Latin America Studies

Latin America Studies

The intersection of Serving Two Masters, Blinded by Sight: The Racial Body and the Origins of the Social Construction of Race, The Social Construction of Race and Storytelling for Oppositionists bring us to what understandings? Cite evidence from each reading in your explanation

The readings expose the systemic institution of racism in America. Racial prejudice has been sanctioned through active propagation by institutions such as the police, the courts and even in education. The notion of race and ancestry defines the personal and public lives of individuals. According to the Social Construction of Race, notions of our complexion, hair texture, way of talking and walking are important in defining our everyday lives. Furthermore, race as a social construction determines almost all aspects of an individual’s life from their economic prospects, the schools and type of education that they get and their neighbour through determining their neighbourhoods.

Connect Racial Figleaves, the Shifting Boundaries of the Permissible, and the Rise of Donald Trump to events that have occurred within the last six months. Cite your media outlet and the examples from the reading.

Racial figleaves have been Trump’s choicest political instrument by providing with enough ammunition to define the country’s political discourse while at the same time remaining within the bounds of what might just be accepted as non-racist. More recently, the Covid 19 pandemic, which has gripped the entire world with the United States included has exposed Trump’s preference for racial figleaves for driving his political agendas by labelling the virus the Chinese Virus. More explicit, an official of the Trump administration has labelled the Covid 19 as Kung-Flu due to its China origin (Aljazeera, 2020). However, by claiming the labelling is due to the origin of the virus, Trump has successfully employed racial figleaves to get away with overt racism.

Explain the meaning of Racial Formation in Theory and Practice: The Case of Mexicans in the United States, Four Ironies of Campus Climate, What do we regret and why and The Law of the Noose: A History of Latino Lynching from a historical, present-day and futuristic lenses.

Racial formation in theory and practice refers to the racialization of the country through the political economy to engender stratification for different races. The case of Mexicans in the United States is defined by a harsh political economy which favours other races over Hispanics in which Mexicans are a huge proportion. Tough immigration laws and rules instituted in the 1970s and 1980s mean that a huge number of Mexicans in the United States exist outside the law. Apart from their social disadvantage, they cannot be protected by the law. The law of the Noose instituted the lynching of Mexicans for issues such as taking away Anglo-Saxon jobs and sexual advancement towards Anglo-Saxon women. At present, Mexicans are labelled as rapists and job-takers by politicians such as Donald Trump (MorningSideCentre, 2020). The future seems even bleaker with the loss of jobs and a growing undocumented  Hispanic population in the United States.

References

Aljazeera. (2020). Trump defends calling coronavirus the ‘Chinese virus’. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/newsfeed/2020/03/trump-defends-calling-coronavirus-chinese-virus-200323102618665.html

MorningSideCentre. (2020, February 6). Anti-Immigrant Bias, Then & Now. Retrieved from https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/anti-immigrant-bias-then-now