week 1 - atkin, kies & glasgow

Question 1

atikin - ubiquity of race in everyday life

Answer 1

• acknowledges apparent omnipresence of race in the daily interactions and social events of the world which validates the idea that race is not not theoretical but has real-life implications
• examples
  > election of a black president in the usa
  > historical injustices of indigenous australians

Question 2

atkin’s - three stage approach

Answer 2

• three fold approach
  > identify what is meant by race in the clearest sense
  > refine this down to the most neutral and minimal ideation of race between contested beliefs by using a method of disagreement
  > then seek out if anything in the world corresponds to our concept of race

Question 3

atkin - ordinary notions and assumptions about race

Answer 3

1. bodily traits;
   physical characteristics (skin, colour, facial features, hair texture) are assos w/race
2. genealogy ;
   there is a belief that race is inherited from parents and ancestors
3. geographical origins;
   racial categories are associated with specific geo region
4. physical and mental capabilities;
   stereotypes of mental and physical strengths and weaknesses are attributed to different races
5. cultural behaviour;
   cultural attitudes and behaviours are seen as influenced by race
6. purity;
   racial purity is a common theme of discussion in when talking about race

Question 4

atkin - bodily traits

Answer 4

• people commonly perceived racial differences through somatic traits
• this is evident in language and in official classifications [i.e. census categories]
• perverse agreement ; core feature

Question 5

atkin - genealogy

Answer 5

• people assume an individual’s race is determined by that of their parents
• reinforced by reaction of children who appear racially different from their parents
• perverse agreement; core feature

Question 6

atkin - geographical origins

Answer 6

• generally held view is that races are linked to specific geographical regions
• race and locations are commonly associated
• reflected in conversation and official documentation
• perverse agreement; core feature

Question 7

atkin - capabilities

Answer 7

• there are perceptions and stereotypes that varying capacities physically and mentally can be attributed to races examples from sports and intelligence assessments are used to motivate this
• these are critiqued as scientifically shallow assurtions
• acceptable disagreement; non-core feature

Question 8

atkin - cultural behaviours

Answer 8

• is the notion that racial difference is marked by ingrained or not easily suppressed cultural behaviours or attitudes
• examples ; whites are industrious, blacks are lazy or welfare-dependent, Jews are studious, east Asians are docile and entrepreneurial
• evidence of this in common thinking is present in many studies and in policy making
• acceptable disagreement; non-core feature

Question 9

atkin - purity

Answer 9

• races can be seen as ideas that are pure
• this is presented in thought around being “blacker” by virtue of more black grand parents than another may have
• doesnt quite withstand the test that is the method of disagreement
• acceptable disagreement; non-core feature

Question 10

atkin - philisophical inquiry into race

Answer 10

• this question of the reality of race is significant bc it of its consequences for how individuals and societies think and act

Question 11

atkin - method of disagreement

Answer 11

• method we use to etstablish core minimal concept of race; two people of deepiest contrasting views on race are presented with the core assumptions and we assess if they can disagree without one quite clearly speaking to something else altogether and it no longer being race
• acceptable disagreement = non-core feature
• preverse disagreement = core feature

Question 12

atkin - race in the non-debatable form

Answer 12

• is identifiable via somatic traits, geographical origin and geneaology

Question 13

atkin - race doesn’t hold up in the real world : somatic features;

Answer 13

• skin colour is a cline, darker as you move closer to the equator meaning inconsistency for the perimeters of the typical view of race so it doesnt match up to how scientific clustering would suggest we group people in a somatic sense
  
  • people of the same racial category vary in skin colour
  • people who may be of varying racial groups but are typically in similar proximate to the equator will be groupable by skin colour
  • nose shapes prove clinal too

Question 14

atkin - race doesn’t hold up in the real world : lack of genetic basis for race;

Answer 14

• the view that race is determined by genes is an oversimplification of human variation
• humans are all more genetically similar than they are different
• misinterpretation of genetic markers that in reality are not exclusive to any race group
• somatic features are not straightforwardly defined by genetics and are a product of complex relationship between genotype and phenotype
• genetic diversity is undermined by the arbitrary approach of categorising races
• off spring can have diff phenotypical features to parents which challenges the argument of inheretance

Question 15

atkin - race doesn’t hold up in the real world : enviroment;

Answer 15

• enviroment influences the melanin in your skin as a means of regulating your absorbtion of vitamin d dependant on region
• this means there can be a genetic transition of a groups skin if located to a region where more or less melanin is neccessary for their vitamin d absorbtion ( white to black skin or black to white skin generationally)

Question 16

kies - setting and core summary

Answer 16

• it’s a speech delivered to national anti-CAD conference in 1943
• argues that the perpetuation of segregation in sa is by white sa belief in white supremacy and the internalisation of this by poc and allowing it to divide their liberation efforts. poses a solution of unified ( all poc and working class white population) , militant resistance action lead by teachers

Question 17

kies - class overshadowing racism issues

Answer 17

• argues that the reign of exploiting class is prolonged by basic segregation of working class; white labour aristocracy and black serf majority
• fundamental class issue of owner and worker overshadowed the oppression of people of colour
• this is intentionally divide and conquer; to prevent unity over working class lines [on top of racial lines of division]

Question 18

glasgow - summary

Answer 18

• explores the complex nature of race and examines various philosophical arguments for and against its reality. The author explores biological, social, and illusory explanations for race, ultimately arguing that, while not scientifically real, it could be a real category in a basic, non-scientific sense.

Question 19

glasgow - impact of racial categorisation

Answer 19

• uses example of story of Vaishno Das Bagai
• indian imigrant who committed suicide due to racist laws and discrimination.
• Bagai despite his education and wealth become victim to the changing of perameters for citizenship where after a supreme court ruling indians were not regarded as white and could therefore not be citizens.
• political and social exclusion and oppression drove him to take his own life

Question 20

glasgow - history of racial classsification in us law

Answer 20

• whiteness was inconsistently and arbitrarily defined in order to keep citizenship something exclusive
• cases like ozawa vs us and us vs bhagat singh thind show individuals of japanese and indian decent being denied citizenship due to shifting interpretations of what it was to be “white”
• highlights social and political forces that shape racial categories, often with devastating consequences for those who aren’t deemed white

Question 21

glasgow - ordinary concept of race

Answer 21

• defines it as classification of people into large groups based on shared visible biological traits
• calls to scrutiny race being a biological reality
  > using concept of ‘the spectrum’ to demonstrate the lack of clear biological boundaries between racial groups
  > the spectrum refers to continuous variation in human traits like skin colour, making any division into distinct racial categories arbitrary from a biological standpoint

Question 23

kies - common enemy

Answer 23

• poc are are oppressed by a common enemy and that is the white ruling class
• notes the varying degree of oppression but calls for a banning together
• unity shouldnt erase national or racial differences but rather focus on common goal of liberation from white domination
• critiques the existence of poc political organizations [anc, apo, and sa indian congress]
  > disagreed with their sectarian approach and focus on minor reforms instead of united effort for democratic rights

Question 24

kies - reformists and segregation framework

Answer 24

• critized reformist poc leaders for accepting segregation framework and appealing to ‘goodwill’ of white ruling class for minor concessions
• condemns their faith in liberal establishment, including politicians like J.H Hofmeyr and organisations like institute of race relations ; to him they ultimately served oppressors interest

Question 25

kies - industrial commercial workers union

Answer 25

• is the only exception to this pattern of failure
• managed to unite african and coloured workers in militant struggle for their rights and therefore is a strong model/example for future organizing
• was ultimately collapsed due to govt interference and internal issues

Question 26

kies - correct approach

Answer 26

• calls for real united front of all poc built from the ground up and based on addressing the shared struggle for national emancipation and equal rights
• leadership should be poc intellects particularly educators (both educated and have relative leisure to study the cause)
• following conditions are needed for such;
  >mass base
  >leaders loyalty solely to the oppressed
  >rejection of reformist tactics and instead militant strategies
• the intention of this united from is not to genereate racial hatred but to awaken working class white to own exploitation and encourage them to join struggle against their common oppressor
• power in numbers

Question 27

glasgow - premise

Answer 27

• explores complex nature of race and examines various philosophical args for and against its reality
• discusses biological, social, and illusory explanations for race
• concludes that it is not scientifically real but it could be a real category in a basic, non-scientific sense

Question 28

glasgow - impact of racial categorization

Answer 28

• tragic story of v das bagai as case study
  > wealthy educated indian man, who was an early supporter and proponent of india’s efforts towards independence and emancipation from british imperialism, and his family who was denied citizenship and basic rights that come with such due to the ruling made in the supreme court case of us vs. thinds which
• racial classification in us law was particularly riddled with inconsistent and often arbitrary ways in which ‘whiteness’ was defined for purpose of granting citizenship
  -rulings of us vs. thinds and ozawa vs. us respectives meant individuals of japanese and indian descent were denied citizenship
• this is a good reflection of how social and pol forces shaped racial categories

Question 29

glasgow - ordinary concept of race

Answer 29

• definition : the classification of people into large groups based on shared visible biological traits
• he scrutinises the idea of race being a biological reality, using the concept of ‘the spectrum’
  >refers to the continuous variation in human traits like skin colour, making any divisions into distinct racial categories is arbitrary from a biological standpoint

Question 30

glasgow - biologicial arguments

Answer 30

• discusses mismatch objection which argues that scientifically define biological groups do not correspond neatly with common racial categories
• the objection is supported by examples like sickle cell trait, a biological adaptation to malaria that is found across different racial groups, challenging the ideal that race is reliable predicator of biological characteristics.
• examines genealogical theories of race, which define race based on ancestry and genetic populations and argues that they also fail to align with commonly understood racial categories
  > for instances genealogical populations can change through migration and intermarriage, while racial categories are often seen as fixed and immutable

Question 31

glasgow - social constructionism i

Answer 31

• discusses the ideas that posit race as a product of social practice and beliefs
• critiques rudimentary constructionism [claims that races cease to exist when recognition of them disappears]
  > presents thought experiment of collective amnesia about race, arguing that individuals would still retain their racial characteristics even if society momentarily forgot about race
  > distinguishes between racialization [= the process of assigning social meaning to racial categories] and race itself
  > while the reality and significance of racialization is significant, race as commonly understood, is thought to persist beyond social practices

Question 32

glasgow - constructionism ii

Answer 32

• also analyses more sophisticated forms of constructionism [argue that race is created by more enduring factors like power dynamics and inequality]
• critiques these theories by arguing that they render racial equality conceptually impossible as the existence of race is predicated on inequality
• he argues that this contradicts the common aspiration for a society where race is no longer a basis for differential treatment and access to resources

Question 33

glasgow - constructionism iii

Answer 33

• employ further thought experiements to challenge constructionist views of race, such as a hypothetical world where all adults, and therefore all existing social practices, disappear
• argues that a baby born into a particular racial category would still retain that categorization even in the absence of any social practices that reinforce it
• draws an analogy to gender, arguing that while gender roles are largely socially constructed, there might still be something more fundamental to gender that persists beyond social practices, and questions whether the same could be true for race.

Question 34

glasgow - racial anti-realism

Answer 34

• the view that race doesn’t exist
• poses this as resolution to these debates
• antirealism doesn’t negate the very real impact of racialisation but reframes them as products of social practices rather that refections of inherent diff between racial groups

Question 35

glasgow - reconstructionism

Answer 35

• a revolutionary theory that advocates for redefining “race” to explicitly align with its social and historical dimensions
  -this redefinition, he argues, would allow us to use the term “race” while acknowledging its socially constructed nature

Question 36

glasgow - basic racial realism

Answer 36

• his work with J Woodward
• suggests race could be a real category in a “basic” sense, grounded in visible biological traits but ultimately irrelevant to scientific inquiry
• view posits that basic races exist independently of our social practices and scientific understanding
• argues that although visible traits are biologically real, the categories we call “races” are based on arbitrary divisions within these traits and do not hold any special significance within biological science
  -racial realism acknowledges that there are many possible ways to categorize people based on visible traits and that the racial categories that have become socially salient are the result of historical and political contingencies, rather than objective biological truths