"Race: The Power of an Illusion"-Episode 3

The main point of episode three of “Race: The Power of an Illusion” is that race is not biologically real, but socially constructed by those in power for their own benefit. This socially constructed idea of race then led to privilege based on one’s whiteness in areas such as housing and job positions.

This episode begins by stating that race is all around us and is one of the first things we notice in one another. People first notice ones eyes, skin and hair, and then think that they can tell more about an individual based on those characteristics. The film explains that there is not a sub-species of humans and that race is not real, but socially constructed. Racial markers do not mean anything unless they are given a meaning by society. The 23 million immigrants from southern and eastern Europe that immigrated to the United States between 1880 and 1920 were considered non-white. These immigrants worked alongside Mexicans and blacks performing the most dangerous and lowest paid jobs America had to offer. These groups were often stereotyped as being lazy and stupid. The film then focuses on how the Supreme Court had no real definition of who was white and who wasn’t. Whiteness was what the common man defined it to be. Through this rationale, citizenship was denied to Japanese and Indians on the grounds of them being non-white. Lands were taken from the Japanese because they weren’t citizens, and the government even banned immigration from Japan in 1924. The film then goes on to discuss the Federal Housing Administration and how blacks were denied the opportunity to live in these cheap neighborhoods. The FHA made it possible for the average American to own a home due to low down payments and longer periods to pay off loans. An example of such a neighborhood is Levit Town. Finally the film discusses how black communities were given a red rating while whites were given a green rating. This caused the property value in black communities to fall and also caused whites to flee the community when blacks began to move in. White neighborhoods even built walls between their community and the black community in an attempt to maintain the value of their property.

What consequences does the film’s conclusion have on our world today? The film has major consequences for our world today. The fact that immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were accepted as white after WWII caused them to gain privilege associated with whiteness in the past and continues to do so today. The opposite is true for blacks. They were denied opportunities that were given to whites and are still suffering the consequences today. As the film mentioned, the average black family has only 1/8 the net worth of the average white family. This started with blacks being denied the rights to housing during the time period following WWII and has never really stopped. Although we have tried to combat this with affirmative action programs, the problem still persists.

While watching the film, I found it very similar to “How Jews Became White Folk” which we had already read for class. The film discussed much of the same information that I had learned from the previous reading. However, I didn’t know much of the information before reading “How Jews became White Folk,” so I found another presentation of the material to be helpful. It is sad that blacks were denied opportunities that should have been granted to everyone. I can definitely see how the actions taken by our nation in the past caused the white privilege that is still being dealt with today.