Coversation starter- how do you transcend race? PLEASE COMMENT!
May 5, 2008
I read this piece on one of my favorite websites TheRoot.com, and it got me thinking “what does it mean to ‘transcend race’?” and who defines what it means to ‘transcend?”
I ask that because in resent light of the Obama/ Rev. Wright controversy many people
(Whites and conservative blacks alike) are claiming that Obama can’t really unite the country and transcend race now that we know he went to Rev. Wright’s church. Some folks (including the writer of the article on TheRoot), believe that Oprah’s favorable ratings dropped when she endorsed Barack, because she’s been considered a black person who “transcends race” too.( I personally think that “Good Earth” stuff may have had just as much if not more to do with that)
So how do you transcend race folks? What does that mean, and who decides what it is? Can you only transcend race when you pretend it doesn’t exist? Can you truly be a person of color (any color) and “transcend race” in America?
-I’m asking this from a human, political, media type of perspective. I say that because I feel like someone’s going to post that Jesus transcended race. which he did (even though some folks still wnat to fight about Jesus’s color) but Jesus is Jesus. We’re just talking about regular folks.
Shannon the Tampa Diva
mrkeyz
I think the pertinent question here is can we race transcend race? Given the climate of today’s society, both domestic and global, I would so no. What we must transcend is the social construct in which race was formed. We must redefined that social construction to mean more than a demographic categorization of a group of people that share similar ancestry. This is an important step because race has always been used to demean, subjugate, marginalize and prevent a people from moving beyond a certain socio-economic class. If not prevent, make more difficult with respect to other racial groups. I don’t regard race in and of itself as a negative thing. I do detest the use of it. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with celebrating our differences and our diversity. It becomes a problem when those differences are used in order to prevent an entire group from rising to their highest educational, social, economic and political potentials.