With this session we begin the exploration of our
awareness of race, our sense of personal identity and how the external world
influences both. Identity, relationships and day-to-day activities make sense
in relation to a worldview, and exploring the consciousness of race leads to
the worldview--or myth--of racism. But the belief in race and participation in
racism are possible because a false consciousness is at work, a consciousness
shaped by a culture of racism. In this session members look more closely at
the relationship between our awareness and the external world where race and
racism are at work.
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Assignment before
reading |
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A field trip... |
Get in your car (or taxi, or bus, or
commuter train) and go some place in your city where you have never been
before. Walk around the area. Go into stores and browse. Do some
people-watching. Stop someone on the sidewalk and ask, "Can you tell me what
time it is?" or "Can you tell me where the nearest dry cleaners is?" Take
note of what you observe on your walk, what you are feeling and what you are
thinking. Take special note of anything that seems unusual, unexpected or
out-of-place, or anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or fearful.
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Writing Assignment #1: |
When you return home, write down a
description of your experiences with attention to what you were thinking and
feeling at the time.
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Now
READ Chapter 4, pages 172-79 |
These subsections summarize Berger
and Luckmann's discussion of the way primary and secondary socialization
take place, what is involved in the formation of identity (significant
others, internalization, plausibility structures, etc.), and the reciprocity
between our consciousness and the world outside us. The discussion points
out that our ability to maintain a sense of who we are (identity) is related
to our relationships with others and our interactions in places where we are
recognized and affirmed for who we are.
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Writing Assignment #2: |
Briefly describe the "significant
others" who are most important to supporting your sense of identity. Then
describe some "places" where you are recognized and affirmed in your identity.
Why and how are these persons and places important to you? What do they
contribute to your sense of identity? What role does "race" play in this mix?
Now describe a situation or an
experience where your sense of identity was challenged, unrecognized, or
threatened. What happened? What did you think and feel in that situation? Did
"race" play a part, and if so how? What happened afterwards? What impact did
this experience have on you? Did it change you in any way, and if so, how?
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Now READ Chapter 4,
pages 179-81 |
The reading distinguishes between "worldview" and "myth" by pointing out
that the latter can be understood to include a people’s beliefs, traditions,
rituals and stories that provide coherence and integration in a sociocultural
world. Identify and reflect on some of the beliefs, traditions, rituals and
stories you think are important in shaping American society as well as your
sense of identity and place in it.
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Writing Assignment #3: |
Then write out your thoughts on the following questions:
- In what particular ways do you observe or share in these? How are they
yours? How did you come to embrace them and how have you "internalized"
these?
- Why do you claim them as your own, and how do you contribute to them for
others?
- Are there beliefs, traditions, rituals and stories that you do not claim
as your own? If so, what are they, and why do you not claim them as your
own?
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Now READ Chapter 4,
pages 181-83 |
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Writing Assignment #4: |
Think again about the beliefs, traditions, rituals and stories you
described. These can be viewed as a gateway to a larger "myth." Now describe
that myth in terms of its four functions for you (and by extension, for
American society). What are the metaphysical-mystical, cosmological,
moral-social and psychological functions of the myth? How does the myth work
(i.e., orient and ground your subjectivity or consciousness?
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Now READ Chapter 4,
pages 183-92 |
The reading describes the myth of race and focuses on the fourfold
functions of this myth. Think again about beliefs, traditions, rituals and
stories, only now think specifically about racial beliefs, traditions,
rituals and stories. Reflect on how these contribute to the myth of race and
how the myth functions.
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Writing Assignment #5: |
Then write down your responses to these questions:
- Dualism (metaphysical-mystical): How does the myth of race
symbolize and make sense of your experience, your connection with ultimate
reality? How does it influence who you understand yourself to be and how you
regard others who are different from you?
- Science and evolution (cosmological): What language do you use to
describe the differences between people groups, and where does this language
come from? What is the source of your understanding and explanation of those
differences? What role do the notions of "superiority and inferiority,"
"Western and non-Western," and "primitive and civilized" play in these
explanations?
- Dichotomy (moral-social): What are the rules and expectations,
customs and traditions, that characterize and distinguish racial groups from
one another? How do members of one group regard themselves, and how do they
regard members of other groups? How does one know when and where the
boundaries between groups are crossed, and what is the consequence?
- Identity (psychological): What are the forces or pressures in
socialization that encourage persons to identify with a racial in-group (or
reference group)? What are the perceptions, values, attitudes and behaviors
that are encouraged by group solidarity, and how are these maintained? How
does "race" assist in the interpretation of your experience?
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Now READ Chapter 4,
pages 192-95 |
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Writing Assignment #6: |
Read through your description of what you thought and felt and observed
during your trip to a place you have never been before. What you did in that
written exercise was describe your consciousness and interpret your experience
in some meaningful way. As you recall that trip, describe the ways you may
have misapprehended and misinterpreted what took place. Is it possible that
what you think you saw you in fact did not see correctly? Is it possible that
the explanation you came up with for something that happened may have been
wide of the mark? What alternative explanations are there? Why did something
strike you as unusual or out-of-place? Could misapprehension and
misinterpretation have been the reason? What about your feelings of discomfort
or fearfulness? Any possibility of misapprehension or misinterpretation here?
How might you have looked at and interpreted the situation differently? Write
down your thoughts on this.
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Now READ Chapter 4,
pages 195-206 |
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Writing Assignment #7: |
Recall a situation in which you experienced discomfort, tension or conflict
over matters related to race and racism (perhaps a discussion you participated
in, a conversation you heard, an event you observed, or a confrontation
between persons or groups). Then catalog the contents of your consciousness by
writing out your responses to the following questions regarding that
situation:
- Dualism (structuring consciousness by grasping two inherently
oppositional forces): What are the indications that a dualist mode of
consciousness is at work? How does this duality structure your own personal,
social and religious worlds? Where is it operative in the racial in-group
with which you identify?
- Deception (focusing only on information that is assumed to be
important cues, regarding other details as insignificant or irrelevant): As
you recall the situation, what did you think was important information in
understanding what was going on, and why did you select these cues? What
information and aspects of the situation did you discount or ignore? What
was your explanation of this situation, and in what ways might this
explanation have been shared by others of your racial in-group?
- Detachment (inability to relate cognitively and emotionally to
the experiences of others, attributing attitudes and feelings to others in
order to protect oneself from discomfort): What did you think and feel about
what others were saying and the consciousness and experiences they were
expressing? Did you take them seriously? If not, why? Did you make any
effort to "connect" with what they were saying?
- Denial (regarding a legitimate assertion by another as unfounded,
inappropriate, or untrue, and seeking to suppress it as contradictory to the
norm): What were the differing claims, opinions or perspectives (contentions
or accusations) represented, and how were they regarded by the participants?
Where comments made or actions taken to stifle the different views, and if
so by whom and why? How did you regard the positions taken by the others?
- Dissociation (separating beliefs and conduct about race from the
rest of one’s convictions and behaviors, resulting in differences in
behavior in mixed and unmixed settings): How did you present or express
yourself in the situation? Did you experience yourself as being honest and
forthcoming, or did you restrain your comments and actions out of concern
for how you might be perceived? How have you dealt with that situation since
it happened? What affect did it have on you?
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Now READ Chapter 4,
pages 206-207 |
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A trip on the Internet... |
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Writing Assignment #8: |
Read the article, "Being
Colorblind Does Not Offset Innate Advantages of White Privilege" by Robert
Jensen at the website of The Business Journal. Then read two articles
in the Aggie Daily, titled "Racism
Still Prevalent, More Subtle" and "New
Civil Rights Movement Needed for New Face of Racism." Write a brief
statement on what you think about being colorblind in matters of race.
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Suggestions for Group
Discussion |
- With particular attention to the four functions of myth, describe some
of the ways the "American myth" works in our context. How does this myth
hold our American "way of life" together and make it a meaningful whole?
Explore the intersections between this "American myth" and the "myth of
race."
- Share what you have learned about yourself as a result of your
reflections on the trip to a new place. How does your insight contribute to
your participation in conversations on race and racism?
- Are there other "modes" of false consciousness that should be
identified? If so, what are the indications of their presence, and how do
they work?
- Discuss—debate!—the proposition: Colorblindness "is not a racial
equalizer but a silencer" (p. 206f). How is colorblindness understood in
matters of race and racism, and does it contribute to or detract from the
goal of overcoming racism?
- Study the cartoon by Andy Singer (click on the cartoon for a larger
view). In addition to the commentary on immigration policy, how does the
cartoon's message address the American "myth," and what does it suggest for
an understanding of false consciousness? (When you finish studying it, click
your browser's "Back" button.)
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Focused Question for Group
Discussion |
These two sections of chapter 4 focus attention on the reciprocity between
the external sociocultural world and internal subjectivity (identity,
consciousness); the structures of the subjective world corresponds to the
structures of the objective world, and this comes about through our
socialization. What are the interconnections between the "myth of race" and
the modes of "false consciousness"? How do the myth and modes interpenetrate
one another, presuppose one another, maintain one another? How does a
sociocultural order held together by the race-myth influence and promote these
modes of consciousness? What is needed to counteract false consciousness and
the pressures that make it possible to form it (common knowledge, common
sense, norms, etc.)?
