Introduction
Racelessness can be described as the idea that race should not exist since it is merely a human creation. According to Mason, the theory of racelessness is founded on two alternative philosophical positions on race: eliminativism and skepticism. In a nutshell, the theory calls for anti-race and antiracism, which means eliminating the entire notion of race. Racelessness is a factor of success considering that black Americans are often offered fewer opportunities in education and employment. This position is illustrated using three films that reflect on the racial issues of the mid-20th century: Hidden Figures, The Help, and In the Heat of the Night. In these films, the common theme is that African Americans are only offered menial jobs despite their brilliance. The education and employment opportunities have been diminished. For example, Katherine Johnson is a brilliant mind working in a segregated West Computing department at NASA and whose prowess with calculations was far superior to the white males working at NASA. This paper supports the thesis that racelessness could have allowed blacks to be more successful due to equal opportunities in education and employment.
Context
The history of the United States has been characterized by stark differences between the whites and blacks and other racial minorities. For several decades, discourses on racial disparities have explored the causes and consequences of this phenomenon, where the major conclusion is that structural racism has created systematic inequality (Hanks and Solomon). Booker T. Washington wrote, over a century ago, that success is measured not by the position an individual has reached in life but mostly by the obstacles that an individual has overcome trying to succeed (Roberts and Mayo). These words were intended to encourage the African Americans that had just been emancipated from slavery to persist in their fight for equal rights and economic opportunities (Roberts and Mayo). The racelessness theory supports the argument that this fight would not have been necessary had the society not created the notion of race, which was used to subject the blacks to slavery. As illustrated in the film Hidden Figures, much of the rationalization for disallowing Kathleen to NASA meeting and denying Mary Jackson access to university was the lack of protocol for doing so.
The failure in the three movies to justify racism is the main argument used to support the idea of racelessness. Kathleen was the brightest mind, which means that she should not have been working in the West Computing department. The rationale is that NASA could not have launched the satellite without her input (Melfi). Similarly, the police chief in In the Heat of the Night could have imprisoned the wrong person for the murder were it not for the expertise and prowess of Virgil Tibbs (Jewison). In both of these cases, racism has prevented the more-suited personnel to occupy the right position simply due to their race and the failure of the whites to believe that blacks can be smarter than them. Modern discourses of racism tend to illustrate how well-being and life satisfaction between races are influenced by socioeconomic status. For example, racial minorities participate less in the labor force and record higher mortality rates and health disparities (Yearby 1113; Graham and Pinto 1400). Therefore, it can be argued that race has often been the major barrier to success among the racial minority.
Overall, racism in the United States is a historical problem that spans centuries since the days of colonization and slavery in the Americas. According to Bleich et al., discrimination toward blacks is not merely an issue that contradicts such core values as equality of opportunity and fairness. On the contrary, discrimination is the underlying problem behind the socioeconomic gaps between the races. Additionally, the discrimination can be conceptualized as the afterlife of slavery as expressed by Davis (23). In the film The Help, Aibileen explains why she is a maid by stating that her mother was a maid and her grandmother an enslaved maid (Taylor). Even after the end of slavery, former slaves had no education or skills to allow them to get employment other than the duties they previously performed under slavery. The links to slavery have also been drawn by Brooks (779), who argues that for most African Americans, slavery ended after World War II and not in 1865. The policies of white supremacy remain to date and continue to play a critical role in the success of the Black Americans through the opportunities availed to them.
Problem
The problem that will be analyzed in this paper is that of race and economic opportunity. First, the analysis focuses on illustrating that the economic opportunities available for different races are racially designed. Second, the analysis will illustrate how racelessness could help resolve the problem and potentially heal racial trauma. The idea of healing racial trauma has been presented by Comas-Díaz and Hall (2), who acknowledges that such an effort is challenging since racial wounds occur within a sociopolitical context and on a continuing basis. Racelessness is a theoretical perspective where the idea of race is dismissed or eliminated (Mason). Achieving racelessness means creating a new racial balance where opportunities are equal across all individuals. This may not heal historical racism, but the wounds could be dressed to ensure that future generations will not face the same challenges as the current and past generations. Today, it can be argued that discourses have managed to present the African American experience similar to what Skeeter in The Help sought to achieve by writing about the perspectives of the maid (Taylor). With this perspective, the path towards achieving racelessness becomes clearer.
Even though the three films used have expressed the issues of racism as they occurred in the 1960s, more recent data will be used to illustrate the problem of unequal economic opportunities exists. The study by Chetty et al. (711), which analyzes longitudinal data between 1989 to 2015, will support this position since it verifies that black-white disparities are observable among young males living in the same neighborhood. Current trends in employment will also be used to illustrate the nature of the problem and why solutions are necessary. For example, a report by McKinsey shows that automation across industries disproportionately affects blacks (Cook et al.). The rationale is that the blacks tend to occupy the lower positions comprising majorly manual labor. As a result, automation causes unemployment mostly among African Americans as compared to whites. Another element that is observable across the films In the Dark of the Night and The Help is the disparities in criminalization. Besides the economic perspective, consideration for the criminal justice system as highlighted by Lang and Spitzer (68) is made. Overall, the attention is turned towards explaining racial disparities.
Lastly, the analysis seeks to illustrate that racial discrimination detrimentally affected the progress of American society. Such a position is supported by the events in Hidden Figures where Paul Stafford produces wrong mathematics and relents to have them verified by Kathleen. In the end, it is Kathleen’s input that made the project a success (Melfi). All the while, Kathleen worked in the computing department when the Russians made progress as the Americans were stalling. It can be argued that had Kathleen been working on the project then there are possibilities that NASA could have beaten Russia to space. According to Davis (30), the white supremacist policies could be observed during Trump’s presidency with the proposal to strip immigrant children born in the United States of their birthright citizenship. Such a law relates to the 1857 Dred Scott case, which held that no Negro could become an American citizen. If Kathleen was not an American citizen, Paul Stanford and his colleagues could not have produced the right math to launch the rocket (Melfi). Therefore, racist policies deny the American industries talented personnel to drive progress.
Analysis
The perspective taken regarding this problem is that racism is inherently immoral and baseless. Additionally, no logic can justify racism experienced in the United States. Therefore, an ultimate solution is needed since it is too late to discuss mitigations. Today, all evidence has suggested that blacks are equal to whites intellectually and otherwise, which means that opportunities in education and employment should be evenly distributed across all races. The idea of racelessness is emphasized for several reasons. First, the policies and decisions made today will influence how the future generations feel about themselves and others (Mason). Such characters as Skeeter in The Help understand that maids are critically important to the life of a small white child. Skeeter looked up to Constantine more than her mother and is heartbroken to learn what happened to the woman who raised her (Taylor). A similar relationship is seen between Aibileen and Hilly’s child, who is devastated when Aibileen is fired (Taylor). The black maids are shown to have been better guardians than the white mothers, which does not justify the ill-treatment of black women in society.
Racial trauma persists until today and it is vividly illustrated in the three films, which show how the 1960s were potentially dangerous years for Blacks. Virgil Tibbs is arrested for alleged murder not because there was evidence linking him to the homicide but because he was the only African American male around the area where the crime occurred. No investigations were conducted and he was not even allowed to tell his name and profession. Most surprisingly, the police chief orders his arrest even with full knowledge that Virgil is a police officer. According to Comas-Díaz and Hall (2), racial trauma is manifested through avoidance, hypervigilance, and suspiciousness. In Hidden Figures, the three ladies are suspicious of the approaching police when their car had broken down (Melfi). A sign of hypervigilance is illustrated in The Help where all maids make all efforts not to wrong their employers (Taylor). Therefore, another perspective on this problem is that historical racism has created racial trauma that is difficult to treat for the current generations. However, racelessness could ensure that the future of blacks and other racial minorities do not inherit the same trauma.
Race is a term that was coined by the dominant community to justify oppression. According to Yearby, structural racism in the United States can be conceptualized as the power used by the dominant group to offer its members advantages, which results in disadvantages for the non-dominant. Historically, slavery was founded on the propaganda that the Blacks preferred slavery to freedom. In such an arrangement, the white settlers got free labor while making sure the blacks would never have the power to oppose their rule. Civil liberties and human rights are eliminated through structural racism. The end of slavery and emancipation provided an opportunity for blacks to equal the whites, but structural racism meant that only the whites enjoyed economic opportunities available in the country. Mary Jackson may have successfully challenged the situation through the courts, where even the judge expressed that not even the federal government or the Supreme Court could overrule the racial laws of the state (Melfi). The concept and ideology of race emerged during slavery and were institutionalized around 1700 (Bedell 310). Africans were better laborers and the whites needed them for their survival.
Lastly, the black-white gap needs to be filled since it is the only way to achieve equal opportunities and progress the American society. as explained earlier, racism affects progress by shutting doors for top talent to join the labor force. Kathleen is the perfect example of how an entire nation had its competitive edge withheld by refusing to employ blacks in the NASA program (Melfi). Similarly, the IBM machine installed by NASA had refused to go live until Dorothy Vaughn sneaked into the room and corrected an error made by the while men tasked for the job. In the end, NASA’s success was all due to Kathleen, Dorothy, and Mary, who worked as an engineer and whose skills are also depicted to be superior to the white men in the department. According to Chetty et al. (711), reducing the black-white income gap requires efforts whose impacts are felt across class and neighborhood lines, and which increase upward mobility for the black. Overall, no solution can be valid as long as the gaps exist and one race remains to be perceived as superior to the other.
Conclusion
The thesis statement for this paper suggested that racelessness could have allowed blacks to be more successful due to more equal opportunities in education and employment. this position has been illustrated in the films Hidden Figures and In the Dark of the Night where bright and more deserving blacks fail to occupy positions fitting their qualifications and expertise. To support this argument, current literature and other materials have been used to show that race is a human conception intended to give power to the dominant group so they can oppress the non-dominant group. Additionally, it has been illustrated that the current structural racism is the afterlife of slavery where white supremacist policies continue to give privileges to the whites. Therefore, racelessness, which simply implies the absence of race, could have seen more successful black people than can be observed today. Similarly, the society could have seen more success by utilizing the talent pool presented by the African American community.
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