This is another bite of the apple of sociological limits. As in escape
from sociology getting the full picture
I am frequently surprised at the resistance/lag time to using science.
For example, ulcers. It has now been firmly established that
Helicobacter pylori causes more than
90 percent of duodenal ulcers and up to 80 percent of gastric ulcers.
Before the discovery of the bacterium in 1982, stress and lifestyle were
considered
the major causes of ulcers. Yet over twenty years later many ulcer
patients were not given the critical tests that would treat the problem.
We have known that race is not a biological fact for longer. Yet we
continue to treat it as real. Often we claim it is a construction....
I have never been sure
how that solves the problem. Most of the discussions to not teach race
are trumped by W. I. Thomas' famous statement regarding the
identification and
understanding of reality. "If men define situations as real they are
real in their consequences" (Thomas and Znaniecki, 1918:79). This
statement is interpreted one
way.... race is real because it has real consequences
I would argue the following. That statement works two ways. Turn the
statement around and the real consequences are the result of treating
the unreal as if it were real.
In that case were should stop presenting race as real and go with the
science.
So what is race if not biological? Race in this country is a particular
classification system. No more and no less. Of the several systems
used in our society
the current one was designed to support the Virginia chattel slave law.
Race is defined as a permanent category close to the one drop system.
Note that others used here
permitted those who were 1/16 black to become white. It has been
reported that more than 20% of slaves vanished into white society the
non permanent system
would not have permitted the maintained of a large slave population.
Thus those sociologists who wish to chip away at the consequences can
start to make a difference. There will be resistance within
sociology. So why not bring the resistance
up to the list. What are the problems flaws in this change?
Del
