The problem with the idea that race is a social construct — as the idea is generally understood — is not that race is not, in fact, a social construct but that the nature and meaning of the words ‘social construct’ are being obliterated. Let us, for a moment, think of how race operates in contingent, conditional ways, as in the case of, say, the Irish, who became white, or the ways in which particular ethnic categories gained social mobility by, ironically, ghettoising African-Americans, as Erez Bleicher points out, or how Asians have managed to become a desirable minority while keeping intact a narrative that positions African-Americans as vastly inferior in body and mind. The problem with the way the notion of a ‘construct’ is understood, by both liberals and leftists, is that it presumes that race simply does not exist. Inevitably, this takes on a more sinister meaning: that because race cannot really exist, racism is not really a problem and can simply be willed away.
Yasmin Nair, “Rachel Dolezal and the Materiality of Race“ (H/T Alexis Emilia)
Just because race is a social construct, this has never meant oppressive material, emotional, and institutional realities are not generated from it.
(via america-wakiewakie)
