Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Distorted Race
Most people I interact with (sadly not all) have been taught as they grew up that discrimination is bad and that everyone, despite their differences, should have equal opportunities. Parents and educators often believe this is the responsible way approach racial issues but what they miss out is that they acknowledge these differences as a potential factor for discrimination. It is reasonable to note biological differences between people, after all there are darker and whiter skin tones. However, as I've understood as I've read Song of Solomon and learned in class, race is a socially constructed idea with weak biological evidence and disastrous social effects. Throughout the last centuries people have fallaciously claimed that different skin color and some facial features are attributes of different races. It is true and logical that geographic isolation caused that different groups of people have different traits, which could be called different races, but the social understanding of what this means is fallacious. The common understanding of race uses the many questions fallacy as well as hasty generalizations. Toni Morrison explains how the misinterpreted idea of race causes discrimination and segregation. Her novel isn't explicitly about these two issues but rather about their effects on individuals.
Throughout the book it is clear that the characters have fixed ideas about what being African American means. In the beginning of the novel many African Americans mention self-discriminating things. For example, at one point someone says, "A nigger in business is a terrible thing to see. A terrible, terrible thing to see." Later on Magdalene says, "Who’s going to live in them[the beach houses]? There’s no colored people who can afford to have two houses." Comments like these show that people absorb the idea that races exist and blame them for a lot other things that what they mean. In previous blog posts I've said that the idea of race is wrong but what's actually wrong is what we attribute to it. "True" race means that African Americans have darker skin pigments, not that they act differently. However, people take in the idea too far and use it to explain things using a post hoc ergo proper hoc fallacy, or that because one thing followed another, the first cause the second. Characters in Song of Solomon restrain themselves from what they could do by assuming that they can't because they're Black. Guitar rejects the luxurious way of living of Milkman because he feels it's not meant for people like him, presumably referring to his race. As the novel shows ideas throughout different decades, you can see that many of these stereotypes, like that African Americans wouldn't buy beach houses, turned out to be wrong.
Morrison shows how these biased ideas cause people to be excluded from society. The African Americans that adhered to the complete stereotype were part of their social group as where rich White people. Nevertheless, people like the Dead were left without a social group. Since the beginning of the novel, one can see that social groups are not really about wealth or education but often about race. Corinthians was educated and rich but was eventually pushed by society to become a maid. Meanwhile Milkman was desperate enough to escape his lifestyle that he agreed to steal from the person who saved him as a fetus. He could not fit in with Guitar and poorer African Americans neither with the generally White upper class. In a more explicit way, white people blamed all crimes to African Americans because they backed up segregation with the idea of race. Morrison shows that society in an illogical way uses race to bully people around. Race not only affects the specific scenarios of the novel but also the whole plot. The history of the Dead family is based around the social interpretation of race. Stretching from slavery to self discrimination, the plot shows how the false dichotomy of race in the US harmed African Americans.
Throughout Song of Solomon, Morrison shows that racism is fallaciously created by society. The way people classify themselves and others based on a few characteristics oversimplifies the unlimited aspects of human genetics and personality. Slavery divided two groups of humans into different social classes and people created racial stereotypes from this division. The effects of slavery on Solomon caused a lot of damage in many generations of his descendants. Going back to the point about biology, although Morrison barely discusses genetics, she shows that racism is truly about a socially created differences, not genes. Society was (or is) divided by skin color and the false stereotypes that creates don't allow people to truly progress or have equal rights. I think that Morrison is trying to say that as long as racial division exists, there cannot be equal opportunities because people distort what skin color means and cause people to live desperately as the Deads did.
Throughout the book it is clear that the characters have fixed ideas about what being African American means. In the beginning of the novel many African Americans mention self-discriminating things. For example, at one point someone says, "A nigger in business is a terrible thing to see. A terrible, terrible thing to see." Later on Magdalene says, "Who’s going to live in them[the beach houses]? There’s no colored people who can afford to have two houses." Comments like these show that people absorb the idea that races exist and blame them for a lot other things that what they mean. In previous blog posts I've said that the idea of race is wrong but what's actually wrong is what we attribute to it. "True" race means that African Americans have darker skin pigments, not that they act differently. However, people take in the idea too far and use it to explain things using a post hoc ergo proper hoc fallacy, or that because one thing followed another, the first cause the second. Characters in Song of Solomon restrain themselves from what they could do by assuming that they can't because they're Black. Guitar rejects the luxurious way of living of Milkman because he feels it's not meant for people like him, presumably referring to his race. As the novel shows ideas throughout different decades, you can see that many of these stereotypes, like that African Americans wouldn't buy beach houses, turned out to be wrong.
Morrison shows how these biased ideas cause people to be excluded from society. The African Americans that adhered to the complete stereotype were part of their social group as where rich White people. Nevertheless, people like the Dead were left without a social group. Since the beginning of the novel, one can see that social groups are not really about wealth or education but often about race. Corinthians was educated and rich but was eventually pushed by society to become a maid. Meanwhile Milkman was desperate enough to escape his lifestyle that he agreed to steal from the person who saved him as a fetus. He could not fit in with Guitar and poorer African Americans neither with the generally White upper class. In a more explicit way, white people blamed all crimes to African Americans because they backed up segregation with the idea of race. Morrison shows that society in an illogical way uses race to bully people around. Race not only affects the specific scenarios of the novel but also the whole plot. The history of the Dead family is based around the social interpretation of race. Stretching from slavery to self discrimination, the plot shows how the false dichotomy of race in the US harmed African Americans.
Throughout Song of Solomon, Morrison shows that racism is fallaciously created by society. The way people classify themselves and others based on a few characteristics oversimplifies the unlimited aspects of human genetics and personality. Slavery divided two groups of humans into different social classes and people created racial stereotypes from this division. The effects of slavery on Solomon caused a lot of damage in many generations of his descendants. Going back to the point about biology, although Morrison barely discusses genetics, she shows that racism is truly about a socially created differences, not genes. Society was (or is) divided by skin color and the false stereotypes that creates don't allow people to truly progress or have equal rights. I think that Morrison is trying to say that as long as racial division exists, there cannot be equal opportunities because people distort what skin color means and cause people to live desperately as the Deads did.
Genetic Comparison
As we discussed the genetic differences between ethnicities, I thought I'd be relevant to show how my genes compare with an "average" Nigerian. The genetic comparison we saw in the documentary was sort of misleading because it used mitochondrial DNA, which is only passed though the maternal line. This means that it excluded paternal ancestry and included information about genetic material that doesn't determine our traits. Nevertheless genetic comparisons of "22 autosomal chromosomes, which means all the chromosomes except for the sex chromosomes (X and Y) and the mitochondrial DNA," according to genetic testing I used, shows that there aren't many differences between me and a Nigerian.
The results show that I'm 69.07% similar to an average Nigerian and even more similar in many specific traits like BMI, endurance or immune system. The only trait that is less similar is pigmentation or skin color, and it's still very similar. Using this tool I can also compare myself with my parents, and an average Chinese or Japanese person. I'm 84.93% similar to my mom, 84.87% to my dad, 71.60% to a Chinese person and 71.61% to a Japanese person. As Sub-Saharan Africans were isolated from the rest of humans through the last thousands of years, it is expected that their traits be somewhat different. These results shows that the small genetic differences between me, mostly White, and an African, or other people, don't really suggest that race, or human subspecies, exist but rather that humans simply have different traits.
The results show that I'm 69.07% similar to an average Nigerian and even more similar in many specific traits like BMI, endurance or immune system. The only trait that is less similar is pigmentation or skin color, and it's still very similar. Using this tool I can also compare myself with my parents, and an average Chinese or Japanese person. I'm 84.93% similar to my mom, 84.87% to my dad, 71.60% to a Chinese person and 71.61% to a Japanese person. As Sub-Saharan Africans were isolated from the rest of humans through the last thousands of years, it is expected that their traits be somewhat different. These results shows that the small genetic differences between me, mostly White, and an African, or other people, don't really suggest that race, or human subspecies, exist but rather that humans simply have different traits.
Socially Constructed Divisions
I understand more of Booker T. Washington, once an isolated APUSH figure, as I relate his ideas to Song of Solomon. Morrison and Washington share some ideas as seen by comparing her book and "Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are," a speech by the later. While each work gets into specifics not completely related, the main points behind both are very similar, like the idea that racial divisions are created by society and that they must be destroyed for people to have equal opportunities.
In Song of Solomon, a rich African American family is isolated from the upper class because of their color while differentiated from poor African Americans because of their money. The stereotypes that classified people into rich Whites or poor Blacks left the Dead family in an undefined spot of society. Throughout the book each family member struggles to find his or her place in society because of the stratifying ideas implanted in their thoughts. Macon Sr is obsessed with having a family that behaves in a high-class manner. Ruth doesn't truly get along neither with white upper class women nor with poor African Americans. The children of these two struggle to find a way to live as they don't fit in mainstream stereotypes and are perplexed by their parents and their ideas about status in society. As a result of the social ideas of the parents, their children become incompatible with society and fail according to their standards. Neither of the daughters can get married and Milkman just wants to get away. Because of the strict classifying ideas of society, the children were excluded from some groups and didn't fully fit in anywhere. While not being a member of a specific group can be bad, the book also shows how social divisions affected most African Americans. As people discriminate because of the color of the skin, many other characteristics are oversimplified into being features of a race. Morrison shows that many characteristics of people are falsely attributed to the fallacious idea of race.
Booker T. Washington's speech is much more political but it shares Morrison's ideas about race. He says, "No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities." The previous quotation shows that the false distinctions created by the idea of race keep people from prospering. If someone concretely divides White roles from Black roles in society, slavery or unfair labor conditions are created. Race is a fallacy as it assumes that traits shared by a group of people similar in color are an effect of this. By socially constructing these differences between Blacks and Whites, discrimination begins to happen. Washington suggests that we get rid of those differences by having similar opportunities and forgiving bad aspects of this erroneous differentiation as obsessing about discrimination towards a specific group might lead to acknowledge that the group exists. He ends the speech promoting "absolute justice" and the "blotting out of sectional differences" because the differences should exist.
Both Morrison and Washington subtly or directly show that the existence of race is damaging to society. Race is a many questions fallacy, one "in which two or more issues get merged into one," using Thank You For Arguing's definition. Undoubtedly there are people with different tones of skin, which does have a biological basis, but this doesn't mean that there are two distinct groups of humans. Washington does concede to the idea of race by asking employers to hire African Americans instead of European immigrants, but the basis for his argument isn't about racial differences but instead about socioeconomic difference (his arguments apply also to poor White Americans). The issue of discrimination, as seen in these two works issued almost a century apart, comes from the existence of the idea of race.
In Song of Solomon, a rich African American family is isolated from the upper class because of their color while differentiated from poor African Americans because of their money. The stereotypes that classified people into rich Whites or poor Blacks left the Dead family in an undefined spot of society. Throughout the book each family member struggles to find his or her place in society because of the stratifying ideas implanted in their thoughts. Macon Sr is obsessed with having a family that behaves in a high-class manner. Ruth doesn't truly get along neither with white upper class women nor with poor African Americans. The children of these two struggle to find a way to live as they don't fit in mainstream stereotypes and are perplexed by their parents and their ideas about status in society. As a result of the social ideas of the parents, their children become incompatible with society and fail according to their standards. Neither of the daughters can get married and Milkman just wants to get away. Because of the strict classifying ideas of society, the children were excluded from some groups and didn't fully fit in anywhere. While not being a member of a specific group can be bad, the book also shows how social divisions affected most African Americans. As people discriminate because of the color of the skin, many other characteristics are oversimplified into being features of a race. Morrison shows that many characteristics of people are falsely attributed to the fallacious idea of race.
Booker T. Washington's speech is much more political but it shares Morrison's ideas about race. He says, "No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities." The previous quotation shows that the false distinctions created by the idea of race keep people from prospering. If someone concretely divides White roles from Black roles in society, slavery or unfair labor conditions are created. Race is a fallacy as it assumes that traits shared by a group of people similar in color are an effect of this. By socially constructing these differences between Blacks and Whites, discrimination begins to happen. Washington suggests that we get rid of those differences by having similar opportunities and forgiving bad aspects of this erroneous differentiation as obsessing about discrimination towards a specific group might lead to acknowledge that the group exists. He ends the speech promoting "absolute justice" and the "blotting out of sectional differences" because the differences should exist.
Both Morrison and Washington subtly or directly show that the existence of race is damaging to society. Race is a many questions fallacy, one "in which two or more issues get merged into one," using Thank You For Arguing's definition. Undoubtedly there are people with different tones of skin, which does have a biological basis, but this doesn't mean that there are two distinct groups of humans. Washington does concede to the idea of race by asking employers to hire African Americans instead of European immigrants, but the basis for his argument isn't about racial differences but instead about socioeconomic difference (his arguments apply also to poor White Americans). The issue of discrimination, as seen in these two works issued almost a century apart, comes from the existence of the idea of race.
Dangling Modifiers
As I read the NYT style manual editor, I quickly recognized the dangling modifiers in some of the sentences. A lot of times studying or preparing specifically for a test can be detrimental but in many cases some of the knowledge actually does stay in your mind. When practicing for the SAT, I usually didn't learn new things but rather became more proficient or faster in them. However, for the writing section I did have to learn some grammar rules because I often say or hear grammatically wrong things. Even if those mistakes don't really affect what I'm communicating and I usually correct them if I have time to go over my writing, I didn't want them to affect my chances of getting into a good college. Some of these grammar mistakes I usually did are dangling modifiers, but, hopefully, I've learned and stopped doing them. These are phrases that modify another thing or phrase that are not the ones that should be. The NYT article uses this example:
But on Saturday, traveling in Zabul Province in southern Afghanistan on a day trip to deliver books to schoolchildren, Ms. Smedinghoff’s promisewas cut short by a Taliban car bomb.
Although the idea is communicated, for the sake of clarity it is important to revise the sentence. Originally I learned the rules about dangling modifiers to identify them as mistakes in the SAT writing section but I think (or hope) that now I'm applying them to my writing. Tests can be a good way to learn.
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