PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS
You are currently viewing an old version of this website. The new version has additional content and can be found at a new location (www.isja.org.uk). This old version will be deleted at an appropriate time in the future.
Ethnic Origin
Race Without Color
by Jared Diamond
from Discover magazine
This article argues that "the reality of human races is another commonsense
'truth' destined to follow the flat Earth into oblivion" and that "in the
modern world...the last thing
we need now
is to continue codifying ... different appearances into an arbitrary
system of racial classification."
Passing, Traveling and Reality:Social Constructionism and the Metaphysics of
Race
by Ron Mallon
on http://www.philosophy.utah.edu
Ron Mallon provides an article that is academic in tone (as can be seen from
the title) but which introduces some key points of view and provides the names
of some of those speaking from each particular position.
Taking Off the Color Blinders: Geneticists and Historians Grapple With the Gray Areas of Race
by Joel Achenbach
on washingtonpost.com
Joel Achenbach writes about a conference "A hundred social scientists and geneticists
gathered this week in Alexandria to sort out the meaning of race, and didn't,
quite. - They gave it a game effort. They tackled every thorny question stretching
across their academic disciplines, the historians hearing about clusters of
genetic
alleles and the geneticists hearing about race as a power relationship. "
I have a dream
by Martin Luther King
on Douglass - archives of American public address
A transcript of Martin Luther King's most famous speech.
American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race"
on the American Anthropological Association site
"How people have been accepted and treated within the context of a given society
or culture has a direct impact on how they perform in that society. The "racial" worldview was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status ....we
conclude
that present-day inequalities between so-called "racial" groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance but products of
historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances."
AAPA Statement on Biological Aspects of Race
on the American Association of Physical Anthropologists site
The American Association of Physical Anthropologists offers
some points as revisions of the 1964 UNESCO statement on race.
The Rise and Persistence of Scientific Racism
on Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (Richard H. Robbins)
"In this column we will explore the history of "scientific racism," that is the attempt to "prove" scientifically that some "races" are qualitatively superior to others"
Sorting People (RACE - The Power of an Illusion)
on the PBS site RACE - The Power of an Illusion
This PBS site is excellent and the 'sorting people' page is a good place to start. The page provides an
exercise in which the reader is asked to sort people by facial characteristics.
A Four Letter Word that Hurts
by Dr. Morton H. Fried
from a list of recommended reading on
the Anti-Racist Action Network site
This article argues that:
"Since nobody is really white and since colour is a trait
that varies without significant interruption, I think the most sensible statement
that can be made on the subject is that there is no white race. To make this
just as true and outrageous as I can, let me immediately add that there never
was a white race."
Distinctions prove to be skin deep
by Charles Petit
from a list of recommended reading on
the Anti-Racist Action Network site
"True, a walk along Market Street or almost any main street in a major
U.S. city will reveal a host of people of various colors and cultures.
Surely, one may suppose, the American melting pot is brimming with different
races
and racial mixtures.
Wrong, say a broad coalition of experts."
White Frights
(also available on Guardian Unlimited)
by Michael Moore
A short powerful article by the well known film maker and author.
Britkid
by Chris Gaine and others
"A website about race, racism and life - as seen through the eyes of the
Britkids"
I haven't spent long hanging about with the britkids, but this looks good.
An informal and accessible look at issues.
Good places to look for more
The normalisation/SRV page of this site.