The Myth of Race, The Reality of Racism (BOOK REVIEW)
The Myth of Race, The Reality of Racism
by Mahmoud El-Kati
Papyrus Publishing
Paperback, $8.00
92 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9882883-3-1
Book
Review by Kam Williams
“From
today’s perspective in a media-soaked world all too familiar with the genomic
footprints of human DNA and the tracings of the double-helix back to an African
origin, it has become considerably easier to accept the notion that, like
nations, ‘races’ are what Benedict Anderson calls ‘imagined communities’—social
constructs, fabrications made in history by historical forces, and which
acquire meaning only in relation to identifiable others.
But it
is also easy to forget that just 20 years ago, the explanatory power of race
had not yet been deconstructed thoroughly enough to prevent the best-selling
publication of… Charles Murray’s “The Bell Curve,” wherein the ancient logics
of racial inferiority and domination were reconfigured in full display, with
all the illusory trappings of authoritative social science.”
--
From the Introduction by Professor John S. Wright (page 2)
The Genome
Project has proven scientifically that there’s only one race, the human race.
But despite definitive proof that race is purely a fabrication of man’s
imagination, racism continues to persist.
That confounding
conundrum is the subject of The Myth of Race, The Reality of Racism, a
collection of enlightening essays by Mahmoud El-Kati.
Professor El-Kati, a distinguished lecturer in History at Macalester University, makes the most of this
opportunity to trace the derivation of the word “race” back to 1570 before chronicling
the subsequent evolution of racism into an oppressive political and cultural
ideology employed by Europeans to rationalize the exploitation and
marginalization of so-called “inferior races.”
Defining racism
as “prejudice plus power,” the author sees it as “largely an institutional
phenomenon” based on “aggression, domination and greed.” However, he warns that
it can also be observed on the individual level in a variety of everyday social
“habits, nuances and traits,” like in a condescending look or a halfhearted
handshake.
Nevertheless
determined to eradicate the false notion of “race,” Professor El-Kati assails
it as a superstition no less ridiculous than the belief in witches that once
led to innocent women being burned at the stake. For, he would argue that it is
patently farcical to associate a host of negative stereotypes with black skin
ranging from criminality to laziness.
The book
comes equipped with viable solutions for the problem, too, as it suggests we
not only create a new vocabulary, but condemn racist institutions and become
actively involved in overhauling society. After all, as in Ralph Ginsburg’s encyclopedic
study “!00 Years of Lynchings,” until relatively recently, “no white person had
ever received the death sentence for taking the life of a black person in the
whole history of capital punishment in the United States.”
An
insightful tome repositioning America in the Age of Obama as less a post-racial
utopia than a work in progress in terms of dignity for all and the demise of
white supremacy.
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