Racism Throughout Humanities

The end of the Humanities Core is near, and the theme of racism was prevalent throughout all of the lectures. Especially during the last two quarters, the topic of racism was a central theme that was continued, but portrayed in different ways.

To begin with, Professor O’Toole’s lectures about the Incan Empire showed racism when she talked about Christopher Columbus’s accounts when he first came to the New World. Columbus described the natives as savages who ate human flesh and were naive. There were also other accounts that named the indigenous people “sub-human” with abnormal and very unrealistic physical features. These “features” not only made the European conquerors feel superior, but it also justified their actions when taking over the natives.

Furthermore, we found out much more about how racism affected the world and its history. Spring Quarter’s first lecturer, Professor Block, started her lectures off with how brutal slavery was to the Africans and African Americans. In one of the first readings she had assigned, we had learned the horrible conditions in which Africans would be sent to America like cargo in ships. They would be stuffed like cattle in the lower decks. They barely had any room to move in, and the stench was completely unbearable. They were also force fed, and if any of them tried to escape by jumping off of the ship, they would get caught and flogged severely. Although this does not directly show any racism, it is known that the only reason these slaves were treated the way that they were was because of their race. Equiano mentions in his excerpt how African slavery was much lessbrutal than the inhumane European slavery. Block also mentioned how black slave women would be raped by their masters and how in one case, a free black woman was forced to have sex with another free black man in front of a white man, who was holding them at gunpoint.

Also, Professor Vo mentioned a lot of racism throughout her lectures on America’s expansion of their empire in the East. She explained, through the use of political cartoons, how the Americans saw the Filipinos as dark, animal-like, and uncivilized. She emphasized the “Other” a lot as America’s way to describe the Filipinos. Some cartoons displayed the Filipinos as little children in order to show how uncivilized they were and how much they needed McKinley’s “benevolent assimilation”. As though this was not bad enough, the U.S. found a way to demean the Filipinos even further by having a “human zoo” exhibition in St. Louis. This is where people from all over the country could go in order to see exotic people. The Filipinos would also be dressed in very traditional Filipinoattire by the owners of the exhibitions to attract more people, which made the Filipinos seem more of an “other” than they really were. The history behind the U.S. taking over the Philippines as an American colony was purely racist and selfish because they only wanted to use the Philippines as a stepping stone to China.

Racism is still prevalent today. Like in the reading Professor Block had assigned about racecraft, race is just an ideology made by man. Racism is what created race, and the world would be a much better place if more people realized that.

Racism in Disney Films

All throughout the history of the film industry, there have been countless displays of racism; some obvious and others not as much. Some of these displays were very offensive to the group that the film was racializing and others opened people’s eyes to American history.

Disney films have done a lot to include many different cultures and races, but that was not always the case. There were several subtleties of racism in numerous films that seems to just fly over children’s heads. However, as these children grow and become more attentive, these subtleties have gotten to be much more noticeable now. For example, in the 1941 Disney film, Dumbo, the lead crow with a thick accent is named Jim Crow, which is from the Jim Crow Laws that forced segregation amongst the whites and the colored people. Another interesting fact that the audience did not know was that he was voiced by a white man, whereas the other less-important crows were voiced by an African American man.

Another example of racism in a Disney film was in The Jungle Book. The racist element was found in the scene with King Louie, an orangutan, and his fellow apes. These characters all spoke in jive, which was slang used by African Americans. This seems more than just a big coincidence that Disney decided to cast apes as the animals to portray African Americans over other animals of the jungle. It is also not a coincidence that the writer of The Jungle Book is Rudyard Kipling, the poet famous for “The White Man’s Burden”.

Disney’s Aladdin also shows a subtler form of racism that has to do more with appearances. In the film, the villain, Jafar, has a much more darker skin complexion compared to the main characters, Jasmine, Aladdin, and Jasmine’s father. This proves that according to this film, dark equates to evil and fairness equates to good. A similar trend is followed in The Lady and the Tramp where the evil siamese cats portray extremely racist Asian stereotypes. Not only are their eyes slanted, but their English is also very broken. The way they are so synchronized with each other can hint at something more than just at the fact that they are twins. It implies a stereotype that Asians have no individuality and they are “the same”.

A recentDisney movie that actually opened people’s eyes to American history is Zootopia. Although it is not quite obvious at first given the fact that all the characters are animals with little to no stereotypes displayed, the film’s overall theme is actually race. Throughout the film, it becomes apparent that the reason behind why the predators are going feral is because of their biology (this is not the actual reason as the audience finds out in the end). As the main character, a bunny names Judy Hopps, concludes that the predators are reverting back to their “primitive savage ways”, she also later states, “It’s not like a bunny can go savage.” This directly connects to the way that many Americans react when another race goes “savage”. It is portrayed through news coverage and social media even today. For instance, whenever a Muslim does anything bad, it is because they are a terrorist. If an African American does something bad, it is because they are a thug. These terms equate to these people’s “savage ways”. Disney has done a great thing through this film to show their audience that the reason a person does a bad thing has nothing to do with his or her race or their “biology”.

Works cited:

Racist moments in Disney films

Racism in Recent Years

Black Lives Matter

The United States has come a long way in terms of development, technology, and efficiency since its independence from Britain. However, the effects of race and racism have gotten better at a very slow pace, and in recent years, those effects seem to have gotten worse.

The Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and the 1960s was in response to the extreme unfair treatment of colored people. There were segregation laws that did not allow colored children attend the same schools as the white children. Many did not see this as unequal treatment, but the sad truth behind this was that the schools made for the colored children were much older and dilapidated with very little resources. In this aspect, today’s society has gotten much better in terms of race since there are no longer segregation laws. Another example of acts of racism that occurred in that same era was the use of excessive force shown by the police towards the African Americans. There were countless cases of police brutality against the African American activists, many of which were not justifiable.

Unfortunately, these cases did not end with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In present-day U.S., there have been hundreds of cases where the police have used deadly forces against African Americans. For instance, there was a very recent case where police shot and killed a young 22 year old African American man in Sacramento. The police believed that he was carrying a firearm and shot him. However, after searching his lifeless body, they found nothing but a cell phone. Many do not believe this to be an act of racism, but the constant occurrence of cases like this taking place all over the country makes it seem as though race plays an important factor.

Just like it was during and before the Civil Rights Movement era, the police are not the only ones who use deadly force against African Americans. Many African Americans have been shot and killed by average civilians as well. One example of this is Trayvon Martin. The 17 year old was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, who was a neighborhood watch captain. Although the jury found him not guilty, there was evidence that Zimmerman had used “racial slurs against blacks”. This makes the public infer that the race of the 17 year old had a lot to do with his death. A similar case occurred with another 17 year old African American boy named Jordan Davis. Jordan was listening to loud music with three of his friends in a car in front of a gas station when Michael Dunn found it threatening, engaged in an argument with them, and then shot and killed Jordan. The boy was unarmed and there was no reason for the man to feel threatened. It was clear that Dunn had only shot him just because he was a young African American boy.

Stories like these are occurring too much and too often. Had the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement still be alive today, they would have been disappointed in how their hard work and perseverance played no role in these cases.

Works Cited:

Trayvon Martin

Jordan Davis

Racism in Adaptations of “The Tempest”

Djimon Hounsou

In Julie Taymor’s film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, she made several changes and reinforced many aspects from the original. One important reinforcement is made through the portrayal of Caliban. By casting an African actor for the role of Caliban, she racially demonstrates how the opposition between colonizer and colonized was based on white superiority. This opposition is also seen in Aimé Césaire’s adaptation, A Tempest. 

To begin with, in Taymor’s film, the relationship that was shared between Prospero and Caliban is displayed through the film, but with Prospera, a female colonizer, and an African man portraying Caliban. I do not think that Taymor does this to be racist towards the African communities nor to make them feel like inferior, oppressed beings. However, I do think that she does this in order for the audience to visually understand the strong opposition between Caliban as an indigenous person and Prospera, the colonizer. By making Caliban an African, the binary opposition is emphasized since it is visually seen as the opposition between a white superior colonizer and an African indigenous colonized. This aspect of the film is further noticed when Taymor casts Ariel as the complete opposite of Caliban. Where Caliban is dark-skinned, Ariel is completely white. This makes the audience view Caliban and the African indigenous people as lower given that Ariel is in a better position throughout the entire film. This can also be related to how the many empires and societies distinguished their people based on the color of their skin. For example, in the Spanish Empires of South America, the creoles were the individuals who were born in the empire but were of Spanish descent. This sets them apart, and above, the native indigenous people of the Spanish Empire. One signifying characteristic of them were that they were lighter skinned than the native South Americans were. Therefore, Ariel was seen as a creole was seen in those societies, and Caliban was seen as an indigenous South American was seen.

Furthermore, in Césaire’s play, the description of the island and of Caliban proves to the audience that Caliban is a native of the Caribbean. This is important because most of the Caribbean’s indigenous people were from Africa, which means that Caliban was portrayed as a man of African descent. This is very similar to the casting behind Taymor’s Caliban since both men are Africans. This is also seen as racist because the oppressed is African whereas the colonizer is still white. However, I do not think that this was meant to be racist towards Africans or the people of the Caribbeans. I think that this was meant to be a rhetorical text in order to show the audience the history of how Africans were the colonized and the white Europeans were the colonizers. By doing this, Césaire also demonstrates what Rudyard Kipling referred to as the “white man’s burden”. Prospero’s burden in this adaptation was teaching Caliban his own language in order for him to be able to communicate with them. This makes Prospero further oppress Caliban because he tries to strip Caliban of his own native language.

In short, both Taymor and Césaire portray Caliban as man of African descent in order to highlight the history behind the oppressive white colonizers and the African colonized.

The Daughter of the Duke

Miranda

If I could make a film about The Tempest, I would change the story so that it would revolve around the life of Miranda, Prospero’s daughter. In Shakespeare’s play, the main protagonist is Prospero and the audience does not get to see much of his daughter. She does not have any voice in his play, which shows how gender plays a role given that she is the only woman present in the play.

By placing Miranda at the center of the film, the story would be more feminist in that Miranda would have just as much of a voice that her father and most of the other male characters have. The audience would get to see how she transforms throughout the film with more interactions with other characters.

To begin with, the film would not start with the storm as the first scene. It would start with Miranda walking around the island having flashbacks of small details her father had told her about her past. As she walks the edge of the island, she notices a deadly storm far out in the sea and that there’s a ship inside the storm. As soon as she sees this, she runs to her father, Prospero. In order to explain why what she witnessed is happening, he finally tells her the story of who she is and how they got to the island. Unlike in Shakespeare’s play, Prospero also mentions how his ultimate source of magic comes from Miranda. Although he does need his magic books to cast all his spells and perform his magic, it was the birth of Miranda that really gave Prospero his powers. Once Prospero finishes telling the story, Miranda’s curiosity about everything else grows even more. Notice that she did not fall asleep like she did in the original play.

Afterwards, Prospero calls Ariel to give her more tasks, who I would make a female to give more of a female role in Miranda’s life. By doing so, Ariel also possesses a fairy godmother-like role for Miranda with her spirit powers. After a conversation passes between them much similar to the one in Shakespeare’s text, Ariel storms off and Miranda follows her with the increased curiosity the story of her past has given her. She overhears Ariel talking to herself due to how upset she is with her evil tasks. Miranda then goes to Ariel and asks her exactly how she got to be the servant of her father, and in this scene, the audience would learn about Sycorax, another female character, and about Ariel’s past.

Similar to Shakespeare’s play, the nobles who were on the ship in the storm are separated when they reach the island. This is crucial because the first encounter that Miranda has with another male human being besides her father is an important scene as it is also life-changing for her. Like how many love stories go, Ferdinand and Miranda felt love at first sight, and they believed that they belonged together.

Another crucial difference I would make in my film is Caliban’s evil plan. In the original, Caliban’s evil plan is to kill Prospero and take over the island. In my film, his evil plan would ultimately be to take back the island that is rightfully his, but also to get revenge on Miranda for not allowing little Calibans to roam the island. Also, by killing Miranda, he would be taking away the true source of Prospero’s power, making him and his magic useless, which would make it easier for Caliban (with the help of Stephano and Trinculo) to take over the island.

However, like in the original play, Caliban’s plan fails, Ariel is freed, and Prospero gets to become the Duke of Milan again. The difference in my ending would be that Prospero recites a spell that takes away all of his magic as soon as Miranda and Ferdinand are married because Miranda would no longer be only his. Since there is no more magic, Prospero would have no more use for the books, which he drowns in the sea just like in Shakespeare’s text.

Do We Still Live in a Racist Society?

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every year, the U.S. holds a holiday in honor of one of the most renowned Civil Rights activists in history, Martin Luther King, Jr. His famous speech on ending racial segregation in 1963 had ultimately helped secure the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Kakutani, The New York Times). This act not only ended racial segregation, but also banned employment discrimination based on race, the color of one’s skin, religion, gender, and nationality.

The Civil Rights Act ended racial segregation over 50 years ago, but racism still widely exists in the U.S. today. For example, a white nationalist rally took place in Charlottesville, Virginia in response to the taking down of General Robert E. Lee’s statue in August 2016. Many believe that these white nationalists held the Confederate flag as they rallied to induce white supremacy and the enslavement of African Americans (Pengelly, The Guardian).

Although Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired many in his speech, the racism he wanted vanquished from this nation still exists. Racism has always been present in society, but it has been much more frequent in recent years. In 2018, a Humanities professor at UC Irvine asked her students if they are racist, to which they immediately answered “no”, but when she asked them if they live in a racist society, no one could give a direct answer. If all of the people in the class claimed they were not racist, how is it that their society is racist? The answer to this question is that a society can be considered racist when there is a noteworthy amount of racists, and those racist people have begun to surface more since the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Had this question been asked 5 years ago, the students’ answers would have been more close to a “not really”.

Racism has been present all throughout history. During the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire, the Spaniards wanted to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. The Incas undoubtedly resisted this and therefore, the Spaniards’ next plan was to use force to make the Incas convert. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish jesuit, thought this to be wrong, and claimed that the Incas were like little children who were not smart enough to comprehend that Christianity was the correct faith. This idea, although not as brutal as the use of force, was ultimately racist. It showed the Spanish that the Incas were an inferior race. Another racist perspective the Spaniards had was that they saw them as uncivilized and beastly based on tales they had heard from other explorers. These tales caused them to believe that all indigenous people were barbaric, which was seen in numerous paintings from that era (The Discovery of America).

Therefore, one may ask that after many years of history and evolution, why do we still live in a racist society? It is because of the way the culture and leaders of society continue to affect the minds of the public the way several leaders had done in the past.

Racists in History

Adolf Hitler

All throughout history, there have been countless incidents where a certain person defined themselves as part of the superior race. For example, Adolf Hitler, the fascist dictator, believed that the Aryan race was the supreme race and that all other races belonged to the bottom rungs of humanity. He saw Jews as a poisonous race that lived off of other races. After he took power of Germany in 1934, he decreed that teachers apply the principles of racial science. These applications determined whether a student belonged to the Aryan race or not based on their physical features. Another similar example is the KKK (Ku Klux Klan). This group of white supremacists used to lynch African-Americans that would try to increase black political activity. Like Hitler, the KKK was known to be anti-semitic and they also lynched Jews.

Going more back in time, another figure that was known for his views on race was William Walker. Walker was most known for being a notorious filibuster as well as taking control of Nicaragua during the time of its civil war and declaring himself president of Nicaragua in 1856. After becoming president, he reinstated slavery, which he later also recasted his campaign with. This proves how he was racist because he wanted the idea of black slavery to spread beyond the Southern region of the United States.

Another more well-known figure that was undoubtedly a racist was the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson. His Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced several Native American populations to relocate from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to areas west of the Mississippi River. This movement became widely known as the Trail of Tears and was one of the most devastating acts against Native Americans in U.S. history. Along with his supporters, he also implemented a “gag rule”, which put a stop to all anti-slavery petitions from going into Congress. These two examples demonstrate how far Jackson went to remove any chance of the Native Americans and African Americans to have any say in what would be their fate while being in the U.S. These two acts took away their freedom as well as their voice.

A more current and well-known example of a racist is current president of the U.S., Donald Trump. The first of many racial incidents that Trump created occurred before he even officially declared his campaign to run for the 2016 presidential election. It was when he questioned President Obama’s religion and place of birth. Trump claimed that Obama was a Muslim and that he was not born in the U.S. These doubts were extremely racist because had Obama not been African-American, Trump would most likely not have made any of those accusations. Furthermore, Trump initiated his campaign with his unforgettable remarks about Mexicans. He called them drug dealers, criminals, and rapists. This far-stretched accusation proves how racist Trump is. He went even further afterwards by saying that he will build a wall to keep Mexican immigrants out of the U.S., and that he was going to have Mexico pay for it. This shows how he views the Mexicans as inferior and that he thinks they do not belong in the U.S. A couple months into his campaign, Trump made another unbelievable statement against another “race”, the Muslims. He said that he would ban all Muslims from coming into the U.S., which he actually tried to implement when he became president. This proves that he views all Muslims as terrorists, which is why he does not want any to come to the U.S.

Racial Profiling and Social Hierarchies

Racial Profiling

Back when there were various advanced nations conquering “new” lands, there was some sort of racism and racial profiling. For instance, when Central America and South America were being colonized by the Spanish conquerors, there was racism between how a person’s skin color determined who they were and where they stood on the social hierarchy. There were creoles, who were near the top because of their light skin and Spanish ancestry, and there were Mulattos, who were mixed and much lower in the social hierarchy than the creoles.

Similarly, in today’s modern and more open-minded world, that kind of racism and racial profiling still exists. To illustrate, many different races have something negative associated with them, whether that be shown through social media or the news. An example of this is the association between Islam and terrorism. Whenever a follower of Islam commits a vile act, he or she is instantly branded a “terrorist”. This does not seem unfair on its own; however, the problem arises when people on social media start to attack all Muslims. That one person’s actions does not represent an entire religion, especially when religions do not condone violence and harm. Another problem with this is when a non-Muslim person commits a similar act. The people on social media or the news do not brand that non-Muslim a “terrorist” simply because that person is not Muslim. A similar argument can be applied to when people differentiate among the various immigrants coming into the U.S., categorizing them. For example, countless people in the U.S. will claim that Mexican immigrants are “taking away jobs”, but this statement is rarely ever heard about immigrants coming from other countries that may live the same lifestyle as a Mexican immigrant. This explains how racial profiling still occurs in modern empires in today’s world.

One good thing that did come out of racial profiling, however, was affirmative action. This act lowered the bar for people of color in the U.S. to be able to get into colleges or receive a job. This has to do with racism because it brought to light the fact that Caucasians had a much higher advantage growing up than colored people, which gave them the upper hand in getting into a specific college or being chosen for a particular job. With affirmative action, colleges and employers had to make sure they accepted a certain number of colored people. This leveled the playing field, and ultimately allowed people of color to slowly become more equal to the Caucasians in the social hierarchy.

A “Real” Person of Race

Native Races

As we have read in Tacitus’ Annals XI, Emperor Claudius is faced with the dilemma of deciding whether the people of Gauls should be allowed to be represented within the Roman Senate. The Senate came to the explanation that they should not because they are not “real Romans”, but just the inhabitants of a country that the Roman Empire had conquered. To this statement, Emperor Claudius goes against the Senate and explains how no one is a “real Roman”. Everyone sitting in the seats at the Roman Senate came from different places, but the fact that they were all eventually conquered, assimilated, and integrated by the Roman Empire is what led them to believe that they are “real Romans”. Emperor Claudius makes this argument for the Gauls because they are going through the same process and so they are deserving of representation at the Senate just as much as anyone else is.

This thought of “real” anything can be seen even in empires of the modern world. For example, all across the U.S., there seems to be endless debate on whether a person is a “real American” or not. To be factually and historically correct, the only people who are actually “real Americans” are the Native Americans who lived on this land long before Columbus sailed here in 1492. Everyone else, as far as most of us know, immigrated form somewhere else, whether that be Europe, Africa, Asia, or South America. Most of today’s American population has ancestors that came to the U.S. from a different country. But what makes someone a “real American”, in more of a simple and modern term? Some believe that it has to do with the color of someone’s skin or their background and race. However, just because a person may have the looks of a Mexican person does not necessarily mean they are from Mexico. That person may be just as “real” of an American as a caucasian whose ancestry goes back to Europe.

Many believe that to be a “real American”, one has to be a U.S. citizen. This notion can be true, but it can also not be true. In my opinion, a person born and raised in the U.S. can be considered a “real American” because this is the only home that he or she has ever known. However, a person who spent most of his or her life here should also be considered a “real American” because like Emperor Claudius explained with the Gauls, these people were assimilated and integrated into American society and culture. They do not have to be U.S. citizens to be considered a “real American”.

Race has a lot to do with this example because like the Roman Empire, the U.S. has a lot of people from different backgrounds. A person’s race does not determine whether or not he or she is a “real American” because that does not show who that individual person is or where he or she came from. A Chinese person can be a “real American” even though his family is from China because he or she has been integrated into the U.S., and this is his or her new home.

“Races”

Image Source: The Fix

Many people in the modern world have grown a lot more comfortable with the concept of race compared to people from the imperial era. Back then, one’s race determined where they would be placed on the social hierarchy and that would ultimately decide how they would have to live their life. In the modern era, people with different races live together harmoniously, more in some communities than others. However, there are still several obstacles that human beings need to overcome in regard to the color of one’s skin or their background. Racial issues have been around since the beginning of empires, or perhaps even before then, and they still occur in societies all over the world. Readers learn about it in most history books and it can be seen as a major problem in countless novels as well.

This topic is very relatable because in many countries, there is still discrimination against people of a different race. Countless people are looked upon differently based on their backgrounds. For instance, whenever something dangerous occurs, one of the first things that people start questioning, whether it be on social media or on the news, is the race of the criminal. This type of racial profiling divides and categorizes each race. In the end, this makes it hard for the rest of the world to want to come together because people start to think that the one criminal represents his or her entire race.

Going back to the concept of Empires and Its Ruins, people of a race that seemed inferior to the imperialistic rulers were automatically placed at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, while those who migrated to the new land from the motherland were automatically placed at the top. A novel about the rise and fall of an unknown empire, Waiting For the Barbarians, is one that shows how race defines a person. To illustrate, the author demonstrates how the protagonist views a young barbarian woman through a first-person narrative. The protagonist, a magistrate for the empire, describes the woman by her dark hair, dark eyes, and dark eyebrows and instantly connects it to the way that barbarians look. He also connects her personality to what he believes is the way all barbarians act. This is not so much of an issue in the novel, but it does illuminate a division between the empire’s citizens and the natives. This division can be seen all throughout history and in most empires. The words “dark” and “black” are used to describe the barbarians whereas the empire’s people are described with “clear” and “blue”. Another racial division can be seen when the people of the empire bluntly associates the magistrate’s screams as the language of the barbarians when he was hanging from his arms. This shows that anything that does not seem natural or is uncommon to the people is automatically something that is connected to the barbarians. Similarly, people in most empires let these little differences increase the gap between them and the indigenous, and these differences are what caused and continues to cause racial issues.