Lecture One Socially Constructing Race

"Black man, black woman, black baby / White man, white woman, white baby / White man, black woman, black baby / Black man, white woman, black baby." - Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet

One Drop Rule Hypodescent: the rule that automatically assigns the children of a mixed union or mating between members of different socioeconomic groups in the less privileged group  a white mother can give birth to a black baby, but a black mother cannot give birth to a white baby

Racial Dichotomy Black and White are generally defined as opposite of each other Isomorphism: lump dissimilar groups together and define them as one group What reasons does Martinez give for moving beyond the Black-White framework?  Do you agree with here?

Social Construction thru the Census In 1900, for the first time, the census employed an explicit one-drop rule. There were only two categories: White and Black. Since 1960, self-classification has enabled people to use whatever criteria they wish.  This led many Americans to interpret the question as relating to voluntary ethnopolitical self-identity, rather than the traditional concept relating to continent of ancestry. The 1970 census was the first to allow respondents to choose “other” and fill in a blank line with a "race" other than one of the government-approved choices. The 2000 census was the first to allow respondents to check off multiple “race” boxes.

Who are you? Answer questions 8 & 9 on the census form  What is your race/ethnicity?  Was the form easy to full out?  Why did you put yourself into those categories? What others think of you? What your family told you?

The “Realness” of Race: Debate Should we get rid of racial/ethnic categories in the Census? Team #1: Yes, we should. Why? Team #2: No, we should not. Why?