Overview "...One of Those Evils That Will Be Very Difficult to Correct": The Permanence of Race in North America

Abstract

Despite decades of struggles for civil rights and equal opportunities, despite laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, and despite scientific evidence that race has no significant basis in human biology, continue to be socialized into a deeply ingrained racial ideology. In a 2001 Gallup Poll, 66% of Blacks and 45% of Whites expressed their belief that race relations will always be a problem in the United States. reasons people seem rather pessimistic concerning the future of race relations are not restricted to social variables that separate from Black, such as continued differentials in income, life expectancy, educational and job opportunities, residential segregation, and a host of other social realities that consistently privilege Whites over Blacks. Racialized thinking goes deeper in America, being a part of the nation's very social fabric. Race has long defined both individual and collective identities. In fact, even if one does not like to be defined by race, there appear to be few choices, for, as Toni Morrison (1997) succinctly put it, I have never lived, nor has any of us, in a world in which race did not matter (p. 3). Particularly for Blacks, racial remains a painful two-edged sword, or what W.E.B. DuBois (1903/1995) describes as a double identity (p. 45).2 In the words of David Lionel Smith (1997), a intellectual, The blackness that marks us off for permanent subordination and various forms of abuse is also what gives us a sense of identity, community, and history (p. 182). entire spectrum of life experiences by not only are perceived, but also processed and acted upon in a way that is pervasively racialized-so much so that most and White find it difficult to communicate with their sisters and brothers on the other side of the racial divide. Some observers continue to point out the obvious inconsistencies and tragic ironies in the way race has been, and is, lived and understood in America. To begin with, small children, prior to their socialization into a racialized ideology, do not see race. Children ask why people are called Black or when they are pink, brown, or olive tan. But the logical inconsistencies run much deeper. Both Blacks and Whites originally came from many different places with enormously different cultures, values, and languages. To this day, Africans find it hard to comprehend when northern West Africans and sub-Saharan Africans are lumped together as one, as much as Europeans are stunned when someone from Ireland is lumped together with someone from Portugal. In addition, one merely has to go back a few generations to realize that virtually everyone who currently inhabits the United States is of mixed heritage. Even if we could clearly define race-which we cannot-there would be no one left who is purely one thing or the other. Above all, the vast majority of Blacks and Whites residing in the United States nowadays are predominantly Americans and culturally far more similar to each other than they are to the peoples of those places where they, or their ancestors, originated-whether that place be Europe, Africa, or any other. curious fact is, as any non-American can readily attest, that and White are virtually indistinguishable in terms of life habits or values. Though many claims have been made concerning a distinctly or White culture-from Nationalism to the Sons of the Confederacy-none appear very successful. Walter Mosley (2000) succinctly pointed out, As time has passed, the races have been forced together by production lines, mass media, and grand social events, such as the civil rights movement, war, and the advent of popular music (p. 10). More importantly, the very debate about presumed inherent differences seems relevant only to those caught in the midst of the racial dilemma. With a broader perspective, existing differences are largely attributable to things like socioeconomic class, region, gender, or religion-not race (for good samples of this debate, see Asante, 1997; Baker 2001; Lipsitz 1998; Lubiano 1997; West 1993). …