Context

    Hi fellow readers!I have just finished the book Race, the last few chapters have been a crazy ride. Aronson uses the end of the book to examine more recent and even modern progressions of race. He takes a look at the beginnings of the civil rights movement and how the idea that blacks deserved equality started gaining momentum. I thought possibly the most important part was how he explained the a fight for equality initially had the exact opposite effect. As blacks began to stand up for themselves, others were afraid of their improvement and wanted to repress them further. He closely examines the tension in America as ideas about race were so fluid and yet so rigid at the same time. 

    He transitions into the modern perspective of race. He acknowledges that nobody is very comfortable talking about it and it's ignored in a sense. Because it's a very heated and controversial subject, many of us have become afraid to discuss it for fear that what we say is unintentionally racist or ignorant. He even says that many of us will explicitly reject racist ideas and openly display accepting behaviors. Despite this, Aronson says, all the old prejudices stay with us. After discussing these ideas, he explains that some residual prejudice doesn't mean we ae racist people. His big finishing point is that we have power over our prejudices, we can chose not to act them. He explains that the very nature of being human is being able to question your thoughts, especially prejudices, and determine what has been built from history and what are truly your own feelings. 

First thoughts

    The main thoughts I had on this chapter weren't actually about race, but about the writing itself. I found that especially compared to earlier chapters, the end of the book was incredibly disorganized. There weren't very many sub headings to indicate clear topic trnations or sub sections of ideas which made it a little harder to follow. I also found that within a section, he sometimes switched from a historical example to a personal anecdote with no transition at all. I understand that all the ideas are related and I still very much appreciated his finishing arguments, but the chaos made it slightly less effective to me.

    Another sort of technical issue I had was that I couldn't find a clear purpose of the last chapter of the book. In that chapter he talks a little bit about modern race and what it means. He mentions ideas about black being a way of acting and he also touches on deep rooted racism in school systems and the educational disadvantage blacks have. While these are all very important topics, I think they were mashed together a bit wonky and they should have had more space in the book dedicated to their discussion. It feels a bit random to me without his usual long winded explanations and deep dives into powerful and relevant supporting details. 

My actual thoughts

    As I mentioned, Aronson talks about the beginning of the civil rights movement. I thought one point in particular regarding fighting for equality was especially intriguing. He says that all around the world people of repressed races began fighting for their freedom, but that the willingness to refuse to accept oppression as their fate was actually  just self respect. He cites a study done by Dr. Kenneth Clark in which children were asked to identify which was more like them: a black doll or a white doll. Most of the children got upset by this question, one specific example highlights the effects of racism. 

"[...] a boy was not confused at all: He pointed at the black doll and said 'That's a nigger. I'm a nigger' " (Pg. 227). 

Parks, Gordon. Dr. Kenneth Clark conducting the "Doll Test" with a young male 

     child, 1947. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/ 

     brown-brown.html. Accessed 23 Mar. 2021. 

As Aronson later explains, blacks came to believe that were inferior because of the way they had always been treated. Self respect was a key concept when blacks were fighting for freedom because they wanted and needed to show whites that they were every but as human and just as well deserved the rights that whites got. Perhaps if whites saw how human blacks were, racism could be ended. A very powerful quote from Ghandi is used introduce the ideas that freedom comes with self respect. Gandhi had used similar principles to help Indians free themselves from British rule. 

" 'The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave ... he frees himself' " (Pg. 224)

These ideas inspired blacks to give themselves the respect they deserved and did not get from others. They empowered themselves to show the world that they were worth respecting and were fully committed to peacefully resolving the issue of racism. I found this really moving because if I were in their shoes, I'm not sure my motivation could overpower my hopelessness. I think this was such a powerful move to make because black people were seen as inferior and uncivilized, so they worked to show the exact opposite. Whites really didn't like this because they didn't want to believe that these perceived subhumans were actually very much the same humans as them. But this was what people needed to realize and it's inspiring to see that blacks stayed peaceful while they were beaten and abused for spreading this message of hope. 

Overall

    In general I think the last part of the book had important information about how we began changing our views on race, but it could have used a little more development and organization towards the end. I like the finishing argument he makes about deciding to question our own prejudices, however I was wanting a little more analysis from him. I think it would have been more effective had he delved as deeply into the topics around recent and modern race as he did about the historical aspects. It was good overall, but some of his point got lost with me because they weren't given the same time and attention to build the structured arguments around them.

Works cited

Parks, Gordon. Dr. Kenneth Clark conducting the "Doll Test" with a young male 

     child, 1947. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/ 

     brown-brown.html. Accessed 23 Mar. 2021. 

Aronson, Marc. Race: A History Beyond Black and White. New York, Atheneum Books 

      for Young Readers, 2007.