Unpacking Race 2013 • Part 2: Social Construction of Race

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5

Our second session of the Unpacking Race workshop series focuses on the material consequences of racial construction for people of color.  We also explore immigrant experiences of adapting to U.S. racial constructs.

Definitions and Activity:

We played the Vehicle Game (click here to for details) and then used it to illustrate the following terms (borrowed from the Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice curriculum—see week 1):

1. Institutional Racism: A system of advantage based on race and supported by institutional structures, policies and practices that create and sustain advantages for the domi- nant white group while systematically subordinating members of targeted racial groups. This relative advantage for Whites and subordination for people of color is supported by the actions of individuals, cultural norms, and values, and the institutional structures and practices of society.
2. Individual Racism: The beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism. Individual racism can occur at both unconscious and con- scious levels, and can be both active and passive. Examples include telling a racist joke, using a racial epithet, or believing in the inherent superiority of Whites.
3. Active Racism: Actions that have as their stated or explicit goal the maintenance of the system of racism and the oppression of those in targeted racial groups. People who participate in active racism advocate the continued subjugation of members of targeted groups and protection of “the rights” of members of the advantaged group. These goals are often supported by a belief in the inferiority of people of color and the superiority of white people, culture, and values.
4. Passive Racism: Conscious and unconscious beliefs, attitudes, and actions that support the system of racism, racial prejudice, and racial dominance and contribute to the maintenance of racism, without openly advocating violence, discrimination, or an ideology of white supremacy.

After we created moving sculptures to illustrate these forms of racism, we broke up into small groups and talked about the way these different kinds of racism manifest in our own lives, and how we might have the power to change these situations.

Readings and Videos:

This week's readings are drawn from the book White Privilege: Essential Readings from the Other Side of Racism, edited by Paula S. Rothenberg.  Workshops particpants have the option to read one of the following chapters:

1. “Becoming Hispanic: Mexican Americans and Whiteness” by Neil Foley
2. “How Jews Became White Folks” by Karen Brodkin
3. “How White People Became White” by James E. Barrett and David Roediger

We also included the essay "Reflections By An ARAB JEW" by Ella Habiba Shohat.  Click on the titles of any of these essays to access the article online.

We've also included another 6-minute video excerpt from Race the Power of an Illusion: The Story We Tell, plus a 45-minute interview with Juan Gonzalez from DemocracyNow! on how U.S. intervention caused mass Latin American migrations.  The Democracy Now! video is viewable by clicking here, the excerpt from Race the Power of an Illusion can be viewed below: 

The Vehicle Game

We are starting to post rules for games and techniques! If you've used this game, have variations to add, or have questions about how this and other games are played, leave us a comment.

Can you guess what this vehicle is? Let us know.
Guess correctly and we'll send you a poster!

This theatre game works well for building teamwork, working under pressure and developing the language of images. You need a group big enough to split into two or more teams of 5 to 10 people each. You'll also need space for these teams to work simultaneously and separately.

The Basic Game:
Each team uses their bodies to construct the image of a vehicle—that is, a mode of transport that will be recognizable by the members of the other teams. The vehicle must also be able to travel across the space as a moving human sculpture that includes sound effects. Once all the teams have completed this task, one team shows their stationary vehicle. The others make observations and guesses as to what the vehicle is. Then the vehicle moves and makes noise, either confirming the guesses or not. The round ends with the team revealing what their vehicle was, and the next team has a go.

The Next Level:
The first stage of this game gets people to create "Theatre."  This next stage adds "...of the Oppressed." First have a list of different forms of oppression that you want to illustrate.  In a general T.O. workshop, these can be very broad:  sexism, racism, classism, ableism, ageism, heterocentrism—the group may even decide on several topics themselves.  If the group is working on a particular issue, the topics will be more specific and nuanced:  active racism, passive racism, individual racism, institutional racism, etc.  The facilitator quietly assigns each group an oppression to be made into a machine—or "vehicle"—to be shown and performed for the other groups to guess.  Allow more time for each phase of this exercise, especially for when others are looking as the image, prompting discussion about the various forms of oppression and why people see what they see.  Once all of these Vehicles of Oppression have be viewed and guesses have been made, all groups reveal which was which, sit down and discuss what was discovered.

Variations:
The basic game can be played with any sort of mechanism, be it a household appliance with moving parts (such as a clock or a dishwasher), a ritual performed by a person or people (brushing one's teeth or going to vote), or larger social systems made miniature by the metaphor of theatre (education, commerce, government, patriarchy, childhood, etc.) As with all Theatre of the Oppressed games, the permutations are endless!

Photo above of one team's vehicle image in a workshop at the Muktadhara III Theatre of the Oppressed Festival in West Bengal. Leave us a comment below with your guess as to what they are. Guess correctly and we'll send you a poster!