Racism

Review the five PBS video segments available online at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02p66&continuous=1

As you complete this assignment, think about the following:
How is race socially constructed?
How do we socialize children to recognize race and ethnicity?
How do we define racism, prejudice and discrimination and how do they relate to privilege?
After viewing the various segments of the “Blues Eyes, Brown Eyes” videos, answer one (1) of the following sets of questions.

Racism

Some people argue that racism is primarily a belief or attitude and that anyone who unfairly judges another based on race is racist. Others argue that racism is about action and systemic discrimination, so only those with the power to act, and not those who are the targets of discrimination, can be racist. Based on the quotes listed below and in an essay format, answer the following: which argument do you find more convincing and why? Is there a difference between racism and prejudice? If so, what is the difference?

“Racism couples the false assumption that race determines psychological and cultural traits with the belief that one race is superior to another.”
–A World of Difference project of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith .

“Racism is any attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of skin color.”
–U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1970

“We define racism as an institutionalized system of economic, political, social, and cultural relations that ensures that one racial group has and maintains power and privilege over all others in all aspects of life. Individual participation in racism occurs when the objective outcome of behavior reinforces these relations, regardless of the subjective intent.”
–Carol Brunson Phillips and Louise Derman-Sparks in Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism: A Developmental Approach, (Teachers College Press, 1997)

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