Soc. 3251W Race, Class, and Gender

This weekend I went to the Science Museum to see the race exhibit. Overall I thought the exhibit was very interesting. Some of the information was very basic; however, I think it is extremely important to include the basic information because there are a ton of Americans who still do not see the effects of race.

One thing that I did find interesting is a sign that stated that race is only about a hundred years old. It stated that race is a product of humans, which I believe to be true. Humans are very similar to every other human on earth even between races. People have come to separate others based on the color of their skin and therefore it is a product of humans; however, I question that the concept of race is only a hundred years old. To my knowledge inequalities have been occurring in Africa for hundreds of years based on the color of skin. Furthermore, there were inequalities beginning when Europeans first started traveling to America. Native Americans, an often hidden race, was discriminated against based their history, skin tone and culture. Although the concept of race may have become more prominent within the last hundred years, I think it has existed for a long period of time.

My favorite part of the entire exhibit was a wall that was filled with portraits of individuals of mixed ethnicities. Under each pictures, the individual who was photographed wrote a few sentences about themselves. The one that caught my eye in particular was of a woman who I think was Chinese and Irish. Under her picture it stated, “I am not Chinese. I am not Irish. I am the ‘other.� I thought this was such a wonderful point. Why do we always have to claim ourselves as a certain race? The great majority of the population in the United States is not from only one background or another. Instead of acknowledging this fact, most individuals claim themselves as American, which I would consider the ‘other.’ However, as we discussed in class earlier, not everyone is allowed to claim himself or herself as American. It is believed that to be a true American you need to be white. Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where the concept of race did not control how people view us? We would not need to choose one ethnicity to identify with, but instead we could be an individual separate of our history: a complete person who lives and breathes without criticism based on appearance.

On a separate note, I just want to share one other portrait just because I thought it was so adorable. It was of a boy who must have been around the age of seven. Under his picture he wrote, “I am part Chinese and part Danish but I don’t tell people I am Danish because they think I am a pastry.� Although I am not going to analyze the meaning of race in the young boy’s comment, I thought other people might enjoy the humor as much as I did.

-Lacey