Brianna Reads "Race"

Hello Readers and welcome to my fourth blog post. I have continued to read Race by Mark Aronson, picking up where I left off in Chapter 15. Aronson began to describe the many horrific acts during the Holocaust that was driven by race. Not only does he discuss what was happening in Germany at the time, but he also wrote about the injustices happening in the United States and India. He first restated a prominent theme in the book: the idea of “us and them” and how different countries had their own names for the concept. At the time, this concept was used to divide the Nazis from the Jews, the Indians from the English, and white America from Asian-Americans. Aronson provides evidence that there was a large emphasis on race in these places on page 207 where he added a chart that was used to define a person’s amount of purity and a piece of anti-Semitic propaganda. He also appeals to pathos by adding his own insight on the idea of extermination camps. When explaining Hitler's plan, h...

Welcome back, readers! This week I read a summary of the many ways that race impacted immigration laws in America, and how that connects to the mistreatment of European Jews at the same time. Chapter 13 introduced Darwin’s theory of evolution, or “survival of the fittest”. Before reading this, I did not think of Darwin’s theory as a justification for racist ideas. As Aronson explains, however, the theory of evolution was a purely scientific discovery that many people used in their politics and philosophies. Spencer Herbert coined the term “social Darwinism” which was used to apply the “survival of the fittest” concept into comparing the Aryan race to other races. Soon after this, the idea of eugenics, which was essentially human breeding, became common. This idea is mostly unacceptable to me. Of course, most people want the best for their child, as they want them to have a comfortable and long life. However, eugenics also carries the toxic idea that anyone who does not meet a certain...

Welcome back, readers! This week I am picking up where I left off at part 3 of Aronson’s Race, where Aronson dives into several different definitions of race as they developed in different parts of the world.  Inventing Race Aronson begins chapter 7 with two very different quotes: one from Antonio de Montesinos who criticized the Spanish for their racist ideas of “Indians”, and one from Francisco de Vitoria who saw indigenous people as “feebleminded” and inferior to Europeans. This is a very effective opening to the discussion of the new world, as it illustrates how polarizing the ideologies of the Spanish (and other Europeans) could be. Aronson then transitions into the history of Bartoleme de Las Casas, a very important figure of this time period. He was said to be “a man without prejudice,” (page 95), as he believed the native Americans were his equals as well as challenged many other prejudicial ideas in Europe. It is important that Aronson puts emphasis on this person...

Hello readers, and thank you for stopping by my blog! Join me as I read Marc Aronson’s Race to better understand the complex beginnings of race-based discrimination and its origins. The journey of how racism got its modern definition is lengthy and complicated. We all know that racism is morally wrong, but many of us lack an understanding of how racism became an issue in the first place. Aronson communicates to his readers the history of race from early prejudice to modern race relations, as well as his own periods of introspection about this controversial topic. Introduction Aronson begins his book with his first experience with stereotyping a racial group. He explains what he was thinking as he witnessed a black kid get accused of stealing, his first thought being he did it because he is black. It is a very personal beginning to a mostly non-fiction book, but an effective one at that. It is there to prompt the reader to think about their own prejudicial thoughts, furthering the...