Keith Pereira's Social Construct of Race Discussion

Project Overview

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What Race Am I?

The Instructor’s Guide

Purpose and Goal: This activity is meant to further student understanding of the concept of race. By the end of the assignment, students should question their understanding of the concept of race.

Expected Challenges: You may encounter some silence, reluctance, and/or resistance from students, however the discussion of race is important as is challenging our student’s perspective on this debated and controversial issue. You may not have all the answers when faced with difficult questions like, “Why is race used as an identifier in job/school applications?” Students may have further questions beyond this assignment once the activity is done. These are normal results. This activity is easier to conduct in a face-to-face setting but can be done remotely with careful prep and skilled facilitation to increase student engagement.

PowerPoint Materials

Here's the Download file

with the slide - it's animated, so please open to presentation mode for the full effect. 

 

K Pereira Equity CoP Project Slide Preview.PNG  

 

Other Available Resources: If you feel like you need a better grasp on the concept of race or feel uncomfortable leading this activity, you are not alone. Below are three books you can use as resources to begin learning how to have a conversation around race. There are many other resources available to you through other pages in this module.

So You Want to Talk About Race Links to an external site. by Ijeoma Oluo

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism Links to an external site. by Robin DiAngelo 

How to Be an Antiracist Links to an external site. by Ibram X. Kendi

 

Assignment Outcomes:

  1. Skills Outcomes
    1. By the end of this activity, students will be able to:
      1. Examine the attributes of multiple subjects
      2. Identify and list the differences between subjects
  • Reflect on their understanding of race and experience with those of various races
  1. Compare their ideas of race with presented assignment results
  1. Knowledge Outcomes
    1. By the end of this activity students will have:
      1. Broadened their understanding of race
      2. Learned to see race as a social construct instead of a biological category.

 

Introduction to the Assignment: Pre-activity Understanding

Much of society uses a biological explanation for race when in fact biology alone has shown little value placing humans in different categories. (Takezawa et. al. 2020) Race does have a biological explanation because, as humans, we’ve recognized this connection (Nat Genet 2000), but the concept of race is presented here as a “social construct”, meaning we as individuals/society determine an individual’s race.  We each may apply different criteria to place an individual in a racial category based on our culture, experiences, media, education, etc.,  but mostly on inherited traits that society has decided are most relevant (e.g. skin color, hair type, nose shape, etc.) 

This assignment challenges student’s perceptions and allows them to see race on a scale of discretionary decisions than on binary- you are or you are not- biological characteristics.  This reframed understanding of race will allow students to better understand how racial categories have no use in understanding humans. 

How to present this assignment: Suggested Instructions for the Instructor

  • This assignment contains an attached PowerPoint slide that should be displayed to the entire class. Distribute the student hand-out attached to this assignment.
  • Provide an introduction to your class, with an emphasis on race as a social construct, not a biological one. In this exercise, students will “socially construct” a race. Review the purpose of the assignment and the outcomes.
  • Brain-storm, as a group, physical traits that students associate with a certain race (part I of the Student Handout). Below are some leading questions you may ask. Write these traits on the board as you will reference them later in this exercise.
    1. What physical traits might people use to identify an individual’s race?
    2. What physical traits do you associate with Black persons? Asian persons? Indigenous persons?
  • Part II of the Student Handout: By using your mouse, click through the 7 different images of females in your PowerPoint, giving about 5-10 seconds per image. Instruct students to, without talking, racially identify the woman in each image on their handout.
  • Part III of the Student Handout: As a group, review each of the seven images individually. It is likely that the entire group will identify the person in image 1 as “white” and the person in image 2 as “black”. Confirm with the class, that everyone agrees on those categorizations.
  • Part III Continued: Progress to image 3 and ask the group to raise their hand if they have categorized this person as “Black”. If no one does, proceed to image 4 and repeat the question. Ask the students who have raised their hand what physical criteria they have used to categorize this person as “black”. Write any attributes they mention as a list on the board next to this list that was made in Part I.
    1. If a student at this point says, “they’re biracial/mixed”, remind them that you are only asking students to raise their hands if they have categorized the person as “black”.
    2. If students feel hesitant, remind them that this is an important exercise to demonstrate race as a social-construct.
  • Part III Continued: Progress to image 5 and ask the questions again. More hands should be raised at this point, so ask those students if they have any physical attributes they used to determine the person’s racial category that are not currently on the board. Continue until you’ve reached image 7.
  • Part III Continued: Ask your class, “At what point does this person become black?” Allow students to discuss the point at which the person “becomes black”, allowing them to debate or converse back-and-forth as they want. As students reference the physical attributes listed on the board, point-out that the point at which the person “becomes black” is different to everyone.
    1. Continue until all students have made the black-to-white determination for themselves.
  • Discussion: Direct your student’s attention to Image 3 (a person some may have identified as black, but most identified as white) in the collection. Using the list of attributes now on the whiteboard that your students used to determine racial category, ask the following questions:
    1. “Compared to the “white” person in Image 1, does this person have X?” where “X” is replaced with the first physical attribute on the list. If they say no, ask them to compare this person (image 3) to image 1, and ask again. For example, “Does the person in image 3 have larger lips than the person in image 1?”
    2. Repeat this question for each attribute on the whiteboard.
    3. Ask the group, “Why did no one consider her black here since she has all the traits of being Black as identified on the board?” As students may become silent or not know how to respond, rephrase the question as needed, “Why didn’t anyone identify her as black even though she has darker skin, thicker lips, and a wider nose than the girl in image 1?”
    4. Eventually, someone will mention that this person does not have enough of those traits.
  • Summarize/ Part IV: Ask students to reflect on what they each considered was “enough” to categorize an individual as “black”. Ask students to answer the questions in Part IV individually (5 minutes), then come together as a group to discuss those questions.
  • Continued Activity: Continue clicking through the PPT to repeat the image activity with a separate set of images.
  • Further Suggested Activity: Assign students to complete the Implicit Bias Test Links to an external site. at home.

 

Takezawa, Yasuko I. , Smedley, Audrey and Wade, Peter. "Race". Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Jul. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human Links to an external site.

Census, race and science. Nat Genet 24, 97–98 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/72884 Links to an external site.

 

Student Handout 

What Race Am I?

Student Handout

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to challenge your perception of race and examine how you instinctively determine an individual’s race.

How This Exercise Helps You: You will be forced to confront perceptions of race and have an open dialogue on a difficult subject. By the end, you will see how quickly an individual is categorized and how useless the categorization is.

Assignment Outcomes:

  1. Skills Outcomes
    1. By the end of this activity, you will be able to:
      1. Examine the physical attributes of multiple subjects
      2. Identify and list the physical differences between subjects
  • Reflect on your understanding of race and experience with those of various races
  1. Compare your ideas of race with presented assignment results
  1. Knowledge Outcomes
    1. By the end of this activity you will have:
      1. Broadened your understanding of race
      2. Learned to see race as a social construct instead of a biological category.

 

What Race Am I: Activity

  1. Part I: Brainstorm, as a group, physical traits that are commonly associated with certain races by writing a physical trait in one column, with the associated race on the other (3-5 minutes).
Preview of PowerPoint slide

Physical Trait

Commonly-Associated Race

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Part II: Individually examine the displayed images and write how you would racially categorize each individual in the image. Do this first without talking to your peers or the instructor. (1 minute)

Image Number

Racial Category

Image 1

 

Image 2

 

Image 3

 

Image 4

 

Image 5

 

Image 6

 

Image 7

 

 

 

  • Part III: As a group, review each image and discuss any discrepancies you may experience as one student categorizes an image differently from another student. List any traits that the class used in determining the individual in the image’s racial category. (5 minutes)
    1. ________________________  ________________________
    2. ________________________ ________________________
    3. ________________________ ________________________

 

  1. Part IV: Reflect on your own understanding of race by answering the questions below.
    1. Is race a social or biological construct? Explain your answer.

 

 

  1. Would a blood test help to determine an individual’s race? Why or why not?

 

 

  1. Do you place individuals into racial categories based on their physical attributes?

 

 

  1. What harm, if any, do you think placing individuals into racial categories does to the individual or society?