Race Power Of An Illusion Essay

Before I started this class, I never really thought about race, racialization, or racial formations. Anything that had to do with race or racial matters was only talked about in the privacy of my home or during family discussion. I never really quite understood how your race could impact your life until I started experiencing it myself. My definition of race was entirely different from what I would define it as now. I thought race was just about your skin color and nothing else. I never would have guessed that it had to do with so much more than that. From the documentary “Race: Power of an Illusion” I learned a few thing about race that I never heard before. One, race is a biological myth, an idea of biology. It is a social construction to promote separation and to categorize …show more content…
What I also figured out is that genetics does play a part in race but it is used in the wrong way. For example, say you features like your eyes or nose that are of African descent but your skin color is of Caucasian descent, which race would that person be identify with? Connecting with another point in the film, I think race uses genetics and skin color to split light skinned people from dark skinned to establish dominates or power. I knew that white people were seen as the dominate race for centuries but what struck me was that they inaugurate themselves as a higher race and anyone who try to impose were seen as inferior to them. What I’m saying is, what are they afraid of when it comes to a different race standing up for their rights and beliefs. I know that white people set laws in place to prevent blacks, Latinos, Asians and other races from having any rights in America but who gives them that kind of power over others. These events actually shaped our current society and how racially as a nation, we’re still