Eric Liu is the author of several books, including, "The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker."
Race in America has always centered on our mutual agreement not to see each other. White or non-white. Black or non-black. Mongoloid, Hindoo. We’ve always bought into to the crudest, humanity-denying forms of sorting. Even today, our ability to put 300 million Americans into a four-color-plus-Hispanic system is a testament to the power of concept to block perception.
But a new generation has arrived, more mixed than any before, and these young Americans are quite uninterested in seeking permission to sit in one of four or five colored boxes. Today’s multiracial Americans are at greater liberty to choose how they’d like to be seen, and under less pressure to pass for white.
This is progress. At the same time, the blurring of race labels is neither the dawn of colorblindness nor the dusk of racism. Go to a place like Rio (or, for that matter, New Orleans),
where people of many races mix, where there are many fine distinctions of shade – and where lighter is still usually seen as better.
If whiteness were of no particular advantage, then having a fuller color wheel of skin tones would be purely a matter ofcelebration. But whiteness – just a drop of it – does still carry privilege. You learn that very young in America.
If half-black Barack Obama had decided years ago to call himself white – which his genes certainly entitled him to do – his story would have carried very different meaning. If millions of part-black people had followed him into whiteness, then the N.A.A.C.P. would be in true crisis.
As mixing accelerates and racial blocs erode, groups like the N.A.A.C.P. will have to build more coalitions of, well, colored people – people with experiences of disadvantage conferred by color. This won’t be easy. It’s just inevitable.
And ultimately, the checking of multiple race boxes will clear some fog. As race falls apart, it becomes harder to avoid talking about class. We have to reckon with the gross concentration of wealth and poverty that has been compounded by race but is also broader than race. So let us, in love and intermarriage, continue to blow up our boxes. But let us, in our politics, face up to how opportunity is colored – and learn to see each other at last.
Again, I think it's really awesome that the lines of race are blurring in our generation. It really shows just how far America has come since its birth. People of all races have suffered persecution, from slavery, to Irish need not apply—even to Asian families being singled out in the Vietnam War. For centuries, America has been dividing its population into unnecessary subgroups; and those minorities were treated cruelly. In the new generation, however, races are joined by indifference. I feel that our generation doesn’t care if you’re black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or what Religious affiliations you may have; we see each other equally because there are so many mixed backgrounds. Our parent’s generation had some turmoil, and our grandparents had a lot more, but clearly something in the past twenty-some years went right because we now have a largely multiracial population which is still growing. Our generation isn’t concerned with the color of our neighbor’s skin, and soon—maybe within our lifetime—the color of a person’s skin won’t even be noticed let alone an issue.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Olivia regarding the idea that the lines of races are finally blurring throughout society. Now in days, people can almost choose what race they want to be identified as, if they are multicultural. I really do not like how this article identifies "whiter" as better, as if that makes the individual. It really shows how people can attach stereotypes to skin color, which is really disappointing. I am proud though, to see that people can now state that they are multicultural, and have the ability to identify which cultures they consist of. This will only decrease racism throughout society, creating solidarity.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Olivia and Monica. It is a really positive thing for this country to see individuals struggling with putting only one race. America is multi-cultural and this is becoming more apparent. The racial lines are being slurred and individuals need to be able to identify with every part of their ethnic background. I also agree with Monica when she did not like that the article identified whites as being better. Reiterating what she said, it does show that stereotypes are still identified with skin color.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with one thing Eric Liu wrote. He stated, "As mixing accelerates and racial blocs erode, groups like the N.A.A.C.P. will have to build more coalitions of, well, colored people – people with experiences of disadvantage conferred by color." I believe as mixing accelerates and racial blocs erode, groups like the NAACP will no longer need to exist. How would you even have members? Would people have to prove they have 50% black blood to be considered colored? Suppose you had white skin, but had 25% African American heritage, would you be allowed to join? As racial mixing increases, it will no longer be necessary to have groups such as the NAACP.
ReplyDeleteI think it is horrible that white is considered the highest and most dignified race. With the growing mixed population in America, whites will not always be the majority. No one is the exact same color, so why must they be categorized as such? For example, just in the white population, there are many differnt shades of skintone. Depending on the person's heritage, one can be pale, such as an Irish man, or tan, such as an Italian. An Italian may even have darker skin than a mixed person, so why isn't the Italian considered black? With mixed culture of both black and white parents, many new shades are created. Four or five colors are no where near the necessary amount to label all of the diverse people in America.
ReplyDeleteRace is growing more and more complex as society involves more and more people of mixed races. I think that once a set and uniform system is used to define race that operationalizes what is meant by some of the racial categories, people will be able to accurately identify themselves and the resulting statistics can be of use to define just how much race effects how people live.
ReplyDeleteEmma Woodward: The whole point of a color wheel is that it is a circle that can be rotated and divided into EQUAL parts. I think applying race to the color wheel is a wonderful analogy, because the world is no longer made up of primary and secondary colors. As race diversifies in the U.S. I believe more tertiary colors will get added into the color wheel because everybody is acually "pink or brown". Continuing with the similie, even though yellow is always presented at the top of the color wheel that does not make red or blue inferior. The only reason yellow is at the top is because of rules created by artists and art teachers many years ago. There is no color more inately superior to another.
ReplyDeleteThe United States is no longer black and white, America is now a society composed of multiple ethnic and racial groups. In recent years the American population is more multiethnic, and our generation has embraced this “new color wheel”. I agree with Monica, I also do not like how the article mentions that “whiter” is better. However it is a social reality which society has constructed overtime. People with darker skin are still seen to be deviant in American society today. Is there a still stigma Americans have assigned to people who have darker skin? Dark skin is often associated with labor, criminal, deceiving, uneducated, and fair skin with wealth, aristocracy and higher education.
ReplyDeleteThe United States is no longer black and white, America is now a society composed of multiple ethnic and racial groups. In recent years the American population is more multiethnic, and our generation has embraced this “new color wheel”. I agree with Monica, I also do not like how the article mentions that “whiter” is better. However it is a social reality which society has constructed overtime. People with darker skin are still seen to be deviant in American society today. Is there a still stigma Americans have assigned to people who have darker skin? Dark skin is often associated with labor, criminal, deceiving, uneducated, and fair skin with wealth, aristocracy and higher education.
ReplyDeleteAmerica is finally starting to make some progress. It is now legal to marry someone of a different race. This is causing the number of mixed children to rise. It is hard to classify a person based on their skin color into to "color wheel". A child is no longer white, black, Hispanic, or Asian. There is a mixtures of all these races. However as stated in the article, there is still some advantage to being classified as white. People with whiter skin tend to have an advantage in the field of education and employment. This however is beginning to slowly change. It might not change in the next decade or so but progress has to start somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great news to hear that my generation is more willing to judge people based on who they are as opposed to what they look like. At least this is a step in the right direction and I believe with the multiracial world we live in today that racism based on color will continue to fade. I really like how the author uses the color wheel as an analogy to race; it puts an upbeat twist on what the future holds for us if we continue to mix our colors. Being a circle it also shows that all colors are equal and no one color is better than another. Unfortunately, racism is not limited to just color as this article states, it can also involve religious, social, and economic backgrounds. We are definitely moving in the right direction but I believe it will be a long time before all racism is removed from our world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Morgan. Society has continued to socially construct the idea that the lighter a person's skin then they have an advantage. There is still a serious stigma following those with darker skin. For example, young black men are classified to be lazy, dangerous, and uneducated. This is not the case all the time. There are many young black men out there that are educated, intelligent, motivated, determined, and are making something with their lives. On the other hand there are also white people that are lazy, unintelligent, and dangerous. However society does not classify these people in that particular stereotype.
ReplyDeleteI love the statement, "continue to blow up boxes." Our generation is moving into a era where society cannot label a person on whether they are black or white, Asian or Middle Eastern, Hispanic and Native American. We are blurring the lines that separate these ethnicities because so many people here in the states are mixed race. Now, on to the sad part of the article. Children are being socialized into believing that white is better and many people in America still believe this. It is interesting that our president, who is just as much white as he is black, is being proclaimed our first black president, when he could have identified himself as white the first time he did his check box in school. It shows how much race is related only to what we see and what we judge.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Olivia in what she says about our generation and I think it was very interesting and pleasant about how she sees our future. The progression of oppression among people based on how they look has been lowering generation to generation, and although we definitely still have problems with race, as seen in the Little Rock video, we are moving in the right direction. I just hope that people are not ignoring our problems with race and that instead they are changing how they see people around us, so like Olivia said, maybe one day we will not see people for their color at all but for who they are. "I have a dream that one day my children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King Jr's dream may come true sooner that we think if Olivia is right.
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