examples of other countries and step up to the plate by letting race be a thing of the past.

These personal experiences show that most people are good and accepting. However, there are some racial groups that refuse to conform to their countries’ laws and live outside the box or still play the race card. Which is fine, however, what it really shows and breeds is hatred between people. Yet, in America it is more pronounced and the race card is played more often. The race card is something that is entirely bull shit in this day and age and is no longer needed in America. In the end we have to take the good with the bad and draw our own conclusions based on our own experiences and use the experiences of others as guides not as God given facts.

The Finish Line
Where I am today is that I still think in predetermined stereotypes and judge people by the color of their skin. Yet, I am still working on acceptance. My process is more or less like going to rehab I have to get my notions extinguished before I can ever be clean. I still hate gypsies, say derogatory words about peoples of different color but that’s my battle I have to face. Yet I think the best way for me to cure my cancer of stereotypes is by throwing myself into a foreign environment and weeding out the good from the bad. I plan to be an English teacher and teach out of the United States. The sole reason is my acceptance of race cannot be resolved if racism is still within sight within the United States. My cure for my racism is by taking a step back and teaching as well as working with students in different countries these experiences will provide me a foundation for acceptance. This will nullify my racist views; thus allowing me to come back to the United States to teach without any bias of race making my classroom a zone for peace and tolerance. I stand here now naked and exposed to the elements, as well as judgments of you the reader. Before you cast your stone, explore into yourself as to who you really are deep inside. I guarantee you too will be standing naked, next to me, upon your realization that you also pass judgments and have biases.


Works Cited
Dower, John W. War without Mercy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.

Du Bois, W.E.B. Dusk of Dawn. London: Transaction Publishers, 1997.

Ferrante, Joan and Prince Brown Jr., eds. The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States. Second Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.

Yamashita, Karen Tei. Tropic of Orange. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1997.

A Proud Jamaican--Not African American--on Race in America

I am a proud Jamaican. Born and grown in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1988. The same year hurricane Gilbert devastated the country. You can say I’m West Indian, you can say I’m black. Don’t call me African American because I am in America only for school.

According to the story of slavery in Jamaica, people my skin colour would be considered a mulatto. This was the race brought about when white slave owners raped black slave women. It is a name given to mixed race children. But now, at home they call most people like me ‘brownin.’ That is a light skinned black person. The reason I’m light skinned is that my grandfather was white and one of my grandmothers was half Indian.

My identity was never an issue at home. Many say that “you are known be the company you keep.” Others say “ Birds of a feather flock together” That was never a part of my identity. My friends were always a wide variety of people so their personalities never affected me.

I am energetic, I can be loud and I enjoy dancing. There is a love in me for my Jamaican roots and music. Music was implanted in my blood from birth. I love the Jamaican food and culture and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Along with my love for my country and all in it, I also love art. I am known one of the few art majors in the black community of school I now attend. I love being creative. Ever since I was in school at the age of around 7 or 8 my mother used to complain. She would tell me that art is not all that matters in school, other subjects need my attention as well. Obviously I gave art my all. I am now a proud art major here to represent my country in the ever-growing art world.

The issue of race never bothered me and didn’t have any effect on the way I did or ever had to do things. Coming to America two years ago is the first time the issue was placed directly in front of me. I spent a year in Long Island doing grade 12 just to get used to the American education system. I was placed in a room with room mate from Hong Kong, as well as the fact that blacks were the minority as well. Take in mind I’m from Jamaica almost everyone is black. The only whites I have had to really interact with were tourists. Now, I'm in Fredonia, and again I’m a part of the minority. It’s weird for me, being brought up in an all-black country and then being thrown into two schools where I feel a bit out of place at times. Something as simple as the classes/courses I take per semester feels so uncomfortable at time because I would look around and see that I am the only black person in the whole class.

The Intro to Ethnicity and Race class was joined because the topic sounded interesting and I wanted a class I could look forward to during the week. I was also hoping that giving the name of the course, there would be a diverse student body. I walked in at 8 o’clock on the first Tuesday morning of the semester to be disappointed. Once again, im the only black person in the class! I was shocked. Nothing can totally explain how I felt.

Being in the tiny town of Fredonia I have experienced racism first hand. Racism has many definitions, the most common and widely accepted being the belief that members of one race are intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races. I have never felt like that before. I was in a store in the area with my now ex-boyfriend looking for an outfit for an event that was happening on campus. There was a little old white woman in the tie section of the store. While walking towards the ties we noticed that she held her handbag closer and tightly to her chest and then left the left the area with great urgency. This shocked us, seeing that we are both Jamaicans and had never experienced racism in our lives. We laughed it off and said to ourselves, “Well I guess we have the whole section to ourselves.” But it really hurt us deeply so we never discussed among ourselves. There had also been one and two occasions in Walmart where people stepped aside when they saw us coming.

Despite those situations I have seen blacks at home treat whites better than the treat their own people. This upsets me because it sort of goes back to the days of slavery where white were at the top of the social ladder. One Saturday my friends and I were in Pizza Hut and we had ordered our food and were talking and laughing among ourselves. A group of white tourists walked in, and not too long after they had taken their seats the waitress yelled across the room and told us to shut up. This action was all because the whites were there. I have also witnessed people shopping and the white customer/tourist gets more assistance and attention from sales clerks. Sad but true.

Race is, as mentioned in the textbook, an illusion. We are all the same. Race is based on a social construction. Its seems, though, as if it is biological. Different people have different facial features, skin colour, body type, etc. We are also born in different countries and speak different languages. The issue of race in my opinion, was brought about by social standing and just people being ignorant and making assumptions.

Over the period of the semester I have realized a lot of things. Race as defined by dictionary.com is ‘a group of persons related by common descent or heredity, any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics: no longer in technical use.’

Genetics is closely linked to race and this I didn’t notice until this class. The definition of genetics is ‘the science of heredity, dealing with resemblances and differences of related organisms resulting from the interaction of their genes and the environment.’

Both definitions are closely linked. That was not expected. But the funny thing is that without genetics race may not exist. But according to Spencer Wells we are all 99.9% similar where genetics is concerned. We were all, whether we want to admit it or not, descendants of people from Africa. Prince Brown says, “current scientific investigations using genetic research and fossilized remains indicate that all modern humans evolved in Africa and migrated from there to the rest of the world.” This percentage though, contradicts Prince Brown, who states our genes are only 75% identical regardless of the population to which they are assigned.

Despite the many similarities among humans and races according to genetics a lot more contributes to our differences. Blacks were once slaves and people still believe they act as slaves to themselves.

This article stood out to me because it set aside black people aside and looked at their faults in their lives today. To some it may be stereotyping, but it is completely true. The author though is unknown. But the message has been passed over the internet over a number of years:

For those of you who heard it, this is the article Dee Lee was reading on a New York radio station. For those of you who didn't hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote it.

THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES

We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.

Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, "The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book." We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com , not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.

GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).

Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing.

They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them "Status" or that they have achieved their Dream.

They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities.

With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn't want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They'll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.

SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A "Talented Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read that the "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life.

Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote
their name without making any real change in their community.

They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM)

They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.

Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping" their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!!”

From what I know, other races do not have this problem. And I can only speak from experience. The idea that black people don’t read is a problem all in itself. And this expands into other countries as well. Jamaica has the same problem. The money spending aspect of it spread all across American and even into the Caribbean. Blacks are known to spend so much money it is almost sickening.

A lot may take offence to this article but the truth hurts. It may not apply to all blacks but the majority spoils the bunch. We may not be slaves as we were years ago but instead, as the article states, slaves to ourselves. Admitting it is the first way to get over it.

Another problem that we are slaves to the whole situation of calling each other ‘niggers’ ‘bitches’ and ‘whores.’ It is a huge problem if white person calls us any of those names but is it ok if another black person does the same thing?

Whore is a woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse, usually for money. Now black women, especially black American woman take it as a habit to call each other by this name as it is okay.

Bitch is a malicious, unpleasant, selfish woman. A bitch can also be described as a lewd woman; this is another word commonly used in the black community. But if ever used to them by another race sparks major problems.

Nigger: this word has seen leaps and boundaries like none other. Dictionary.com states that it is a “term is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War.”

Personally this doesn’t affect me and never really has. But just the fact that it offends people so much, I think, to be on the safe side, the word should not be used. People have died over the use of this word but the scandals and disrespectfulness does not stop. Again it goes back to the point that black people can be so ignorant at times.

I am black and I am proud of it and should be. But little things and situations like the one mentioned in the essay make me sad and the disappointment never stops.

Again, we are all the same in this world, all from one place with one common ancestor. The race issue is what we make it. It’s things we do as different cultures that make us see race as a big difference. Attitudes and lifestyles, class and education, that what causes race. We are all human beings and that is the fact. We all have two eyes, ears, hands, and feet. All have DNA but just in different orders. Race is what we make it. Genetics is a part of it but only a speck.

Who Am I?

Here's the second student paper, this one from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. In the course of my career, I've given out fewer than a dozen A+s on student papers. This was one of them. [Update 4/9/08: Apparently other people on my campus think so--a version of this just won a campus-wide writing award!]

***

Who am I? Who do I want to be? Why am I here? What is my identity? Why are we all different? Though these questions may seem straight out of a cheesy self-help book on “discovering who you are” or “finding yourself” that most people would be embarrassed if caught looking at in a bookstore, they are fundamental questions that most of us don’t spend enough time pursuing. We’re too busy, we say, have too much that needs to get done. Like most people, I often rush around doing things, half the time not thinking about why I am doing them, much less who the “I” is that does them.

Identity is multi-layered, multi-faceted, and nuanced, a mosaic that changes elements as the contexts of our lives change. It affects how we portray ourselves, how we read other’s behavior, and how we categorize ourselves and others into groups. Who am I? It’s a seemingly simple question. I am a student. I am a Sociology and a Women’s Studies major. I am sister, a daughter, a cousin, a friend. I am a member of several organizations. I am a Capricorn. I am a person who likes to travel. I am a middle child. I am a former mental patient. I am both a cat and a dog person. I am an American. I am white. I am a woman. The list could go on and on. We do not normally think about these things unless some crisis prompts a screeching “Who Am I?” to circle around our heads, and even then, it is more commonly a “What am I going to do?” especially during life transitions.

When asked, most of us respond to the question of identity with something related to what we do, or our relation to someone important in our lives; we respond with the more contextual/changeable aspects of our lives rather than the more obvious fundamental qualities that become taken for granted and as such, there is no need to ponder them. Or is there? And are these qualities really fundamental? Do some of the problems with conflicts among people with differing identities stem from our lack of taking the time to explore these issues? For example, I am female and identify as a woman. For some people, gender identifications are not constants and/or they are grounds for much consideration. For me, though I think about sex/gender in a theoretical way through classes, and though I do not see myself as a typically feminine woman, I identify as a woman nonetheless and it does not rouse much thought on a day-to-day basis. It is plainly there. It is what I am. But were it not for my explorations of being a woman through some of the experiences I have had and for theoretical explorations as a student, I would probably seldom/never really have thought about what it means to be a woman in our society, or how being a woman in a society in which women continue to be oppressed has shaped my life. Nor would I probably have begun to actively participate in organizations working for change.

That being said, my gender is much more salient to me than some other characteristics for the most part, due solely to the fact that being a woman in a society in which women continue to be oppressed has negative personal consequences. How many of you or your female friends been felt up in a public place? How many are survivors of sexual or domestic violence? are afraid to walk home at night? spend hours on making themselves look “pretty”? have eating disorders? are torn between being a prude or a whore? dumb themselves down in middle/high school because smart girls aren’t liked? get paid less than their male colleagues? The list could go on infinitely. I could answer “yes” to all of these at varying points in my life, a fact that both enrages me and makes me sad. And I know I am not the only one.

Race and Ethnicity have had comparatively little impact on most of my life, because I am white in a society in which white is privileged. I don’t have to worry that anything I say will be taken as representative of all “white” people. In stores, I never have to worry about being followed by managers due to an expectation that I am shoplifting. When I speak, people will listen and not pass off what I say solely on the basis of who I am. Of course, with the intersection of white female, at times what I say may be passed off as feminist rants; even then, being shut out would not be on the basis of my race. People don’t reach out to touch my hair without permission. If I turn on the television, open a magazine, or read a book, I will see people who look like me. In school, I will learn about the great things people like me--white people--did. The list could continue ad infinitum. Being white where white is privileged and is considered normative leads to much less obvious social effects than being non-white, in which otherness becomes a part of one’s daily experience.

Unlike many people, I have had the opportunities to live overseas, which has led to a comparatively early recognition of race/ethnicity as a “thing” to be explored. Being overseas was what sparked by interest in learning about the social world, and perhaps even set me on the course towards pursuing sociology academically. Race and ethnicity became a more conscious aspect of my identity during the time I have spent overseas. In sixth grade, my family lived in India for a year, and then in eleventh grade I was an exchange student in Japan. In addition, I have also traveled to Germany, Austria, Nepal and Poland.

In the European countries I visited, my race/ethnicity did not become much of an issue, as I am of European descent. However, my real “race awakening,” so to speak, occurred when I was ten and living in India. For the first time in my life, I stuck out like a sore thumb solely because of the way I looked, and it was obvious that I was an outsider. I was conspicuously “different” and at times looked on with suspicion as a foreigner. This was especially true because the area in which we were living, foreigners were seldom found. It was not an area anyone would ever visit to sight-see. To get to the university housing where we were living, we had to pass through the Navy Nagar. Getting through and into our building required identification cards, all thoroughly inspected, especially before the guards came to know us. Being so obviously different was rather unsettling, as was having people stare often and take every little thing I did as representative of the way Americans do things. It made me much more observant of how I presented myself, even at that young age.

In addition to obviously being an outsider and all of the ramifications that brings, there were times in India during which our obvious whiteness provided a possible threat. Within the first few weeks of our arrival, my mother had an interview for a teaching position at the American International School of Bombay (where we kids ended up going to school). She brought me along with her to the interview. On our taxi ride there, we suddenly found ourselves stuck in traffic that had been stopped by protestors filling the streets shouting angrily. My mother and I were alone. Not knowing the language, we could not understand what the crowd was shouting and had no way of knowing whether or not it was an anti-American demonstration. With the exponentially globalizing world of the early to mid 1990s, and India’s historic relationship with the west as a colonized country, tensions constantly simmered beneath the surface. Lingering in our memories were stories of the previous years’ infamous bloody “Bombay Riots.” While not against foreigners, these riots were recent enough to remain in collective consciousness. Our school even had “riot days” on which they closed for the anniversaries of particularly violent incidents. The protesters began walking, weaving between the stopped cars, and mom tried hurriedly to at least roll up the windows of the taxi, but they were broken. My mother yelled at me to crouch down on the floor of the taxi; she covered my blonde hair, thinking that at least with her dark hair she was less visible. The crowd eventually let us through as traffic began to flow again. We later found out it had been a demonstration against foreign, especially American, involvement in India’s university system. I think that is the only time I have actually felt that I would possibly be targeted solely for a simple fact about myself that I have no control over.

In India, though different, we were also part of a higher socioeconomic class than we were accustomed to in the United States, due to the strength of the dollar against the rupee. And although there was potential for being targeted as foreigners, the British had exported western hierarchies of race into India during its time as a colony. While different, we were not suddenly part of an oppressed group in the way that Africans who are among the elite in their home countries become when they immigrate to the United States due to the importance race plays. In other words, what I am trying to say is not that I have had experience with oppression due to my race, because that is not the case, but that living overseas did bring race awareness and the experience of being “different” than the norm with respect to race.

However, despite being fortunate enough to spend time overseas when relatively young, I think my race awareness only came early in comparison to other white people. I think of my cousin who is the product of a biracial marriage; my aunt is white and my uncle is black. As the flower girl for a wedding on her mother’s side of the family when she was about five years old, she had worn a hairpiece with fake flowers and ribbons, which were woven into a circle pinned in her hair. At the back, the multicolored ribbons came together and flowed down from the crown. For several weeks after the wedding, she wore the hairpiece, refusing to take it off even when going to bed, telling everyone it was her “hair.” She told her mother that she wanted long pretty hair like her cousins. Even at about five years old, though she did not have any theoretical understanding of race relations, nor did she know the history of her father’s family from Jamaica, she did have concrete knowledge of what was beautiful in American society, and she knew her dark, short, curly hair was not. She did eventually stop wearing the hairpiece, and I hope that as she grows up, she develops a positive self-image, but regardless, it illustrates the kinds of “race awakenings” that non-white people have from early childhood. They may not know history or theory as children, but societal messages that “white” is better than “non-white” become ingrained very early on. Not having to ever have to think about my “racial” features is part of my white privilege; white is not racialized, but rather only usually seen as the absence of non-white.

Regardless of the very real effects race/ethnicity has on people’s lives, I do not think that it is actually “real” in a biological sense. Genetic testing may be able to give us an idea of the historic migrations among people and tell us when certain groups broke off from others, forming their own sub-group that developed its own distinctive physical and cultural features throughout centuries. However, it does not tell us anything about race itself. It only tells us about the genetic variation among humans, and how that variation developed due to when certain ancestors went in certain directions or formed their own groups. It does not tell us what groups should be considered races, or provide genetic evidence supporting the ideas of race, as it is often used by those who believe race is real. They conveniently forget that it is people who decide which groups are considered “races”; these groups do not coincide well with the scientific data. For example, the most variation as far as genetics is concerned is among Africans; however, despite being the most genetically dissimilar, they are considered part of the same “race.” Just as people used science in previous generations to pick out physical features to categorize races, people today pick and choose which branches of the human family tree to use; the branches they pick just happen (by some mysterious coincidence) to fit exactly with historic notions of race that have been constructed by racist societies. Some people admit that humans decide which branches to use, but say that it does not matte--genetics still proves that race is biologically real--and it just proves that we were wrong about exactly which groups were “races.” But who decides? Where do we draw the line? Do we end up with 1,000 races? Would that be enough? NO. Because it does not matter what we know about the genetic heritage of groups of people. It is the social constructions of race that are driving its continued use and its continued effects, not the biological variation. A decision made by academics or politicians to suddenly create several racial definitions for Africans will not suddenly change the way society constructs black-ness or effects that being black has on people. It is already true that there are some Africans who are not physically black, but they are still regarded as belonging to the “Black” race, even if they can “pass” as being white. And regardless, the genetic testing from which people can find out their ancestral origin does not test their whole ancestry. It can only test one (for females) or two (for males) genetic lines--either the direct maternal or the direct paternal--ignoring all the other individuals over thousands of centuries that contributed to their genetic makeup. For example, if someone’s direct paternal line is European, but the whole rest of their ancestors are Asian, when tested through their y-chromosome, they would show up only as European.

That being said, while I definitely see race as socially constructed in nature, I sometimes am wary of simply saying that everything is socially constructed and leaving it at that, as there is a fine line between saying that something is socially constructed and invalidating the experiences of those who live with the palpable effects of such constructions in their everyday lives. It is true that something has real consequences regardless of whether or not it is real, so long as it is believed to be real. It is still a fundamental way in which we organize ourselves, and as such, it is important to not only look at the theoretical implications of race, but also at the practical implications these conceptions bring.

I tend to be someone who, despite knowing that the idea of ethnicity has a variety of problems, many of them similar to those of the conception of race, would like to hold onto it much more than I tend to feel the draw to hold onto race. I think it is perhaps that the distinction made between ethnicity and race is that of culture versus biology, respectively. The biological basis of race has been challenged, but ethnicity still seems to be cultural, whether or not the distinct and mutually exclusive categories set up under the current system of ethnicity hold up. I am not suggesting that ethnicity is actually cultural fact, but only that I find it harder to let go of notions of concrete ethnicity than those of race. Further, I am not suggesting that we simply need more categories, because that would not do much to fix anything. People, myself included, need to get away from the “add more categories and let people choose more than one category so everyone fits” fix to the problems of classifying people by race/ethnicity. And thus far, I have only figured out what I would not do about race and/or ethnicity, rather than anything about what I would do, and what they are not more so than what they actually are.

I also question how much what people view as their “ethnic” heritage is really “ethnic” and how much has more do to with specific family traditions. One could say perhaps, that ethnic traditions are those shared among groups of families who either live in or share ancestors from particular locations. But I think that sometimes ignores all the heterogeneity within groups. While in Japan, I remember taking many things my first host family did as the “Japanese” way of doing things. As I lived with subsequent host families (4 in total), I learned very quickly that many of the things I had thought were Japanese—a reflection of cultural differences--were actually specific to that particular family. This was probably especially true, as my first host father was a Shinto priest, so much of their day-today life revolved around the large shrine adjacent to their house.

However, even in my own life, I have come to learn that many of the things I have grown up with, things I believed to be part of our ethnic traditions, were actually much more recently begun, and specific to particular families. I already have a mélange of European “ethnicities” from which to take traditions--German, Polish, Alsatian, Czech, English, Irish--but many things are more closely tied to family than ethnicity. For example, the anise cookie recipe we use comes from my great-grandmother. In addition, through family members having explored genealogy, we have come to learn that in several cases, what we thought we knew about our ethnic heritage was simply wrong. On more than one occasion, someone hid what their “true” background was, probably for better marriage and job prospects. My great-grandfather hid the fact that his mother was a Jew from Buffalo, NY. My great-great grandfather on another side converted in secret from being Lutheran to Catholic on the night before his wedding, though the way my grandparents talk, one would think their family was Catholic since the dawn of time. My great-grandmother on another side told everyone that her family was French Canadian, and wove tales such as her father being the middle-heavyweight boxing champion of Quebec, when in reality her grandparents had emigrated from the Palatinate. The Jewish and French-Canadian examples probably have a lot to do with the social and political climate of the time, as my great-grandfather who hid his being Jewish, probably did so because he wanted good prospects for his daughter. I have heard that he had is heart set on her being a debutante as well, which she would not have been able to do if it was known that she had any Jewish blood. The great-grandmother who hid the German connection probably did so because she was coming of age, and looking for both a job and a husband during World War I.

How much of what anyone knows about their “ethnicity” is true? How do we measure the “truth” of ethnicity? Especially in a world that is become more and more globalized, in which identity seems to be a thing we pick and choose from among many possible elements found worldwide--something we consume, rather than something we are--how do we define our ethnic background? How much relevance does it have to our lives? I don’t necessarily have answers to any of the questions I keep asking, but it is important for all of us to start asking these questions and to continue to ask them. There will probably never be a neat synthesis, a one-size-fits-all solution, but I don’t think that is necessary, nor something we really should be seeking. Nothing in the social world is static, so any nice solution we come up with would be obsolete very quickly. Granted, on a practical level, we need to come up with something we can generally agree upon, because without that, we would never get anything done, and bureaucratic institutions need to have an agreed-upon way to categorize people. On a more personal and interpersonal level however, I think we need to cultivate the idea of identity almost as a dialectic relationship with ourselves, the elements of who we are and who we want to be constantly shifting. We need to simply learn to be okay with multiplicity and tension and messiness, and get away from thinking about identity as fitting in a particular category, or choosing from several distinct categories. We need to learn to embrace the variety and amorphous elements and get away from dualistic thinking and rigidly-bounded categories.

Identification Project #1

I'll be posting over the next few days here a few student papers from my Introduction to Ethnicity and Race course from this past fall. Here's a link to the first!

Underworld

In this paper, I will be exploring race, ethnicity, and sexuality as portrayed in the film Underworld and further elaborated in its sequel Underworld Evolution. This science fiction/action/horror film while initially seeming only to focus on simple violence if one looks just a little deeper they learn how it can be a commentary on our past and perhaps even a statement on our future. (Please note anyone who wishes to see this movie beware because it has

Synopsis
“In the Underworld, Vampires are a secret clan of modern aristocratic sophisticates whose mortal enemies are the Lycans (werewolves), a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city's underbelly. No one knows the origin of their bitter blood feud, but the balance of power between them turns even bloodier when a beautiful young Vampire warrior and a newly turned Lycan with a mysterious past fall in love. Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman star in this modern-day, action-packed tale of ruthless intrigue and forbidden passion all set against the dazzling backdrop of a timeless, Gothic metropolis.”(1) This is the synopsis taken directly from the Official Underworld site it seems simple predictable and straight forward and sadly loses its depth. To truly understand this movie you must start from the past and move forward.

The Past
I will start with a brief overview of the past so as not to obstruct the initial storyline. In the Underworld movie hundreds of years ago Alexander Corvinus was the only survivor of a virus that surged through his village. He was infected too but he did not die instead he was changed turned into an immortal. He then had two sons “One bit by bat and one by wolf” Marus and William respectively. These two brothers would become the first vampire and werewolf and would end up giving birth to these new races. A third son was also born; he was born human destined to walk the mortal path.

Shortly after these two races are born, the vampires soon dominate the werewolves turning them into slaves entrusted to guard their bodies as they slept during the day. During the middle Ages the werewolves, or Lycans as they are referred throughout the movie rise up against their vampire masters under the leadership of Lucian whom at the beginning of the movie is said to be "most feared and ruthless leader ever to rule the Lycan clan" but was apparently killed. With Lucian gone the Lycan strength began to disappear and the Deal Dealers, vampire agents, sought to continue their role of exterminating Lycans.

The Present
The movie opens with Selene (the character portrayed by Kate Beckinsale) a Death Dealer along with two compatriots hunting down a pair of Lycans. The Lycans led by Raze are hunting a human by the name of Michael Corvin. After following them into a subway station, the Lycans realize that they are being followed and a shootout ensues. With one of the Death Dealers killed via UV rounds.

Selene returns to her coven to speak with Kahn the head death dealer but was quickly rebuffed by Kraven saying it was nothing even when Selene reveals the UV rounds. While this is, going on Singe a Lycan scientist unsuccessfully seeks a match for the “Corvinus Strain” and decides to once again go after Michael.

Selene tracks down Michael to question him and the two of them are attacked by a horde of Lycans led by Lucian the feared Lycan leader whom was presumed dead. Michael is bitten and is taken by Selene (who is unaware that he has been bitten) back to her coven after they had escaped the Lycans. Lucian stores the blood sample in his mouth to be studied by Singe. Michael soon leaves the lair for his own safety after other vampires learn of his condition, that he will become a werewolf. Selene becomes suspicious of Kraven’s repeated attempts to silence her and decides to break vampire code and look back into history. She learns that the key battle that resulted in the fall of the Lycan uprising a group of Death Dealers attacked the Lycan fortress and the only survivor was Kraven who returned with Lucian’s branded skin the body “lost” in a fire. This new information fueled Selene’s belief that Kraven and Lucian were working together for their own ends. Pressured by this belief she used her blood to awaken Viktor an Elder Vampire and the Vampire who turned her.

Michael after he had escaped the coven seeks to get aide from his friend at the hospital only to be betrayed. He escapes again and attempts to meet with Selene. Selene drives out to meet Michael and tells him of the history between Vampires and Lycans and how now that he has been bitten he is now part of this war whether he likes it or not. At the Coven Kraven runs into Viktor. Viktor demands to know why he has been awakened in such a manner and then discovers that he has been awakened early "the Chain". The Chain is a cycle in which one elder is awake while the other two sleeps for a hundred years changing once that time has finished, has been broken and that Viktor has been awoken one hundred years before schedule.

Selene takes Michael to a safe house, while the Michael tells Selene of the nightmares he has been afflicted with ever since he had been bitten. Selene explains that these are memories transmitted from Lucian when he bit Michael. Selene then explains her hatred for Lycans when she discovered that a Lycan had killed her family only being driven off by Viktor who then gave her the chance to avenge her family's death. Another firefight breaks out and Michael is captured. Selene manages to capture Singe.

Back at the coven, Kraven is attempting to explain what had occurred when Selene enters the room bringing Singe. Singe is persuaded under duress to explain the Lycan plan to combine the bloodlines of the two species to create a hybrid that could then end the war. To complete that plan they needed a sample of the original virus as provided through the decedents of the third son of Alexander Corvinus, which was why they targeted Michael. Singe also reveals Kraven's involvement in the plan that he supported in hopes the Elders would be killed leaving him leader of all the Vampires. Once this information is revealed Kraven flees. Before the others notice he is gone Khan enters the room to inform Viktor that the Vampire council including Amelia who had been the active elder at the time returning to relinquish control back to Marcus. Viktor kills Singe and tells Selene to be exonerated is to kill Michael.

Michael wakes up in a lab in the Lycan lair, the first person who speaks to him is Lucian who then take a vial full of blood from him and injects it into himself (intending to use blood taken from Amelia to make himself the first Hybrid). As Michael looks on, he notices the pendant that Lucian always wears and the nightmares/visions/memories come together in a clear vision. He remembers an event Lucian's wife was Viktor's daughter Sonja was pregnant with his child. As punishment Lucian was chained to the floor and whipped while Sonja was tied to a stake to watch, then the vampires left the room and opened a slab in the ceiling letting the sunlight in and burning Sonja to death as Lucian watched. As night fell, the vampires reentered the room to finish him off but the moon rose allowing him to transform he broke free of his chains grabbed the pendant from his wife's neck and escaped. Michael reveals the memory to Lucian who fills him in on the details of how Viktor started the war initially due to the fear of a Hybrid (which Viktor referred to as an Abomination.)

The vampires begin their attack on the Lycan base a heated battle. While this is going on Kraven betrays Lucian shooting him with silver nitrate bullets, which are a more lethal than the traditional solid silver. Selene manages to quickly enter the lair and locate Michael, untying him he encourages him to leave despite his protests. While they are, arguing Kraven discovers them and spitefully reveals to Selene that it was not a Lycan but Viktor who killed her family and spared her only because of her resemblance to his dead daughter. Kraven then shot Michael and tries to take Selene with him threatening her if she does not. Lucian not yet dead injures Kraven and encourages her to bite the dying Michael. She concedes turning Michael into a hybrid with the strengths of both and none of the weaknesses. Lucian is relieved to see his dream completed then dies at the hand of Kraven.

Viktor appears breaking Selene and Michael up and throwing him through the wall and into a flooded grotto. Selene confronts Viktor with the knowledge she now has about him and while Viktor does express guilt for his action he says how what he was doing is necessary and how the abomination must be destroyed.

Michael transforms into his Hybrid form for the first time and he a Viktor fight. For much of the fight they are evenly matched but Viktor soon gets the initiative and Selene intervenes killing Viktor. The movie ends with Michael and Selene leaving hand in hand as Selene narrates about the dark uncertain future to come.

How this is connected to race
There are a wide number of factors that this movie possesses that connect to race. Factors such as:
1. Slavery
2. Taboos about interbreeding
3. Severe punishment for breaking said taboos
4. Dress, culture, socioeconomics, and even slang (Bloods).

Each of these I will explore as needed.

Slavery
Slavery the act of one group treating the other as subservient or property has existed for hundred of thousands of years but the levels in which it existed have changed. Many of the "original" slaves were Slavic peoples (Slav being the precursor word for slave). These early slaves were not necessarily bound for life and their children were often allowed into said society. However when the Europeans come to Africa and received slaves which they then brought to the new world the colonial era cheap labor was in desperate demand so slaves as we know them today were formed. A hereditary basis that passed from parents and children and as time passed focused more and more on the homeland their ancestors come from and physical characteristics they possess. The Underworld movies parallel the strange and terrible form of slavery which existed. Vampires and Werewolves in this move were born of twin brothers, but one group seeing the other as dangerous enslaved the first Werewolf. The other werewolves were turned into slaves due to the fact that they did not fit into human society and that they unlike the vampires they were not afflicted by sunlight. In this fashion werewolves became the Vampires guardians by day and watchdogs at night.

The next interesting parallel is how once colonialism breaks down quite often the next logical step for the former colonial power holders (or the “masters”) goes from enslavement to genocide. As soon as the Lycans turned against the vampires the did not seek to restore relations no as Selene said “ our order remained the same hunt them down and kill them off one by one”. Mahmood Marndani in his article “When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda.” As soon as a people can define another people as not human or less than human the ‘genocidal impulse’ is easy to follow, and a people who have been treated this way will respond with brutality with brutality. While the Lycans in the movie were seeking

Interbreeding
One of the primary themes of this movie is interbreeding. In vampire society vampires are not to fraternize with werewolves in any way. In the beginning of the movie when Selene shows interest in Michael it is initially seen as amusing. Michael (viewed as a human at this point) is seen as a pet but harmless. When he is discovered to be a Lycan the attitude instantly changes for both of them, the vampires being instantly antagonistic towards him and disappointed and discouraging towards her.

The key relationship showing past Vampire Lycan relationships is that of Sonja and Lucian. Lucian as a slave had no ill will towards Vampires he even married one and impregnated her. Viktor as mentioned before hard her killed brutally and him beaten and whipped. This brings up another interesting issue which was well illuminated by Joanne Nagel in her article “Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate intersections Forbidden Frontiers” explores how much more brutally women are treated than men when it comes sexuality. One very interesting historical comparison is the treatment of women collaborators and men collaborators. The article describes two women accused of sexually collaborating with the Nazis in the photograph the women’s heads are shaved, their clothing is stripped, they are barefoot, and they both have swastikas tattooed into their foreheads. A male collaborator is shown on the next page he is not visibly disrupted in any way he is blindfolded and about to be executed. This is just one example of how the rules are different not only for people designated as a different race but designated as a different gender they are treated differently. It is quite possible, even likely, had it been a Vampire male with a Lycan female the male might have received a light punishment while the female would be killed in a brutal fashion.

Culture
Another interesting element within the movie is the cultural elements exhibited by these different factions. For example forms of dress. Vampires in this movie wore clothing best described as gothic with the primary color of the clothing being black with on occasion red elements. They wear fine cut tailor made clothing with the primary materials being leather, latex, and silk . The Vampires both male and female all young and appealing can be seen lounging around the great hall enjoying the opulence and discussing the latest gossip. Lycan culture is very different their clothing is working class they are often shirtless wearing a work jacket which could be quickly removed if they need to transform. Lycans of all ages and degrees of heal can be seen. It should be noted that all Lycans shown have been male suggesting either that there are no female Lycans shown which suggests either there are no female Lycans or that female Lycans are not allowed to be with the males. The latter is more likely due to the fact that Lucien was born into slavery however due to the large gap of time between these periods the former is still a possibility. Lycan culture is more charged than that of the Vampire Lycans fight for dominance while the others not competing cheer them on. Lycans also on one occasion showed that they possessed a term for Vampires that being Bloods, it is unknown if the Vampires would consider that a derogatory term.

It should also be noted that both cultures to some extent could be passed on due to the fact of how memories are passed via bite and blood from one vampire to another reinforcing beliefs and traditions from one generation to the next.

Conclusion
When writing this Kevin Grevioux when interviewed on the subject stated that some of the inspiration he had had in interracial relationships in the past so it is readily apparent where these racial characteristic came from and the message the movie seeks to put across in a manner that is not overwhelming. Integration makes us stronger divided we will only destroy one another.


Works Cited
1. http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/underworld/title-navigation-5.html
2. http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:fTop_2wWfGkJ:press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7027.pdf+Mahmood+Mamdani+%22when+Victims+become+killers%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
3. http://www.jstor.org/view/03600572/ap010003/01a00070/0

Self-Exploration

Who am I?

On some days I am not sure which better defines me my race or my ethnicity, in some ways I have always known this, but it wasn’t as dramatically apparent as it is now. If you were to ask me what I am you could receive four answers:

I am White
One of the ways I define myself is as a White male. I do not know when I first defined myself as White I lived in a very rural area with a very low level of diversity. There was no real reason to define myself as White to differentiate myself from a different group. I believe that the first time I probably defined myself as White was when I first learned about slavery and I must admit it was not a positive experience. Even though my ancestors had never owned slaves (in American history) I was ashamed for what my race had done to others and both fascinated and disgusted about the advances it had made and the great and terrible destruction it had reaped on the others. Nowadays I generally define myself as White as a joke. Such as, "I can’t dance I’m a white boy." However I also realize that although I don’t define myself as white or only do so in jest I am still judged and a member of that category which is in someways an advantage and disadvantage. It is an advantage in that my ancestors tried very hard to be white and to instill white culture into their children. As a result of this we have lost much of our culture but white culture is still one of the best ways to get a job. Employers look for specific desirable behavior and as bad as that sounds that is "white" behavior and is a lingering artifact of a bygone era. It is a disadvantage in that I am subject to affirmative action, while I believe that affirmative action is creating better racial equality for races that have been brutalized and subjugated in the past, I do not understand why I should be punished. As I mentioned earlier my ancestors never had slaves (most whites didn’t but that is beside the point for the moment) my ancestors came to this country and became farmers and soldiers working from rags to riches in their own way to give their children a better life why should we get passed over for a job because of what a rich white guy did hundreds of years ago? But also there is another factor that should be considered the negative stereotypical images that are usually rather mild or about issues that do not typically concern me to be surrounded by negative images and to be defined in that way on sight would haunt me I thankfully have never had to deal with this issue. That is one of the odd factors about race while it is generally easy to identify someone as a member of a race there are other factors. People can be accused or not being White enough if they wear clothing, portray behaviors, or speak in slangs that are generally associated with a different races. Such as wearing the baggy clothes and listening to rap which is closely associated with black culture. Non-white cultures face the same issue and can face ridicule, insults, and violence for what they wear or what they listen to. If race is skin color how can it be clothing, or music or slang? Race is a construct and while I may be identified and identify as white till the end of my days I do not believe in it and look forward to the day that races are no longer used to define people and culture can be enjoyed by all.

Part of the reason I enjoy the concept of being identified as being "white", I must admit, is the conceit that "we" conquered the world. Now as I mentioned before I do not support the concept of subjugation and genocide but the idea of the race that you are a part of exploring the world and then conquering it, while I am not a violent man, give the impression of superiority and strength.

This however is a fallacy is that as pointed out by Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. He points out how Europe as opposed to nearly every other continent has most of its most fertile lands running latitudinal as opposed to longitudinal. Now you may be wondering, why is this important? Simply because as longitude changes so does climate, this all has to do with the curve of the earth. The closer you are to the equator the more sunlight that area receives and that changes the climate. The variation in climate may cause great difficulty in the colonization of new areas. For example if I were the leader of a tribe that lived in an area like New York whose primary crop was apples and I decided to travel south down to an area the equivalent of Georgia my people and I would face major difficulty. Our primary crop would not grow here it would be far too warm so we would have to grow a new crop but it takes many generations to domesticate plants. So my people would have to be hunters and gatherers hunting and gathering plants and animals new to them which also may cause difficulty. Aside from these trials my people and I may have to worry about the consequence of diseases in certain climates certain diseases thrive. In the jungles of Africa and South America malaria is a great threat, in the forests of North America and Eurasia diseases are not a threat at all. My people may have to face new diseases due to my entering them into a new climate. If however I had a tribe in Europe if I took them the same distance east or west they would encounter the same climate and largely the same animals, plants and diseases. This lead to a rapid exchange of people, goods, and food across Europe. Which in turn lead to a rapidly advancing society and technology level which caused the creation of cities. Cities were the secret key to success for the Europeans conquering Europe. The crowded disgusting waste-filled cities were a breeding ground for disease and when those Spanish reached the Americas swimming with disease the Americans who believed in bathing and cleanliness were wiped out. It is believed that nearly 99% of the Native American population was wiped out by disease alone. The Europeans had given them a finishing blow accidentally within possibly minutes of their first contact without even knowing it. So it becomes quite obvious that this small subconscious pride that I had for my "race" that small undercurrent of belief that, that race is somehow superior is complete bologna. The only reason that white people as opposed to any other race were the most capable of conquering the others is the luck of the draw when it came to continents, and the fact that the design for European countries were at one point extremely filthy and disgusting which gave Europeans a form of biological warfare that they were unaware they possessed. That is not the glamourous picture that textbooks originally wished to express.

I am the product of my Ancestors
I you asked me what I am this first might my knee jerk answer that I am half Greek, a quarter Polish, part, Austrian, Hungarian, Swiss, and German and possibly Native American. The second would be a White guy who can’t dance or jump. The third way would be an American. Now these answers are put up there in this particular order for a reason I often define myself in that order.

This answer at the beginning of the course is what I perceived as my ancestry and as I now look at it... I was wrong. These genetic heritages named from countries most of which still exist to this day although are in fact closer to ethnic ancestries which catalogs my ancestors homelands and cultures more than my genetic makeup simply because my genetic ancestry and the reasons I look the way I do date back tens of thousands of years before that when my first ancestors traveled across the plains of the Sahara from Africa I am still quite proud of my newly redefined ethnic ancestry because I am exceedingly proud of my family history and my family itself, we are a rather tight knit bunch. Since I was very young I have been proud of one particular part of my ancestry above the others and that was the Greek part. How gratifying and fascinating it is to be Greek, to be a descendent of a society who created the pillars of the civilization we have today, and whom we still celebrate to this day with films, books, and television. While the other students in my class were speaking of their Irish and Italian heritage I proudly spoke of my Greek which my family celebrated with food and religious ceremonies (of the Greek orthodox church) and even just with how proudly I bore my last name.

However another part of my ancestry was for a long time carried with shame. Mentioned quickly and largely ignored, this was the Polish part of my ancestry. It was not that I was ashamed of my ancestors, quite the opposite in fact, I was proud of my grandfather Edward Zarzecki a marine who fought in the Korean war, a good, handsome, hardworking and at times eccentric man. It was the jokes, you’ve probably heard them, the manned space mission to the sun, the screen door on the submarine etc. etc. These hurt me because I knew they were not true! I knew I was not stupid and that my mother was not stupid either, however there are no movies made about Polish heroes. It took a beautiful and brilliant Polish foreign exchange student named Kasha and learning about propaganda in World War II to learn the truth and to truly appreciate and celebrate all of my "ancestry".

I am an American
I am proud to be an American, and I do believe for all its problems America is the greatest country on Earth. Now you are probably wondering if I believe all this (which I do) why isn’t American in first place. Well that is for one reason because as I am in America now. While in America being American becomes something of an afterthought because everyone is an American. However when I traveled abroad things changed dramatically my first two answers were completely stripped away I defined myself as an American. It wasn’t until later that I truly understood how much of an American I am. I don’t know if others believe this but I often see that if you are immersed in a culture you often don’t realize that it’s there and palpable. Many Americans "can’t see the forest for the trees" so to speak and are afraid that new cultures are going to over take our own because ours isn’t "strong" enough. They don’t realize that Thanksgiving is unique (largely) to the U.S., that we learn more about the history of our country than most other countries do, that we are the only successful bi-partisan presidential style democracy in the world, and even little things like food and the pledge of allegiance. American is a fully functioning rich culture that I am a member of which shapes my life and who I am I just simply don’t realize it all the time.

I am Human
I have learned much about my genetic ancestry and have learned a great deal. Humanity in spite of our vast differences in appearance which has caused to much war and suffering, humans are 99.9 percent alike and that is even between races. I also learned that the distinctiveness between humans is simply the result of natural selection. Humans do not often believe that they are affected by nature, we believe that our advanced technology and superior wisdom, but this is simply not the case. In the Southern hemisphere humans are exposed to high levels of solar radiation which can lead to cancer which will lead to death so humans with darker pigmentation survived to pass on their genetics. In the Northern hemisphere however humans faced a different issue with a lower amount of sunlight available humans with a darker skin tone suffer from the lack of vitamin D because their skin would screen out too much sunlight.

There are other factors as well diseases can greatly influence what genes are passed on Diseases such as Cholera, Malaria, and the Bubonic Plague are highly infectious diseases with high mortality rates genetic mutations within the populace which make them more resistance to disease and then make them far more likely to pass on their genetic traits to their offspring. Another factor is that much of the Earth was colonized by small familial tribes that were largely separated from one another due to deserts frozen wastes, glaciers, and Oceans. This led to population groups having a large number of common repeated traits causing some groups to look very similar and other groups very different.

Conclusion and My View on the Future of Race
These are the ethnic and racial classifications that I am defined as and that define me. From least important to most important. I have learned much about race and the politics and false beliefs behind it. Linnaeus was wrong we are one race, one species, Homo Sapiens. We should celebrate our tremendous diversity a testament to the trials our ancestors went through as they traveled across this planet on foot and on raft, and in remembrance to the distant lands that were once their home which they held sacred.

I hope one day race will no longer exist but that the subcultures that have grown within these artificially constructed classifications can be explored and celebrated by all people. Over the years each has left their mark some marks I hope may some day be erased and others I hope grow stronger and richer with my understanding. As time passes these things may change and I along with them I am only this man once and for only a short while but I hope what is passed on is a wiser and greater things. I personally believe that race will not be an issue Race is a social construction originally created around a biased view based on the color of one skin that over time adopted or were inflicted by others cultural and linguistic characteristics. The simple fact is that race while still based around a prejudiced view of skin color it is in many ways now more of a culture than a genetic trait. Some races even developed holidays to celebrate their heritage (Kwanzaa). The difference between races and cultures are how they are treated. Races are often much like a cross to bear while culture is celebrated in festivals of food and music. As soon as race is treated as culture it can be understood and celebrated by everyone and will no longer have a negative impact on our culture and way of life leading to a stronger nation and better understanding of our fellow men and women.

Female Black Writers

This is a brief introduction on the definition of the New Black woman which developed during the Harlem Renainassance as the movement for the new Negro occurred.

Before we can touch on the New Black woman we must examine and discuss the old female Negro. The most common stereo type of the Black woman during the civil war was the mammy. To many the figure of the mammy referred to a large, strongly built black woman, who catered to the needs of the white master and his family. She knew instinctively how to care for the white children; tending to every hurt, celebrating every achievement. She provides a high level of nurturing maternal care that the main house required. This role of mammy was established to provide ease to the white southern woman, who literally did nothing but seat pretty.

Another well known stereotypical role of the black woman was the Jezebel. Jezebel was an often an attractive young black woman who was seen as morally loose as well as sexually inappropriate. This was a black tempest that lured innocent unknowingly white men into sexual activities. This role was more fictional than based on reality. It was the means by which the white community of the times justified the immoral sexual treatment of the beautiful young black female slaves. It is easy to recognize the purpose of the controlling white population in the establishment of these roles as well as its emphasizing it so that the recipient had no control or power to change it.

Moving forward in time to the establishment of the New Negro during the Harlem Renaissance we can clearly see an active role of the black woman as well as the control and power she reclaims. It is at this point in time that the black woman not only aided in defining the New Negro; but in turn created the new black woman. The New Black woman saw the importance of preserving and learning from the past; while working in the present to improve the future of the black community as a whole. Whereas the new black man did not want to recall the past as much as focus his energies on catching up with the white man. His belief was that by being economically equal to the white man his position within society would be changed. His direction and focus was on the moment fighting old stereo typical concepts of the black man while competing with the white man within the white world. The black man had a strong drive and dream they just lacked clear direction and guidance to obtain it.

During this time of discovery we observe the work of many brilliant and talent black female writers that offered direction, option and food for thought. Margarita Washington felt that the black woman should focus on establishing the home structure while Pauline Hopkins felt that the black woman should concentrate on individual achievements and freedoms. Where as Marita Bonner wrote to make black woman aware of social issues such as outdated gender roles and segregation. Fauset wrote of the past giving her black characters a reality that the reader could connection with reinforced through visual illustration.

The New Black woman was a product of the institutional education; seeing herself having to battle more in terms of gender than color/race. The New Black woman was challenged from within her own culture and community by those who could not understand the need to move forward and questioned her objectives. The need for a black woman to obtain formal education or training in preparation for something other that being a wife or mother as feared. The concept of a black woman marketable employment would create a level of independence that would/could remove the black man’s control over her.

Historically we can trace the battles and challenges faced by the black community in defining itself as either man, woman or community. Their struggles in defining themselves as a group was often complicated by the individual needs of gender role definitions.

A journal along the Silk Roads though the eyes of a Women (B.C.)

Day 1,

Today is the start of my new life in a foreign land. I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t afraid, but I have come too far, done too much to stop now. But I am getting ahead of myself, to move forward one must know where one has been. So with this inspiration in my mind I will start from the beginning.

My birth mother named me Mei Mei, which means little sister in Chinese. My mother was a concubine for the mighty emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. After living a life that met serving a harsh, uncaring master; she decides to rescue me from that kind of serve and give me what she herself could never have: freedom. Mother, with the help of a slave girl, secretly got me out of the inner palace and to a Christian missionary. It was here that I learn to read, write and to think critical about my world and my place in it. I can remember my mother visiting when she could leave the palace without being caught, but after a while she stopped coming. I could tell if it was because someone caught her and killed her because she felt she wasn’t apart of my life anymore, so she thought it best to stay away.

Day 12,

In the monastery the other girls and I have hear talk of other different philosophical ideas that are taking root as religions. Emperor Wu has recently allowed Confucian thinkers to come and teach about their new ideas, but this as to be a conflict for those in his court for they are traditional legalist.

Legalism was also a philosophical idea created during the spring and autumn period of the Warring states period by Han Fei. Legalism is the harshest form of government that China has seen, because it calls for the emperor to rule by unsympathetic, cruel laws and to punish swiftly and without hesitation. The emperor also has ministers of legalist that advise him on how to rule as custom. But now that Confucianism is being allowed once again into the district, things will change; for the better or worst who knows.

The missionaries have explained just how different Confucian ideas are from legalism. In Confucian’s thought is base on ethics, moralities and how man should involve himself in society, politics to creative a world of peace. The ruler is responsible for his people and rules by the mandate of heaven, which means, the Gods have given him the authority to rule of them. Also in Confucians ideas there are different some main concepts that are stress: Loyalty, Humanity, the gentleman, rectification of names. I for one think that these ideas should be use for government, it is better than legalism and the people seem to enjoy listening and learning from these teachers of Confucianism.

Day 27,

Today is the day. I have deiced to leave the missionary and go in search of advantage. I can’t become a nun like the Christian’s leaders want, I am too free willed, undisciplined, and outspoken. I want to go explore the Silk Road, and see what can be found there, and what else I can learn. But, unfortunately, I am a girl and women don’t usually travel along or will be respected because we are women and not men. There is only one thing to do, is to conceal my identity. I have the help of my friend, Chan to cut all my hair off and steal men’s clothes. A regret that I will have to leave Chan. She is my best friend and is truly graceful and beautiful on the inside, just as her name says. But I most go. I need more than these walls and listening to prayers all day. I will leave at sunrise while the sisters are preparing for early mass.

Day 30,

Traveling through the Taklamakan desert is harder than I thought, even with all the preparation and help with Chan. Even thou I miss Chan everyday; I can’t help but love this new life and all the wonders I have seen. The desert it self is of course hot and dry, which is why I travel long distances at night and hide in what little shade there is during the day. But there are many Oases here, and there are actual tribal people living in these oases. And the best part is that no one knows that I am a girl, so I can learn about Buddhism, trade precious jade for food and talk with the tribal leaders as equals. Buddhism seems to be a new religion that comes from a place named India, it is really hard for me to understand the teachers of Buddhism because they speak a different language that I haven’t heard before now, so a lot of things get lost in translation from others who speak this Indian language.

Day 40,

So this is the last page of my journal, I have share many events with you and it pains me to end our journey together. But I don’t think that I will every stop learning and uncovering the new ideas and new beginnings. There is still so much for me to see, do, and experience in this life; and in the next according to Buddhist believe. So I am sure I will be seeing you in my next life.