Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

Biologically speaking, there’s no such thing as race. As hard as they’ve tried, scientists have never been able to define it. That’s because race is a human creation, not a fact of nature. Like money, it only exists because people accept it as “real.” Races exist because humans invented them.

Why would people invent race? Race was created in America in the late 1600s in order to preserve the land and power of the wealthy. Rich planters in Virginia feared what might happen if indigenous tribes, slaves, and indentured servants united and overthrew them. So, they cut a deal with the poor English colonists. The planters gave the English poor certain rights and privileges denied to all persons of African and Native American descent: the right to never be enslaved, to free speech and assembly, to move about without a pass, to marry without upper-class permission, to change jobs, to acquire property, and to bear arms. In exchange, the English poor agreed to respect the property of the rich, help them seize indigenous lands, and enforce slavery.

This cross-class alliance between the rich and the English poor came to be known as the “white race.” By accepting preferential treatment in an economic system that exploited their labor, too, the white working class tied their wagon to the elite rather than the rest of humanity. This devil’s bargain has undermined freedom and democracy in the U.S. ever since.

Joel Olson, “Whiteness and the 99%,” Bring the Ruckus. (October 20, 2011). http://www.bringtheruckus.org/?q=node%2F146.

Race is defined not by its purity but rather by the impurity…

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2013-03-28 19:17Z by Steven

Race is defined not by its purity but rather by the impurity conferred upon it by a system of domination. Bastard and mixed-blood are the true names of race.

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1980).

Tags: Félix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze

Comments Off on Race is defined not by its purity but rather by the impurity…

Pages
Categories
- Africa (385)
- Anthologies (280)
- Anthropology (1,124)
- Articles (8,155)
- Arts (1,161)
- Asian Diaspora (1,333)
- Audio (428)
- Autobiography (923)
- Barack Obama (707)
- Biography (842)
- Book Giveaway (1)
- Book/Video Reviews (686)
- Books (1,934)
- Brazil (497)
- Campus Life (438)
- Canada (445)
- Caribbean/Latin America (1,328)
- Census/Demographics (1,009)
- Chapter (43)
- Communications/Media Studies (443)
- Course Offerings (157)
- Definitions (43)
- Dissertations (444)
- Economics (102)
- Europe (492)
- Excerpts/Quotes (880)
- Family/Parenting (585)
- Forthcoming Media (51)
- Gay & Lesbian (154)
- Health/Medicine/Genetics (728)
- History (3,190)
- Identity Development/Psychology (2,028)
- Interviews (615)
- Judaism (174)
- Latino Studies (451)
- Law (910)
- Letters (9)
- Literary/Artistic Criticism (1,394)
- Live Events (643)
- Louisiana (224)
- Media Archive (11,517)
- Mexico (218)
- Mississippi (77)
- Monographs (1,329)
- My Articles/Point of View/Activities (52)
- Native Americans/First Nation (631)
- New Media (462)
- Novels (214)
- Oceania (207)
- Papers/Presentations (236)
- Passing (1,070)
- Philosophy (192)
- Poetry (89)
- Politics/Public Policy (1,713)
- Reading List (1)
- Religion (444)
- Reports (62)
- Slavery (727)
- Social Justice (265)
- Social Science (2,891)
- Social Work (190)
- South Africa (133)
- Statements (9)
- Teaching Resources (131)
- Texas (57)
- Tri-Racial Isolates (99)
- United Kingdom (990)
- United States (8,168)
- Videos (505)
- Virginia (208)
- Wanted/Research Requests/Call for Papers (118)
- Women (1,249)
Calendar of Posts

November 2024

M T W T F S S

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30

« Mar
Links
Meta

Mixed Race Studies

Race is defined not by its purity but rather by the impurity…

Pages

Categories

Calendar of Posts

Links

Meta