Race, The Power of an Illusion

Race, The Power of an Illusion
A Three-Part Documentary by California Newsreel
c) 2003
www.newsreel.org

"Racism... Is about how people assign meaning to how another looks."

- Robin D.G. Kelley

It's true, there are no genetic differences or sub-species in human beings based on color or race. In fact, the African culture contains the most diverse genetic encodings of all cultures. Most of what we in America think we know or feel about racism is based on old societal programs, governmental politics, and economics.

"Race is the great interest of the age." - from an American newspaper in the 1840's

This is an interesting but somewhat biased documentary. It's useful, however. I recommend it for students interested in evolution. I felt there was a missing issue here, barely touched on... The problem of criminal activity and language barriers with privileged whites assisting immigrants and people of color. This documentary outlines the absurd books and propaganda on racial profiling which were created in the 1800's.

President Andrew Jackson was responsible for propagating bigotry through his writings. These were later produced as the values-set for American politics. In spite of asserting "all men were created equal", Jackson wrote extensively about Native and African Americans as being inferior.

In the 1800's, charts and scales were created to show various grades of skin color used to classify people. Although Asians met these criteria (in comparison to Caucasians) they were denied American Citizenship with little or no real explanation.

Segregation, IMO, was imposed as a way to track criminal activity and force like-minded ethnic cultures to police themselves. Let's face it, in the 18oo's and early 1900's, there were no cell phones, digital cameras and recorders to track people or their crimes.

Why do we ("whites") have a legacy of generational wealth compared to "people of color"? (This is what I feel is rapidly becoming an illusion...) Some think American wealth is a "benefit" of conforming to American (white dominator culture) values.

The power dynamics are shifting radically. More crimes will be caught by American citizens, exposing the denial and false activities of all... Including those with "white" skin.