A graduate student delivered a dissertation on Monday finding that contemporary ideas of race have caused people to position and identify themselves in an incessantly segregated society.
Micheal Callaway, a graduate student of rhetoric, composition and linguistics, addressed issues of racial identity considering biological complexity and social conformities and outlined race and social issues. Callaway spoke about black writers like Claude McKay and Hubert Harrison, who greatly influenced the Harlem Renaissance, which placed an emphasis on distinguishing how racial identity is socially constructed and maintained.
Callaway, who holds a doctorate in English literature, said class is distinguished through hereditary, economic and behavioral distinctions. He recognizes that these distinctions relate to issues of race and they thrive in a socially and culturally distinct society.
“Race is more of a continuum in which shade and other physical characteristics, as well as characteristics such as economical position, are taken into account in the social process of categorization,” Callaway said. “We [society] use our own experiences to develop authentic arguments, which can change racial and social structure. These arguments are always going to be necessary because this structure is not going to be eliminated.”
To break down the social structure, it’s important to consider local issues that affect people personally instead of larger issues that affect everyone, he said.
“We automatically see things through our own lenses. By merely considering these overarching narratives that play into the situation, we don’t entirely understand what the situation is. You have to know how to break down the social structure, and the dynamics change so much in local situations,” Callaway said.
When analyzing the position the country is currently in with Barack Obama as president, many people believe we are making strides in socially constructed racism, he said.
“People can look at the exception and say, ‘look at what all black people can do,’ but all black people do not have the political connections or the resources to attend prestigious institutions like Harvard, as did Obama,” Callaway said. “With this said, people think race is going to impinge on their lives or there is going to be this grand racial shift. People will react in these ways but people don’t act reverently. Racism continues to hinder progressive change.”
Keith Miller, an English professor and chair of the dissertation, said issues about race and social structure have evolved and are now more considerate of an increasingly closing gap on race and class distinction.
“Issues regarding race heavily concern issues of class relations,” Miller said. “It is about deciding if affirmative action presumes necessary — if a black student has the same resources available to them as do a white student and if privileges should be granted to black students despite their equitable economic position to whites, in this case.”
Contemporary ideas of race and class distinction also consider political and pragmatic issues that have become more influenced by the social structure. This generation obtains the most power to influence standards, said Duane Roen, faculty head professor of English.
“I am hearing more young people tune out political issues. However, everyone needs to be more involved in politics in order to get their voices heard,” Roen said. “Students should get involved in groups on campus that address these issues of race. If you want to be rhetorically effective, you have to know how to address racial issues, and this is how individuals can become agents of change.”
Reach the reporter at asjohn10@asu.edu
