Slavery Race And Ideology In America Summary

In her article titled Slavery, Race, and Ideology in America, Barbara Fields asserts that race is a social construction rather than a physical attribute of individuals. In accordance with Fields, injustices have historically arisen when society tries to assign meaning to race. She asserts that dominant groups often use race to assert a presumed biological superiority in order perpetuate social hierarchy and justify oppression. Subsequently, racial meaning is consistently “verified” in social life to the point that it becomes palpable. These ideologies manifest themselves in their inclusion to the law, “which is bound by those rituals that daily create and recreate race in its characteristic American form.”(Fields) Mark Twain’s Puddn’head Wilson sheds light on the artificiality of race while critiquing the extent to which social conventions dominate society.
Tom(Chambers), a part black child in Mark Twain’s Puddnhead Wilson was switched at birth with Chambers(Tom) a white child. Tom is subsequently raised as a privileged white slave owner while Chambers is raised as a slave. These fake identities, which are precipitated by race come to define how society sees these …show more content…
Langston Hughes asserted in his memoir that “ You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word 'Negro ' is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all Negro, therefore black. I am brown”. Fields is also frustrated by the assumption that everything minorities do is characterized as racial in nature. This is evidenced by every wrongdoing commited by a part black character in the novel being suggested at times by the narrator and other characters as a reflection of their