McKenzie Gould Pd. A-B

1. McKenzie GouldPd. A-B Racism

2. The Term Racism • The term racist has been around since 1936. • The concept has been in the English language since 1907. • Definition of racism: "(1936): 1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2: racial prejudice or discrimination -- racist"

3. Reasons for racism • People can experience racist prejudice because of their religion or nationality. Racism takes many different forms. These can include: • personal attacks of any kind, including violence.  • written or verbal threats or insults.  • damage to property, including graffiti.  • inappropriate language

4. Why are people Racist? • Racism comes from a belief that one ethnic community is superior to other communities. • Racists tend to feel threatened by anyone who is from a different race, religion, or culture. It comes from ignorance and fear brought on by stereotypes. • It’s not in our genes. It comes from our views and beliefs that develop as we grow up. We can be influenced by friends, family, newspapers, and society in general.

5. The Root of Racism • RACISM ORIGINATED with the modern slave trade. -Just as the slaveholders of ancient Greece and Rome created an ideology that their barbaric slave system was "natural," so did the modern slave-owning class.

6. History • Prior to the advent of capitalism, racism as a systematic form of oppression did not exist. For example, ancient Greek and Roman societies had no concept of race or racial oppression. • The period of the Renaissance and Reformation was also the time when Europeans were coming into increasing contact with people of darker pigmentation in Africa, Asia, and the Americas and were making judgments about them.

7. History- Slave Trade • Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade began around the mid-fifteenth century when Portuguese interests in Africa moved away from the fabled deposits of gold to a much more readily available commodity -- slaves. By the seventeenth century the trade was in full swing, reaching a peak towards the end of the eighteenth century. It was a trade which was especially fruitful, since every stage of the journey could be profitable for merchants -- the infamous triangular trade.

8. Why did the Trade Begin? • Expanding European empires in the New World lacked one major resource -- a work force. In most cases the indigenous peoples had proved unreliable (most of them were dying from diseases brought over from Europe), and Europeans were unsuited to the climate and suffered under tropical diseases. Africans, on the other hand, were excellent workers: they often had experience of agriculture and keeping cattle, they were used to a tropical climate, resistant to tropical diseases, and they could be "worked very hard" on plantations or in mines.

9. Two opinions on Racism • Racism is part of human nature. It has always existed and always will. • The liberal idea of racism, that it comes from people's bad ideas, and that if we could change these ideas, we could get rid of it.

10. “Racism isn't just an ideology but is an institution. And its origins don't lie in bad ideas or in human nature. Rather, racism originated with capitalism and the slave trade.” -Alex Taylor • According to Alex Taylor Both assumptions are wrong.

11. Slavery was "natural" because of race. Africans were not human beings, and therefore, they were born to be slaves. • "Slavery was not born of racism; rather, racism was the consequence of slavery.“ - As historian Eric Williams writes in his book Capitalism and Slavery,

12. Capitalism • Capitalism created racism and can't function without it. The way to end racism once and for all is to win a socialist society--in which the first priority is abolishing all traces of exploitation and racism. • Capitalism- an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

13. Views on Racism - Dominant View • The dominant view which is rarely expressed as a worked out theory but rather operates at the level of assumptions is that racism is an irrational response to difference which cause some people with white skin to have hateful attitudes to people with black skin which sometimes leads to violent and evil actions. People who have this understanding of racism usually advocate awareness and education as a way of preventing the practice of racism.

14. Views on Racism - Second View • The second view is that racism is endemic in white society and that the only solution is for black people to organize "themselves separately from whites " in order to defend themselves and to protect their interests.

15. Understanding of racism • In a short introductory video the Understanding Race project from the American Anthropological Association says race is a powerful idea and an enduring concept, invented by society. It has also fostered inequality and discrimination for centuries, as well as influencing how we relate to other human beings: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aaTAUAEyho&feature=player_embedded

16. Quote By Marxist writer CLR James "The conception of dividing people by race begins with the slave trade. This thing was so shocking, so opposed to all the conceptions of society which religion and philosophers had…that the only justification by which humanity could face it was to divide people into races and decide that the Africans were an inferior race." - Marxist writer CLR James

17. Was Mark Twain Racist? • After his father's death Twain spent several summers with his uncle, John Quarles. His uncle owned twenty slaves and Twain had a close-up view of slavery in action. • Huck's changes during the story in his attitudes towards Jim and slavery provides a clue as to the real "mind" of Twain. Huck comes to realize Jim's humanity and finds his own at the same time. I like to think that Mark Twain went through the same transformation.

18. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn • Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835. Twain worked as printer and a reporter who sold much of his work to newspapers. Mark Twain wrote the 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' twenty years after the American Civil War, he based the character on himself as a boy who believes in the right thing to do even if the majority of society did not.

19. Opinions on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn “African Americans in particular have objected to the book and in many school districts (most recently in Dallas) have either banned the book or forced the districts to make available alternate literary selections for any objecting student.” -Russell Smith (1994) "The book (Huckleberry Finn) does contain language that has racist connotations today, and this has been “whitewashed” or ignored by the critical establishment. However, even figures such as Frederick Douglass used the same language when attempting a “realistic” representation of life under slavery Furthermore, the story undermines the logic of slavery to such an extent that “the authorities regarded the exposure of the evils of slavery and the heroic portrayals of the Negro characters as ‘hideously subversive’.” -Helen Scott

20. Huck isn't happy about having to apologize to a black man, but he does it. It's super impressive for the time and place that he ends up apologizing, but we can see that he's still, well, racist—he's just less racist than everyone else. Is Twain holding him up as an example, or does Twain want us to do better? “ It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way.” –Mark Twain

21. "Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; and first you know the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow some of it?" –Mark Twain Here, the duke is basically saying that all black men are thieves—which, of course, is exactly what the duke is. Ah, hypocrisy. But it's really no worse than the rest of the antebellum South, which welcomes in white strangers and… locks up black strangers.

22. Sources http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/winant/what_is_racism.html http://www.shmoop.com/huckleberry-finn/race-quotes-4.html http://socialistworker.org/2002-2/431/431_08_Racism.shtml http://libcom.org/history/800bc-today-a-very-brief-history-of-racism http://cryaloud.com/racism_origin_racial_profiling_xenophobia_hate_crimes.htm http://www.youngscot.org/info/211-what-is-racism http://www.examiner.com/article/was-mark-twain-racist http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism