Stuart Halls Approach to Race - Essay Example

? Stuart Hall’s Approach to ‘Race Stuart Hall is a renowned sociologist and a cultural theorist born in Jamaica wholater relocated to the United Kingdom. Stuart Hall published many works and books, and he has gained recognition for founding many sociological and cultural approaches which have contributed greatly to sociology and cultural studies. Among other things, Stuart Hall developed an outstanding approach to the explanation of the nature and dynamics of race and racism. This approach sufficiently addressed the issue of race with perfect ideas and clarification on how a race and attributed qualities which tend to be relative to other races are recognised by people. Therefore, Stuart Hall’s approach to race is totally convincing to me, and it is practical in a number of situations; it provides vast knowledge on race dynamics. Stuart Hall argued about the human culture and the tendency to categorise human beings into subgroups, as well as fragment human society diversity into discrete types with regard to characteristics and qualities, which are deemed essential and are always extremely high. The qualities and characteristics according to which human beings are categorised may include intellectual, body and physical characteristics among others (Smaje, 2000, p.55). This categorisation is a reflective cultural impulse; it gives human beings a chance to understand various meanings in classification. Stuart Hall argued that classification is an extremely fundamental aspect of the culture of human beings (Rex and Mason, 1989, p. 35). Further, the significant aspect of classification to people is when the classification becomes the power disposition object. This point is relevant to the extent that marking of the similarities and differences across populations of human beings becomes the reference point for treating one group of people with privileges, which may not be enjoyed by another group of people (Malik, 1996, p. 43). In essence, classification facilitates one group to be treated favorably, and the other group gets subjected to a wide range of discriminations and suffering. This juncture marks the union of classification of human societies and cultures and power and authority. Classification assumes the status of a power system, and this power system is evidenced in a wide range of characteristics, especially in human beings (Smaje, 2000, p.57). For instance, this system of power is evidenced in gender, which ascribes feminine and masculine identities to people in a cultural setting. From these ascriptions, a vast range of opportunities, aspirations and behavior can be predicted from the classifications (Omi and Winant, 1994, p. 33). Therefore, classification is an extremely generative term, and the moment an individual is classified into any group or race, many things and aspects assume their position in the life of the individual, as a result of the classification. However, classification has another significant aspect in the life of people; it awakens the minds of people and maintains order and stratification of a system. This order is retained at all times, and anything which disturbs this order is viewed negatively, and people who strive to retain the status quo fight to return the order to its original position (Rex and Mason, 1989, p. 46). Apparently, it becomes clear that classification is not only a division into whites and blacks, but also that one of these groups has more value (positive) than the other group. This is the path always taken by power, and any person who attempts to ascribe white characteristics to blacks generates immense worry in society. In such instances, people experience misplaced priority and misappropriated ascription, which is described as “matter out of place” (Malik, 1996, p. 43). This phrase denotes that all societies and cultures have classification orders, which can be said to be inbuilt and out of the culture (Augstein, 1996, p. 36). This order informs people about their position in a society, their rank, as well as stipulates the superiors and inferiors in a culture. Stuart Hall questioned the meaning of “matter out of place” as the phrase suggested that dirt belongs to the garden, and there is nothing wrong with dirt as long as the dirt remains in the garden. However, when the same finds its way into the bedroom, there is an immense reason to worry, and one should take action to remove such dirt and take it to where it belongs (Rex and Mason, 1989, p. 35). For a long time, these patterns of reasoning have taken center stage in politics and formal sectors, which discriminate against certain races and give privilege to other races. Having exhausted the concept of classification, the paper will shift its focus to analyse the concept of race, which, according to Stuart Hall, is another form of broad classification of human beings. Smaje (2000, p.63) concludes that race is one of the key forms of classification of humans which possesses both the positive and negative attributes constructed into it. Therefore, one does not require the entire knowledge and argument about a certain race since the ideas are associated with a race function as a code of common sense in the society. For instance, it is evident that the mentioning of blacks will trigger a series of associations in many people: sound bodies, very expressive, good dancers, unintelligent, as well as their animistic and barbarous behavior. I am convinced by the attempt that Stuart Hall made to try and understand how race definitions function and operate. In this sense, Stuart Hall demonstrated the process of classification and grouping of populations into different ethnic groups as well as the ascription of qualities which describe the ethnic groups (Augstein, 1996, 28). The qualities that ethnic groups are assigned define the conduct and behavior of individuals in that group. For instance, the fact that a person belongs to a certain racial group will mean that he or she believes certain things, suffers from certain issues and does certain things in a way that is different from other groups. Therefore, the race of people is inscribed in the species of their group, and a race is essentialised by a diverse variety of characteristics, which are held because people are grouped in certain ways through racial criteria. Race has been employed as a key classification and grouping of people into categories of inferiors and superiors in the world. This classification is always based on biological race, and this classification has shaped the way society perceives black people in the classification system (Smaje, 2000, p.75). Stuart Hall proved that race is a social construct which is fixed and ascribed to people, and it does not have any scientific or biological facts that back it up. Apparently, there is no association between the quality of work or art and the race of the person who produced that piece of art (Augstein, 1996, 47). According to Stuart Hall, the political ideologies that protect black people from discrimination are always welcomed by blacks. However, the stereotypes and negative assumptions held about blacks are written in their history, not the character or the genes of black people. Stuart Hall stated that race is a chief term which organizes vast classificatory difference systems that function in human society (Omi and Winant, 1994, p. 53). Untenable are attempts to trace racial differences on genetic, biological, or scientific grounds. Stuart Hall made clear attempts to reject the biological notions of racism, and he quoted a philosopher who argued that it is time to sink the concept of biological race into deep pits where they cannot be traced (Back and Solomos, 2000, p. 39). Further, Stuart Hall stated that race is a badge shared by the Asians and the Africans since both have a common ancestry decent, which is characterized by political oppression, dissemination and slavery, as well as the ultimate insult of the encounters that the Africans and the Asians faced. Therefore, race is a social heritage badge, which reminds blacks and the Asians about their experiences under the force of oppression and discrimination. In this sense, race is a signifier that is discursive but not a biological or genetic fact (Malik, 1996, p. 57). Stuart Hall stated that race is like a language that acts as a signifier but not something scientific. Race is similar to a language, and it does not resemble the biological composition of people (Back and Solomos, 2000, p. 31). According to Stuart Hall, race operates and functions like a language, and signifiers describe the systems of classification which facilitates the culture to develop meaningful practices. The things in a cultural context attain meaning in the dynamic difference relations, with other ideas and concepts in a significant field, not with the content of the essence the things (Omi and Winant, 1994, p. 43). Therefore, the meaning of cultural things and practices is dependent on other meanings and concepts that cannot be fixed but keep on changing and altering their meaning and positions depending on the changes that occur in other significant concepts. That is why one concept can describe different things in different cultural contexts, different periods and different formations of history. Therefore, there are always many things about race that are never said by people, and this means that the concept of race has never been fully comprehended (Augstein, 1996, 28). Hence, the existence of the race depends on a constitutive person who is expected to return the meaning or race to its expelled position. This person who is expected to give race its objective meaning and position in the society stirs the operating social order, and people who enjoy the comfort of distorted realities are forced to readjust in order to fit in the new system. To this extent, I totally agree with the approach that Stuart Hall had to the concept of race, as well as the dispositions that people attach to race. This approach is convincing enough that race is neither genetic nor biological but is socially attributed to people. However, the mentioning of race brings with it other ascriptions which are given to people belonging to the mentioned race. Therefore, race has been given subjective meanings by people and the classification system, which is employed in race descriptions and defines the power relations between the inferior and superior races. To the Asians and the Africans, race is written in their history, and it represents a social heritage to these people, which demonstrates the long walk of political oppressions, slavery and discrimination. To the Africans and the Asians, race defines a common ancestry and decent due to the similarities of problems that these people have encountered in their lives. The social constructions of race, as described by Stuart Hall, have negative impacts on the lives of the affected groups. The groups stigmatised as a result of their race feel isolated and alienated from the entire society. Bibliography Augstein, H.F., 1996. Race: The Origins of an Idea, 1760-1850. Bristol: Theommes Press. Back, L., and Solomos, J., 2000. Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader. London: Routledge. Malik, K., 1996. The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society. London: Macmillan. Omi, M., and Winant, H., 1994. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960's to the 1990's. London: Routledge. Rex, J., and Mason, D., 1986. Theories of Race and Ethnic Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Smaje, C., 2000. Natural Hierarchies: The Historical Sociology of Race and Caste. Oxford: Blackwell. Read More