Race and the Other

1. Race and the Other Exploring the philosophy of identity

2. Journal: What is race? • Write a journal entry considering your reading as well as your understanding of Richard Wright’s concept of race and your own notions. • Be prepared to share. • We will write for ten minutes

3. What is race? • Race is defined by dictionary.com as: • 1. a group of persons related by common descent or heredity. • 2. apopulation so related. • 3. b. an arbitrary classification of modern humans, sometimes, especially formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, oreye shape, and now frequently based on such geneticmarkers as blood groups.

4. Race, Identity, and the Other • Hegel introduced the concept of the “Other” in relation to the concept of “self-conciousness” or one’s self perception • The concept suggests people create roles or identities for themselves only in relation to their perception of other people

5. The Other and One’s Self • Derrida notes that the understanding of the Other may necessarily be incomplete as the person’s conception of the Other may be developing prior to their even meeting the Other • Consider that preconceived notions of something foreign pre-taint it before it is met and even the meeting may be curtailed or stunted

6. The Other continued • Michel Foucault notes that the process of Othering has everything to do with power and subordination • The Other is necessarily different and therefore by implication bad, dangerous, or inferior

7. Wright, Tatum, and the Other • Consider how the philosophy of the Other is explored by Richard Wright in Black Boy • How has the concept of race and the Other developed in Tatum’s analysis? How is it the same? • Is the Other limited by race? How else might the Other be applied anthropologically? • Can we form individual identities without regard to the Other?