30th Anniversary Series: Racial Categorization and the Complexity of Difference
We are so excited to be taking a look back at some of our past annual lectures as we gear up for the Chair’s 30th anniversary.
We are starting this series with the address from 2018, “Deconstructing Race / Reconstructing Difference,” delivered by Dr. Jabari Mahiri. He centered his talk on ways to move and change so future generations won’t have to face the same inequities brought about by race. His argument centers around the social construction and performance of race. Despite the lack of scientific proof, race is a social fact, and the implications of the social perceptions of race are very real.
Dr. Mahiri notes that his talk focuses on America’s unique context and analysis, but he also recognizes how influential American ideas and culture can be around the world. The concepts of “whiteness” and “blackness” were created with an economic and social purpose, and these ideas have taken a strong hold. Alongside these ideas, concepts like white purity have developed. Because race is not based on concrete or quantifiable factors, what can and cannot be defined as “whiteness” has changed and varied over time.
Dr. Mahiri also points out how limiting social identities can be. Racial categories do not allow for the complexity and nuance that exists in the identities of real people. He provides one example where two brothers experience the world differently based on labels. While they both have a Latina mother and a black father and are both bilingual in Spanish and English, the older son has darker skin and is more commonly labeled a black man, while the younger brother is more commonly identified as Latino. Though their ethnic, cultural, and genetic backgrounds are exactly the same, in the world, they effectively function as people from different races based solely on the way that strangers perceive them, and that has a tangible impact on how they are treated by the world around them.
Racial categorization is fully based in white supremacy. Everything is put into a hierarchy; racial description is never neutral. In so many cases, white is seen as the default, and all others are deviations from the norm. When people say “Americans,” they most often mean white Americans. When they want to discuss other groups, they specify “Black Americans.” The language we use belies the pervasive socialization we all receive that marks whiteness as an ideal and a norm and otherizes everyone who doesn’t fit purely into that category.
Dr. Mahiri discusses how we are actually terrible at identifying ethnic and racial backgrounds through skin tone and facial features. We feel that they are objective categories and that, in general, people are good at sorting, but in reality, our ability to label people is little better than random guessing. Despite this, racial categorization continues to be coded into our social structure. One way this is accomplished is through the census. We are required to mark a box labeling ourselves, but the categories don’t always stay the same. Throughout history, Mexican people have been defined as both white and not white; “Chinese” has been included as its own race and included with other Asians. This demonstrates how arbitrary the standards for racial categorization are.
We are so bound to these categories that we often fail to see the humanity of people. Dr. Mahiri conducted hours-long interviews based on two simple questions: “How does the US identify you and how do you identify yourself?” These discussions revealed the ways that race and culture are performed, similar to how we perform gender. We pick how to represent ourselves to others because it impacts our treatment in the world. Native people who pass as white, south Indians who pass as black, and Latinx people who can be labeled as white, black, indigenous, and other categories must all consciously decide in conversation in life when to identify themselves or allow the assumptions of strangers to stand.
Though the concept of race itself is built on unstable and arbitrary foundations, racial discrimination and its effects are extremely real and serious. In many cases, people cannot control how they are seen and perceived by others or how that perception will impact them. Additionally, in many cases, a prejudiced person won’t care about the nuances of identity. However, noting that race is not only something assigned to you by society but a factor of identity and difference that we must engage with given the society we live in is important. It can help us think more complexly and completely about diversity and the way that humanity exists beyond simple labels and boxes.
About the Author
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She will graduate from the University of Maryland with her MLIS in spring 2023.