Race

Guest Blogger: Prof. Cornell Eric Hooks-Wise

That’s right class, in a post-racism world everybody gets to have a race. I know that many of you thought that the essentialist ontological classifications of race should and would evaporate once we made enough progress to call ourselves post-racist, but as my colleagues and I have lectured and written for decades, it has come to now be understood that race, per se, was never the problem. How we deal with race, how we treat each other better or worse based on racialized stratifications, our culture of racial supremacy, superiority and ipso facto caste systems was the problem. This is what we’ve meant all along when we say that race is a social construct. We didn’t mean that race was made up- obviously it’s right here in front of us, but the critical nature of race lies in our practical, political, and economic application of it. How we handle it, how we put our differences into our societal structures is where the construction of race lies. Now, now that we are engaging in a post-racial societal reformation We’ve finally learned to use the gift of race for good and not for evil.

I know that many of you are disappointed because you hoped that the ol’ “we’re all one human race” thing would prevail and that some how magically one morning we would all emerge out of bed the same generic tan color, and that race would there by be obsolete. Or that we would all lose the full use of our ocular cones and rods and “stop seeing race.” I know this might be a hard adjustment for you, (though I’ve been trying to prepare you for this for years). But, fear not! I do have the good news that acknowledging race does not erase our commonalities. Of course we are all related. Yes our similarities are important, and should be celebrated. Yes, we are all one human species, (hey there’s that correct grammar coming into play again). So don’t worry your unifying little minds. Race was never what pulled us apart in the first place.

So go forth and enjoy this new era, students. Embrace your race, Embrace your species. Embrace your new world!

Now leave me alone, I have a seriously overdue sabbatical to take.