Reading: Barker [Race]

It is interesting when looking at the history of race and ethnicity how the different simple definitions of terms can range so broadly. Moving from Darwinism's concept of race referring to the alleged biological and physical characteristics, to the argument that ethnicity, race and nationality are contingent cultural categories rather than universal biological 'facts'.


Regardless of where and how it is formed, speaking as an American, a culture of racism is very much still active in today's American culture. With Barack Obama running for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 Presidential Election, America will be tested at the polls.

As Syon Bhanot so eloquently wrote over a year ago about Obama's campaign, "It is easy to think that we live in a society without race, where hands the colors of the rainbow join to sing, dance, and play. But this is not the case. America still has a dirty little secret – an enduring culture of racism that looms large in every aspect of national policy, from mandatory minimums in drug cases to a foreign policy that devalues the life of people based on their melanin count. And the only way we are going to move past this is by breaking the silence and talking about race openly and honestly, something that is often suggested but rarely done. As Martin Luther King, who would have been 78 years old last week, said many years ago, 'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.'"