Theory the History of Race

¶ … Theory

The history of race relations in the United States has always evinced a degree of difficulty that more than likely exceeds that of other countries. This is due in large part to the fact that there is a multitude of ethnicities and diversities celebrated here, with more coming in daily. As such, it greatly behooves people of this country to learn to deal with one another in a cordial fashion in which inherent differences between cultures are recognized, yet are not the most definable aspect of a particular race or ethnicity. Still, initial perceptions and misconceptions are hard to abandon, and many people demonstrate an inability to see beyond the obvious physical characteristics of someone's ethnicity, and choose to stereotype them based on those physical attributes. However, a prudent examination of a number of sources including the Color of Fear, Ethnic Groups in the United States: A Short History, Privilege Power and Difference, and How Nice People Are Corrupted indicates that the only way to make any degree of progress between people of different ethnicities is to recognize the differences between them yet not allow such differences to be the sole basis of perception of those of different ethnicities.

Albert Johnson actually alludes to this concept in the first two chapters of his manuscript. It is actually fairly important to realize that the author spends the duration of these pages talking about himself and his experiences as a white male. It is extremely prudent for him to do so, for the simple fact that as a white male he represents an esteemed position of privilege within the U.S. that allows him to view firsthand the biased, if not outright prejudicial treatment that other social classes of people -- including minorities and women -- endure on a daily basis. There is a degree of power that Johnson is able to exercise in ways both large and small that people from traditional historical minority groups typically do not have access to in this country. Johnson is not bragging about this fact in the first two chapters; rather he is providing the important point that there is a difference in treatment between people in this country based on their gender and ethnicity, and that to actually improve race relations it is necessary to not treat people based on those factors which they themselves (or anybody else) cannot control.

Another extremely important notion about the point-of-view that Johnson spends the first two chapters discussing is that this viewpoint is well represented in the film the Color of Fear. In this documentary, which features men of different ethnicities talking about their personal experiences with interracial relations in America, both David and Gordon are white males who enjoy many of the same aspects of privilege and the power that Johnson details within his manuscript. As such, this pair's social location and situated knowledge is intrinsically different from that of the other men, all of whom belong to historical minority groups. Socially, the aforementioned pair are used to fairly non-partisan treatment in their daily lives, which is due to the fact that they represent the majority of people who reside in the country. This social position is responsible for the notion of privilege Johnson has conceived of for white males. It also informs their situated knowledge, which is extremely different from that of the other men. One of the men, for instance, does not believe that racism between minorities can exist, for the simple fact that his situated knowledge does not give him access to very much inter-minority action. He (David Christenson) is limited in his conception of what minorities have to endure in the U.S. In general. The highly limited situated knowledge that David and Gordon have due to their social positions largely appears that it has led them to viewing physical characteristics as a way of judging people and influencing their perceptions about them. In order to get beyond such shallow viewpoints, they need to merely use such differences as the starting point for their conception of people from other ethnicities, and actually get beyond that bring about an improvement in interracial relations.

As such, it is extremely interesting to note how sociological concepts of standpoint theory and systems of privilege typify many of the responses that Christenson had to opinions and statements voiced by other men in the video. For the most part, Christenson's responses either contained an element of ignorance or outright disbelief to many of the social barriers and misconceptions that the men of color spoke about. These proclivities of Christenson can widely be rationalized via standpoint theory, which poses the notion that people's system of beliefs is greatly affected by the social group they are a part of. Moreover, this theorem places a fair amount of emphasis on hegemony, a term that refers to power existent between groups of people and which provides a degree of authority and social prominence between those groups. Due to the social position Christenson occupies, that of a white male in a society in which white males represent the historical majority, this position greatly influences Christenson's regard for men of other social standings. Systems of privilege are also influenced by standpoint theory indirectly, particularly if a person is part of a social class in which they have a substantial amount of hegemony. Hegemony is what ultimately allows for systems of privilege, which is manifest in unequal treatment among people of different social statuses. In that sense, Christenson is both a recipient of and a victim of systems of privilege, since as a privileged person in this country he is ultimately circumscribed in his view of others due to the lack of cognizance he has of how they are treated. These two notions severely underscore the need for people to get beyond basic physical differences as the sole basis of perception between the races, so that true harmony can exist in the U.S.