Race

In class today, we watched the first part of a fascinating documentary called, "Race: The Power of an Illusion." It was the kind of thing that really made you think. The documentary was produced by California Newsreel and broadcast by PBS. To quote from the film's website:

The division of the world's peoples into distinct groups
- "red," "black," "white" or "yellow" peoples - has became so deeply imbedded in
our psyches, so widely accepted, many would promptly dismiss as crazy any
suggestion of its falsity. Yet, that's exactly what this provocative, new
three-hour series by California Newsreel claims. Race - The Power of an Illusion
questions the very idea of race as biology, suggesting that a belief in race is
no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the earth. Yet race
still matters. Just because race doesn't exist in biology doesn't mean it isn't
very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.

Before we watched the film, our professor had us take a "Race Literacy Quiz." Going over the answers was really eye-opening because so many of the answers were different from what you would expect. Take it yourself and see if it doesn't make you think.