The Mark of Race Essay - 991 Words

Race has proven to be more than the color of someone’s skin. Race, through personal experience, is stigmas and stereotypes, limits and control, power, and opportunity. Race is about shades, hues, and pigments justifying bias actions. Does one race, because of something that cannot be changed, have an advantage over another? Does something as simple as the color dictate how one is seen in society and limit what one can and cannot do? We classify one another in four or five classes based on features and judge one another’s internal abilities based on race (Adelman and Herbes-Sommers 2003). We are quick to simplify the complexity of an individual based on physical features and what we assume to be correct. As stated in episode one,†¦show more content†¦To suppress a person after finding out information about them is difficult. The quickest way is to use past history about an entire race, place someone in their ‘respective’ category, and continue to act superior. As stated in the film, a story of race was created to justify how all men are not treated equal (Adelman and Strain 2003). This statement resonates with me because we use race to validate negative things different races say and do to one another. I rarely hear race in the media in a positive light. Race has become a crutch for those who are in power, to stay in power while keeping their foot on those beneath them. The history of racism in America has skewed how we interact with one another within our own race. As history has shown, men began to denounce their race to simply be seen as equal to the white man (Adelman and Strain 2003). People within the same race were treated different based on skin tone. The same privilege has carried over into today’s modern racism. Within the black community, there is hostility between people of different shades of brown. There comes unspoken privilege with being a lighter shade . There is more acceptance in society and more leverage for a lighter skinned African American then there is for a darker skinned individual. I find the division between people in the same race to be detrimental. For the dominate race, there is little division because they have found a common ground, power, thatShow MoreRelatedThe Damned Human Race by Mark Twain665 Words   |  3 Pages Mark Twain is arguably one of the greatest authors of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, writing unforgettable titles such as â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† and â€Å"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer† which are still read by many today. However, it may be shocking for some to know he also endeavored in argumentative writing as well. â€Å"The Damned Human Race† is one such article. As with any Mark Twain writing, it is filled with emotion and thought. 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Twain tries to highlight the savage side of humans in the essay. The writer is right till a certain extent. The content is impactful but has some shortcomings of its own. Many a times, Twain supports his ideas with proper examples, but mostly this article failsRead More Mark Twains Writings and Race Essay1954 Words   |  8 PagesMark Twains Writings and Race Samuel Langhorne Clemens, whom readers know as Mark Twain, has written many novels including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876; The Prince and the Pauper in 1882; Puddin’ Head Wilson in 1883; and Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was completed in 1883 (Simpson 103). Throughout Mark Twain’s writings, Twain had written about the lifestyle in the South the way it was in truth and detail. 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