Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

Biologically speaking, there’s no such thing as race. As hard as they’ve tried, scientists have never been able to define it. That’s because race is a human creation, not a fact of nature. Like money, it only exists because people accept it as “real.” Races exist because humans invented them.

Why would people invent race? Race was created in America in the late 1600s in order to preserve the land and power of the wealthy. Rich planters in Virginia feared what might happen if indigenous tribes, slaves, and indentured servants united and overthrew them. So, they cut a deal with the poor English colonists. The planters gave the English poor certain rights and privileges denied to all persons of African and Native American descent: the right to never be enslaved, to free speech and assembly, to move about without a pass, to marry without upper-class permission, to change jobs, to acquire property, and to bear arms. In exchange, the English poor agreed to respect the property of the rich, help them seize indigenous lands, and enforce slavery.

This cross-class alliance between the rich and the English poor came to be known as the “white race.” By accepting preferential treatment in an economic system that exploited their labor, too, the white working class tied their wagon to the elite rather than the rest of humanity. This devil’s bargain has undermined freedom and democracy in the U.S. ever since.

Joel Olson, “Whiteness and the 99%,” Bring the Ruckus. (October 20, 2011). http://www.bringtheruckus.org/?q=node%2F146.

Brazil In Black And White

Brazil In Black And White

Rough Translation
National Public Radio
2017-08-14

Two radically different ways of seeing race come into sudden conflict in Brazil, provoking a national conversation about who is Black? And who is not Black enough?

Listen to the podcast (00:32:23) here. Download the podcast here.

Tags: Affirmative Action, National Public Radio, NPR, Rough Translation

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 27th, 2017 at 02:31Z and is filed under Audio, Brazil, Caribbean/Latin America, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Justice, Social Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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