Race: The Power of an Illusion

For this week’s event analysis, I attended the viewing of a documentary concerning race in the basement lecture room of Knott Hall on Tuesday, April 24th. The documentary was titled, “Race: The Power of an Illusion”, and consisted of two different part. The first part was called “The Difference between Us” and the second part was called “The House We Live In.” This document and the discussion that ensued gave me a very good understanding of what race really is and the realities that different races are challenged with every day.

In Part I, “The Difference between Us,” the documentary is mainly concerned with a classroom of students who are studying genetic code and how it compares to race of a person. The students first take guesses to see who they believe they share most in common in terms of biological or genetic code. Automatically, the students assume that they are going to have the most in common with the people who share the same race as them. Eventually, the students find out by surprise that race does not necessarily mean that each person shares a similar genetic code, or most commonly known as DNA. This discovery was also fairly large surprise to me as well. For years, scientists have been trying to figure out how to classify and characterize the different races, but they have not found any concrete solutions. So in reality, the difference between races is really just the minor differences in appearance. Even though it is extremely hard to believe for some, race is not a biological fact.

In Part II, “The House We Live In,” the documentary takes a new focus which is concerned with the so-called downward spiral that minorities must struggle with when moving into a predominately white neighborhood. When nonwhites begin to move in, any white homebuyers now begin to perceive that the neighborhood is in a decline. Next, more and more white residents will move out and leave the community due to the fear of losing property value. As a result, the whites take their wealth them and the value the property does in fact decline. The consequences of this occurrence are that taxes will go up and services will suffer. This can be understood as one of the causes for tension between the various races. However in reality, there is no particular race to place the guilt with, as we all share responsibility in a community.

Returning to the first part of documentary, we learn that race is not biological, but yet racism still exists in the real world. “Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources.”[1] Throughout history, the government and other social institutions have given advantages and better resources to people considered to be of the white race. At the end of the first part, the students in the class are asked whether or not they would change their race if they had the chance. Due to the fact that I am happy to be born the person that I am, I would not trade skin colors with another person if possible. This documentary has helped me recognize that I sometimes take my status of being a white male for granted. It is not only important, but it is also the responsibility of the white class to support and aid people of a minority status. Whether they are aware of it or not, the white majority class has been channeled with wealth, power, resources that needs to be shared among all.

[1] Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race (Taken from the handout given at the lecture).