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    Racism

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    Catalina Kata
    This three-part documentary examines the history of racism from its origins in the 16th century with the enslavement of Africans to its presence in modern western societies. It features interviews with academics and commentary as well as images to provide a detailed assessment of how racism developed over 500 years. A key point is that racism emerged from social and economic factors like slavery, not inherent differences, as slave traders legitimized the trade by developing racist ideologies. The documentary examines specific examples of racism's violent legacy in the 20th century and emphasizes resistance by black activists throughout history who fought against oppression. It closes by arguing that concepts of race are not scientifically valid but still divide societies and maintain inequality.

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    Racism

    Uploaded by

    Catalina Kata
    72 views2 pages
    This three-part documentary examines the history of racism from its origins in the 16th century with the enslavement of Africans to its presence in modern western societies. It features interviews with academics and commentary as well as images to provide a detailed assessment of how racism developed over 500 years. A key point is that racism emerged from social and economic factors like slavery, not inherent differences, as slave traders legitimized the trade by developing racist ideologies. The documentary examines specific examples of racism's violent legacy in the 20th century and emphasizes resistance by black activists throughout history who fought against oppression. It closes by arguing that concepts of race are not scientifically valid but still divide societies and maintain inequality.

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    This three-part documentary examines the history of racism from its origins in the 16th century with the enslavement of Africans to its presence in modern western societies. It features interviews with academics and commentary as well as images to provide a detailed assessment of how racism developed over 500 years. A key point is that racism emerged from social and economic factors like slavery, not inherent differences, as slave traders legitimized the trade by developing racist ideologies. The documentary examines specific examples of racism's violent legacy in the 20th century and emphasizes resistance by black activists throughout history who fought against oppression. It closes by arguing that concepts of race are not scientifically valid but still divide societies and maintain inequality.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    72 views2 pages

    Racism

    Uploaded by

    Catalina Kata
    This three-part documentary examines the history of racism from its origins in the 16th century with the enslavement of Africans to its presence in modern western societies. It features interviews with academics and commentary as well as images to provide a detailed assessment of how racism developed over 500 years. A key point is that racism emerged from social and economic factors like slavery, not inherent differences, as slave traders legitimized the trade by developing racist ideologies. The documentary examines specific examples of racism's violent legacy in the 20th century and emphasizes resistance by black activists throughout history who fought against oppression. It closes by arguing that concepts of race are not scientifically valid but still divide societies and maintain inequality.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    Racism: A History

    Presenter: Sophie Okondeo


    Producer: David Okuefuna
    Date: Wednesday 21, 28 March, th April 2007
    Time: 9.00pm

    This three-part documentary examines the history of racism, covering its origins with the
    enslavement of Africans in the sixteenth century, its overt nature in the colonial projects of the
    European powers and its appearance within twentieth century western societies. Featuring
    interviews with European, American and African academics and cultural commentators as well
    as employing strong images, the programme is a detailed and far-reaching assessment into the
    way in which racism has been constructed over the last five hundred years.

    An important feature of this documentary is its strong, consistent message that racism emerged
    as a product of social and economic factors. Enslavement is shown to be the root of this
    erroneous discourse as the European intelligentsia sought to legitimise the slave trade. It is the
    trade of Africans which is considered to create prejudice, as Professor James Walvin states, 'they
    didn't become slave traders because of racism, they became racist because of the slave trade.' As
    a means of proving that the process of African enslavement was justifiable the concept of a
    hierarchy of human races existing was employed. This is examined as purely as a means to
    continue the highly profitable trade, echoing the work of Williams by linking the desire of
    capitalist systems for the ceaseless acquisition of profit with the enslavement of millions. The
    way in which these concepts born from economic exploitation seep into social and cultural
    contexts is also highlighted; the works of notable and indeed cherished philosophers and authors
    such as Locke and Shakespeare are shown to be riddled with the racist assumptions of the period.
    That the concept of racism was not initially dependent on difference in skin colour is revealed
    with Dr. Barnor Hesse's discussion of the contact between the indigenous peoples of the New
    World and European colonists. The categorisation of 'race' is thereby shown to be a system
    whereby groups of peoples are subordinated.

    The use of 'race' as a means by which people are abused, brutalised, terrorised and exploited is
    examined in the documentary with specific examples from twentieth century America, South
    Africa and Britain as well as Belgian colonial rule in the Congo in the late nineteenth and early
    twentieth centuries. These particular examples utilise graphic images, taken from primary
    sources or reconstructions, to emphasise the violence which has resulted from racist perceptions.
    The scenes of mutilation in the Congo, the disfigured corpse of Emmett Till in Mississippi, and
    police brutality in South Africa are what are referred to in the documentary as, 'the savage
    legacy' of racism. The documentary is careful however to avoid representing only suffering by
    black people and discusses at length the way in which black activists have fought against the
    ingrained racism of western societies. Prominent in this discussion is the 1791 Haitian
    Revolution, which is offered as an antidote to European histories of abolition and emancipation,
    as the documentary uses it to highlight how enslaved peoples rebelled against their oppressors,
    ensuring the system of slavery was impossible to maintain. Civil rights leaders in America and
    South Africa are shown to have continued this struggle against those who would use concepts of
    'race' to classify and differentiate.

    It is the ingrained racism within western societies which is called into account by this
    challenging programme which states how notions of 'race' have resulted in inequality and
    prejudice. The documentary ends with the reminder that white people within the northern
    hemisphere still possess the majority of the world's wealth: a wealth which itself was established
    and maintained by enslavement. Black people from western countries are said to be less likely to
    participate in this wealth, leading to endemic poverty within some black communities. In
    America this situation is described in the documentary as, 'mass unemployment, mass
    disenfranchisement, mass imprisonment.' The programme reinforces its message of racism as a
    social and political tool in its closing remarks debunking those who still claim that racial
    difference exists within human populations: 'in scientific terms race is not a factor but in political
    and social terms it still divides.'

    The documentary is a challenging and highly intelligent study; it maintains a coherent structure
    throughout the three episodes which focus on racism's origins, development and legacy. Its use
    of analysis from academics and individuals from a worldwide perspective marks it out as a
    significant piece of programming, and its quality of debate ensures that its message is heard.

    http://www.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/media/reviews/racism.html

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