Identification of Race and the Economic Outcomes

Race is a word from the 16th century, Middle French race, which means people of common descent, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. Race is something that people are born with, it identifies someone that they belong to a certain group, whether it is white or black people, race is part of their self-conception. Race relates to and influences cultural identity. In Stuart Hall’s Cultural Identity and Diaspora, explained about how the westerners, as in white-raced people had the power to make the black-raced people experience through themselves as the “Other”. By “other”, it means that the black people are viewed as the inferior to the superior white people. Then, what exactly is the identifier of someone’s race? How can people tell whether someone is black or white? Physically, race is identified by the skin color of the people, which makes it the easiest way to identify someone’s race in the eyes of regular people. However, identifying race just based on mere biological traits or physical attributes is not always valid nor accurate. When I said biological traits or physical attributes, I am not only talking about skin color, but it also applies to other factors like skeletal specimen. Racial identification requires more than the difference of skin color or skeletal morphology. Racial identification can also be based on other things, like nationality, origin, ancestry, or geographical matters. Further, why does the existence of race difference then leads to the categorization of the superior (white) and the inferior (black)? I am also going to try to refer this matter to what Audre Lorde says in Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference about the Mythical Norm and Race, Skin Color, and Economic Outcomes in Early Twentieth-Century America by Roy Mill and Luke C.D Stein on the second half of this paper.

Norman J. Sauer in his paper titled Forensic Anthropology and The Concept of Race: If Races Don’t Exist, Why Are Forensic Anthropologists so Good at Identifying Them? Stated that forensic anthropologists typically include races in four major human races, namely Black, White, Mongoloid or Native American. These forensic anthropologists measure and match the skeletal of someone in purpose to identify their race. Most of the time, the matching between of the skeletal morphology and the predicted race label meet in concordance. By analysing the skeletal morphology of someone to identify their race, it means that certain race each has its own uniqueness biologically or physically. For instance, in a novel titled Small Island by a Jamaican author Andrea Levy, there is this description of a black man:

“A black man who looked to be carved from melting chocolate”, “His nose, squashed flat, had two nostrils big as train tunnels”.

The description is made to help the readers imagine the appearance of a black man. The description mentioned how flat the man’s nose is, and how big his nostrils are that the narrator described them “as big as train tunnels”. These physical appearances are evidences on why forensic anthropologists identify someone’s race by analysing their skeletal. It makes sense because different physical appearance means difference skeletal morphology. Even though it appears to be frequent to meet a concordance or agreement or matching between the skeletal and the predicted race label, however, in his paper Sauer argued that such a practice is not a vindication of the traditional notion that there are four major human races, rather, it is a prediction, based upon skeletal morphology, that a particular label would have been assigned to an individual when that individual was alive (Sauer, 1992). Because it is not always valid to identify one’s race by looking at the skeletal morphology, we cannot assume the body of a certain race has a certain fixed quality. For instance, we cannot assume that either white people or black people are stronger than the other physically, or whether the shape of the jaw of white people always differ from the black people’s, because it is not always the case.

Like what I have stated above, many people commonly define or classify race based on the skin color of the people. Although it is not always the case, it has become inevitable for race and biology to be linked. According to Californian Journal of Health Promotion (2007), in the United States, race has largely been based on skin color and ancestry, both of which exhibit large variances within communities of color. Nevertheless, according to this journal also, a person’s race, other than biological factors, is also based on the history of the ancestors, geographical, cultural, as well as psychological factors. Doing a research and biomedical studies by merely grouping race in a biological matter as a determinant in monitoring health status and health care quality might go wrong or unsuccessful. “If race is to be used as a proxy for genetic risk, it will only be effective to the extent that cultural, social, environmental and genetic risk factors are themselves correlated.” (R. A. Kittles et al., 2007).

“African Americans are an extremely heterogeneous macro-ethnic group due to their unique population history” (Jackson, 1993). The heterogeneity of African Americans is there as the result of the transatlantic slave trade from about 16th to 19th century during the Triangular Trade, when about 12.5 million enslaved people from Africa are brought in The Middle Passage to cross the ocean to the new world namely North America, South America, and the Caribbean Islands. This kidnapping of millions Africans encompassed a wide range of geography which led to the diversity of cultures and significant differences of ethnics of the African Americans. Another reason why the African Americans populations are heterogeneous is caused by the cross marriage that happen quite frequently in the last 400 years in North America between white people (Europeans) and black people (Mays, Coleman, and Jacks on 1996; Parra et al. 1998; Parra et al., 2001). Frazier (1957) stated that in the year 1860, there were about 600.000 people out of 1.4 million of Africans in the United States who were mixed ancestry or what is called as the “mulattos”. Mulatto is a term used for people who were born by parents who admix their races by having a cross marriage, a mulatto child for example has a black father and a white mom. The term mulatto can also be used for those who are born from mulatto parents. When a cross marriage between the African Americans and other ethnic groups happen, their offspring or children are considered as black, they automatically become an African American, due to what is called as a one-drop rule. One-drop rule is a term for racial classification that was historically prominent in the United States in the 20th century, so a child with an African American ancestor is considered as black, they need to identify themselves as black. One-drop rule, even though has something to do with biological (genetic), it is also one of the evidences that classifying race is not only merely based on the people’s skin color.

The diversity of races lead to people identifying themselves as what race they belong into. Identifying oneself into a certain group is done to make a person have a feeling or a sense of belonging in to a certain group, and it is not only about race. Stuart Hall in Cultural Identity and Diaspora defines cultural identity as ‘one, shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one true self’. This ‘one true self’ or ‘oneness’ that Hall implies means the identity that a group with the same historical experiences hold, the essence that underlie other differences that are considered to be more superficial (Hall, 1990). He gives example of this ‘oneness’ with ‘Caribbean-ness’ of the black experience, means that the Caribbean people shared the same history. Hall also explained about how the westerners, as in white-raced people had the power to make the black-raced people experience through themselves as the “Other”.

Then, why does race have something to do with a group of people classified as either the inferior or superior? I think that it is the outcome of past slavery. Slavery is no longer applied, however, people whose race are black still receive discrimination up until now. Lorde (1984) stated in her essay Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference about what is called as a Mythical Norm: “In America, the norm is usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure”. These are the descriptions of the people who are respected, the superior, which means those who are black, stout, female, old, homosexual/lesbian, not Christian and not financially secure are considered inferior. In terms of economy, those who are not financially secure (poor, working class people) struggle in living their life, and Lorde stated that “as a group, women of color are the lowest paid wage earners in America”. This statement explains how someone’s race affects their life in terms of economy. If you are black, and a woman, that means you get the lowest paid wage, the chance of you to be as wealthy as the white people is low, how can you be wealthy if you receive the lowest paid wage as a working class.

The literary text that I am using is written by a Jamaican author and is taking place in Jamaica which located in the Caribbean Island, one of the places that is involved in the transatlantic slave trade. From the text, I also learned the heterogeneity of the black people regarding their skin color. Apparently, even within one race, there are also differences of the intensity of the skin tone, and how it affects them.

“I could understand why it was of the greatest importance to her that slavery should not return. Her skin was so dark. But mine was not of that hue — it was the color of warm honey. No one would think to enchain someone such as I.”

From the text above, I issued several questions in my head. Does being black not always mean that people are discriminated? Is it the skin color that matters? Do the white only take the ones with very dark skin but not the ones that have the color of warm honey (light-skinned) on their skin? I can see that Hortense, the warm honeyed skin girl, is not that worried about being enchained or enslaved compared to Celia, the dark-skinned girl.

It has been stated earlier that a child who is born from one black parent and one white parent, or ancestor, is called a mulatto, and a mulatto is classified as light-skinned. A mulatto child is considered based on one-drop rule. However, according to Race, Skin Color, and Economic Outcomes in Early Twentieth-Century America, mulatto can be someone who “passed for White”, passing means that individuals changed their racial affiliation by changing their social presentation, but their skin color remained unchanged. (Mill, Stein, 2016). Mill and Stein did a research how the visual form of race and skin color affects the economic outcomes, they did a study on African Americans families whose siblings differ in skin color, share the same family background yet facing differential discrimination. The result is that siblings who are light-skinned (mulatto) are more likely to have a decent life and higher income than siblings who are dark-skinned (black). Mill and Stein took example of a family with mullato son (Isaac) and black son (John). In the 1940 census, it is recorded that Isaac works as an operator in a steel mill with an annual salary of $1,800 (roughly $31,000 in current dollars), while his dark-skinned brother John is a labourer with an annual salary of $480 (roughly $8,000 in current dollars), much lower than his mulatto brother Isaac.

From what is written above, we may come to a conclusion that race signifier like skin color is something we are born with. Our skin color clearly has something to do with biological matters, our skin color depends on our parents or ancestors, whether it is black, white, or mulatto. However, identifying race cannot only based on skin color or other biological and physical traits like skeletal. Forensic anthropologists can predict someone’s race, but cannot make a validation on it. It works the same for health and biomedical researchers who need to consider someone’s race based on their cultural, geographical, and psychological matters, not merely on biological matters. The requirement of race identification is caused by diversities, these differences then lead to a classification of race. The dark-skinned people (black race) had to experience discrimination and inequity due to people not wanting to accept differences, like how black women receive the lowest paid wage according to Lorde, or how different skin colors lead to different fates that can befall even siblings from the same family background.

References

Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora.

Levy, A. (2009). Small Island. Hachette UK

Lorde, A. (1980). Age, race, class, and sex: Women redefining difference. Women in Culture: An intersectional anthology for gender and women’s studies, 16–22.

Mill, Roy and Stein, Luke C.D., Race, Skin Color, and Economic Outcomes in Early Twentieth-Century America (Feb 16, 2016).

Ousley, S., Jantz, R., & Freid, D. (2009). Understanding race and human variation: why forensic anthropologists are good at identifying race. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 139(1), 68–76.

Sauer, N. J. (1992). Forensic anthropology and the concept of race: if races don’t exist, why are forensic anthropologists so good at identifying them?. Social Science & Medicine, 34(2), 107–111.

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