PHILOSOPHY - Race: Race and Racist Institutions [HD]

Summary

Professor Eduardo Mendieta discusses the paradox of race's non-existence and its significant impact on society. He outlines four key racist institutions in US history that have perpetuated racial disparities: the slave plantation, Jim Crow laws, the black ghetto, and the ethnoracial prison. These institutions have created and sustained the concept of 'blackness' as associated with criminality and dispossession, despite the biological non-existence of race.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Race is considered non-existent by scientists and philosophers, yet it has significant material consequences in society.
• 💭 The thought experiment of changing one's race highlights the awareness of racial privileges and disadvantages.
• 🏛️ The slave plantation was the first institution that linked 'blackness' with servitude and 'whiteness' with liberty.
• 📜 Jim Crow laws legally enforced racial segregation in public spaces, reinforcing racial identities.
• 🏗️ The black ghetto emerged as a result of Jim Crow, serving as a spatial manifestation of 'separate but equal'.
• 🏢 The 'ethnoracial prison' is a modern institution where a disproportionate number of African-Americans and minorities are incarcerated.
• 🔒 The prison system serves as a site of political disenfranchisement and economic deprivation for black individuals.
• 🌐 The US has an unusually high incarceration rate, with a significant portion of the prison population being black or minority.
• 🔄 These institutions have historically transitioned into one another, perpetuating racism over centuries.
• 🔄 Race is a social construct maintained by the interplay of these institutions and societal habits.
• 💡 A radical philosophy of race helps to understand the paradox of race's non-existence and its tangible impact.

Q & A

What is the paradox Professor Mendieta introduces at the beginning of the script?

The paradox is that while most scientists and philosophers claim that race does not exist, it still has material consequences in the lives of individuals.

What is the purpose of the thought experiment about switching race?

The thought experiment aims to recognize the basic intuition or awareness that being of one race or another entails certain kinds of privileges and disadvantages.

According to Professor Mendieta, what produces and renews race despite its non-existence?

Racist institutions are responsible for producing, renewing, and making race enduring, despite the fact that race as a biological concept does not exist.

What is the role of the slave plantation in creating the concept of race?

The slave plantation chained blackness to servitude and whiteness to liberty, creating a hierarchical order where 'blackness' was legally defined as 'servitude' and 'whiteness' as 'freedom'.

How did the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution affect the perception of blackness?

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery but created a legal exception for slavery as a form of punishment, defining 'blackness' as 'criminality'.

What is the significance of 'Jim Crow laws' in the context of race?

Jim Crow laws were legislated after the Civil War and represented the juridification of segregation, segregating almost every public institution by race.

How does the concept of the black ghetto relate to the separate-but-equal doctrine?

The black ghetto is a direct result of Jim Crow and represents the crystallization of the separate-but-equal doctrine in urban space, serving to contain, marginalize, segregate, and dispossess African-Americans.

What is the 'ethnoracial prison' and its impact on race?

The ethnoracial prison refers to the disproportionate incarceration of African-Americans and other minorities, which serves as a modern form of racial control and economic exploitation.

How does the prison system contribute to the racial wealth gap?

The prison system deprives supposed criminals of their freedom and extracts capital from them, transferring economic wealth and political capital from blacks to whites and those that benefit from whiteness.

What does Professor Mendieta mean when he says 'slavery has yet to be abolished'?

He means that the legacy of slavery continues to affect society through institutional racism, even though the practice of slavery itself has been legally abolished.

How does a radical philosophy of race help us understand the paradox of race's non-existence and its effects?

A radical philosophy of race allows us to understand that race is a social construct with real-world effects, shaped by institutions and societal habits, rather than a biological fact.