What really determines the color of our skin?
The articles for today, "How Did Jews Become White Folks" and "Experiencing Difference and Inequality in Everyday Life" really made me question what the real basis of one's skin color is all about. Previous to the first article and a discussion we recently had in class, I was not aware that Europeans including Jews were once considered a race other than white. It wasn't until after World War II that Anti-Euro racism and Anti-Semitism had lost its charm and Jews and Europeans were finally viewed as middle-class white citizens. There were many theories on how the Jews in particular were able to move in such an upward mobility fashion. These theories ranged from because they were smart to their individual efforts and abilities were superior than most. The real reason for such upward mobility was in fact because of the federal programs that created opportunities in which the abilities of Jews and Europeans was finally acknowledged and rewarded. I do think that what the federal programs were able to do for Jews and Europeans was by far a stepping stone in our racial inequalities timeline; however, what I do not think was anything but a step back in time was how these federal programs completely segregated against African Americans.
It was once stated in the first article that in time, all ethnic groups would have equal opportunities and be considered middle class. In my opinion, we have made much progress throughout the years when talking about racial inequalities; however, I do not ever see it not being an issue at all. We touched upon this topic briefly in class as well. As much as we want to deny it, racial inequalities are almost instilled upon you from birth. As much as we don't want them to be a factor, they are. In discussion we came to the conclusion that there are always going to be inequalities whether they are conscious or not. We have permanently built in ideas of inequalities, so therefore, we automatically classify things. Madison Grant mentioned his belief that race and class were one intertwined category. The upper class only included the Nordic people, who of course were "pure" in regards to race, and the lower class was for all of the other races. I think this makes a strong point as well. In our society today, race and class are still intertwined. If someday there is equal opportunity for all ethnic groups, then there will be an extreme barrier that will need to be overcome to do so.
After World War II, Brodkin talked about how by adolescence, Jews were not separated by religion or ethnicity at school or in their neighborhood. She thought of her family as middle class. Race was not visible, or as she thought and peers were not conscious of racism. This really surprised me that according to Brodkin, race seemed to drop off the end of the planet for awhile. I am somewhat curious if this was really the case, or if in their adolescent years they were oblivious to any racism because of their new white middle-class status. Even if racism was deleted from the lives of Jews and Europeans, it was still definitely present in the lives of African Americans and other races. This just shows that even as we try to socially accept more and more races, there is always going to be some type of inequality present.
In the second article, it talks about how we learn stereotypes through socialization. This was just the topic of our lecture the other day. Race is a socially constructed concept that we learn from society and social interactions. Racial categories are very unsteady as the meaning of race fluctuates throughout time and location. We would like to think that racial categories are going to continue to evolve positively over time; however, we have no facts to back that up.
Questions:
1. How does our society go about remodeling racial categories to include whatever races seem worthy of whiteness at the time?
2. Did Jews and other Europeans become white because they first became middle class? Or did becoming white allow them to be referred to as middle class?
3. Do you think that race was not an issue as Brodkin described in her adolescent years or do you think that it was merely overlooked because of the new hype of being white middle-class citizens?