President Obama walks fine line on race, justice
11 years ago
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Just wondering
Do not mean to ignore other posts, will soon comment on them. This is a personal thought, so ...I have just been wanting to say/ask. So in class when we were talking about what racial classifications are doing for us, I got that in general and kind of as a rule we (humans) will always be looking for something to classify/differentiate between ourselves to serve the purpose of excluding/including a particular division/class in the pursuit/acquisition of power. So that the power struggle is something that will always be starring us in the face in terms of something that will always be a problem if ever we want to talk about or examine differences among people. If this is the case, (do not mean to sound pessimistic) then what is the purpose of even talking about this? I have been wondering about this a long time now, so I am very interested to know what people think and this will kind of help me know what to expect as far as the course goes.
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I think the answer is fairly intuitive. Many things in this world will just are, but we study them so as to better understand WHY they are and subsequently to use this knowledge in a pragmatic manner. Almost all scientific inquiries into the state of nature are of this type. We notice gravity, weather patterns, properties of elements (all things that will continue to "stare us in the face") and we study them to learn how to better live amongst it. Now with race, if the power struggle is always part of human nature, we study and identify it to judge whether we think it to be useful or harmful in the subcategory of racial classification. If we deem it to be harmful, we look for ways to prevent it from occurring perhaps. Many acts that one could claim to be human instinct have already been overcome by social pressures. I would say basic greed is part of ancient human nature, yet we have learn to share, to be empathetic to other, etc. Identifying a natural human quality (in this case power struggle) is the first step to addressing its desirability.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it seems like more so then ever humanity craves categorization/classification in an effort to understand and break-down the world. Whether it's motivated by the growing presence of science and it's ability to classify or human nature to rank things, it is reality. The issue of race is especially interesting because it has a history of power (or lack there of) depending upon the person, time, and place in history.
ReplyDeleteI believe this unfortunate past, and the history of marginalization through the creation of the "other" makes race a critical thing to discuss. Knowledge makes understanding and to rightfully acknowledge and address issues on race is admitting that there are flaws with the way with the way that race has been perceived and therefore allows people to try to change for the better.
I think that race is so deeply rooted in our culture that it acts as a double edged sword. On the one hand we want to discuss it and try to not see it as a factor in things. On the other hand it has had such a tremendous impact on where we are today in terms of equality. But I think that one leads to the other, we want to talk about it and see past it because of the negative effects it has had in this country. Oppression has always resulted from the fear of the "other" and I personally think that there is no way to get around this. There will always be the other because of our culture. We want to be tolerant, and while some individuals are, there is intolerance embedded in some parts of our country. I personally think this is fascinating. The fact that we call America the land of the free, but how free is free? Slavery was abolished, but blacks still suffered. Equal rights were achieved, but blacks still faced oppression. It seems that race has been used as a way of gaining or losing social power for far too long in this country, and while there are ways to combat it, it will always exist, and it is interesting to know where and why this started and has lasted so long.
ReplyDeleteThe question of why we are even talking about this issue is interesting, but I believe it is because like Ty said, racial issues have been a part of our culture for a long time and when something so controversial is widely known, it does not go away. Like we talked about in the last class, race is a hierarchy. It is still a problem in America-whether one chooses to acknowledge it or not is another issue. We have chosen to be in this class because we know it is present and want to express our unique opinions.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments, this helps me see that am not too far off with my thinking,
ReplyDeleteso even though this will always be an issue and the negative effects will always be there, we, by talking about it and criticall examining why this is and how it even comes about can enable us to make a difference. This is beautiful for me because it is a cultural learning experience; what race is in the US, as opposed to what it is in Swaziland or my part of the world, as we have already established, it's different.
thanks guys