Summary Of Mills 'Metaphysics Of Race'

This week’s reading covered Mills’ “But What are You Really? The Metaphysics of Race.” Mills explores how race is both interpreted internally and externally and how it is a social construction. In particular the criteria for racial identity felt largely expanded and made me question why such ideas needed such an expanse. The seven points of criteria is as follows: bodily appearance, ancestry, self awareness, public awareness, culture, experience, and subjective identification. Bodily appearance primarily refers to skin color. ancestry is the connection biologically to subordinate or inferior races. Self awareness of ancestry is the self knowledge of racial history. Public awareness of ancestry involves the public assumption of one's’ biological racial history, which is predominantly based on perception of bodily appearance. Culture hinders others from adopting other’s cultural differences and practices (this is where cultural appropriation comes from). Experience is the privilege associated with your race, and if you aren’t experiencing said privilege you cannot identify with race. …show more content…
This person in the case has black heritage and remains involved culturally with the black community, while their experience has been mixed racially. Despite this, said person has the bodily appearance of a white individual and can pass in public as having privilege. I find this case particularly interesting as my grandfather is Caribbean and African and immigrated into the US in the 1940’s. He is a tan like a white male who works construction. He participates in “conscious episodic passing” (55) by taking advantage of all the white privilege available to him, like being able to work as an engineer and marry a white women in a time of african-american civil rights issues. If I were to break down each piece of my grandfather in regards to racial criteria, I couldn’t tell you what his race really