Questions to ponder as you complete these activities:
- Would the idea of race and the forces of racism have crystallized into what we have today without slavery and colonization?
- What do you think are the key moments in the development of the concept of race?
- Which images in the websites do you find especially poignant in the history of race?
Web Exercise 1
Countries differ in their racial classification systems and sometimes change the categories of race more frequently than we might notice. Visit the following websites and identify the ways race meanings are in flux or are fluid and differ in time and place, even including when the racial identity of persons change over their own lifetimes.
- “Racial Classifications in Latin America,” by Roland Soong, Zona Latina’s Home Page, August 15, 1999.
- “Are There Really Just Five Racial Groups? How the Government Developed Its Racial-Classification System,” by Brian Palmer, Slate, May 17, 2012.
- “Federal Officials May Revamp How Americans Identify Race, Ethnicity on Census and Other Forms,” By D’Vera Cohn, Pew Research Fact Tank News in the Numbers, October 4, 2016.
- “What Does the Brazilian Census Tell Us about Race?” by Jefferson M. Fish, Psychology Today, December 6, 2011. This article describes problems with Brazilian and U.S. census data on race.
- “Hispanic and Latino Identity is Changing” by Mark Hugo Lopez, June 17, 2015.
Web Exercise 2: Historical Timeline and Race
Go to HISTORY: Race in the U.S.A.
Browse the timeline, the associated images, and articles. Think about what would have happened with race and people experiencing race if events on the timeline turned out differently.
Web Exercise 3: Documents on Survival in the Midst of Racism
We can examine documents of how groups categorized and marginalized by race resisted their racist victimization. Why are the following four websites important for understanding the coping and survival of people trying to survive a racist society?