Reading #3: Chapters 13 - 15 (Part 5 Continued/Finished)

Howdy Folks,
          Once again, welcome back to another entry into my blog series revolving around Marc Aronson's "Race". In this third post, I will be discussing my personal opinion on the reading alongside analyzing how Aronson continued to develop his argument that race as a concept is something that has developed since the beginning of human society and has always been rooted in the minds of society as a result. This third section (pages 175 -206) is much shorter than any other section I have read yet, but is nonetheless still excellently written. Without further ado, let's dive in.

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          Before I really start off, I want to discuss my personal opinions on this section of reading. Once again, Aronson expertly weaves together his historical evidence and points with his own argument. It is crystal clear to the reader, which allowed me to quickly and effectively understand everything that went on in the chapter. The topic and content still somehow allowed the readers an opportunity to fully be given the extent to which a topic like "race" is really discussed and debated. Overall, Aronson's discussion of American racism post civil war alongside the topic of immigration being brought up further supported the idea that race is a construct that has been developed through history over time. The shortness of this section made it all the more enjoyable for me to read as I could get it done at a much more rapid pace. 

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          To begin with, I wanted to start this blog off by mentioning the different rhetorical strategies that Mr. Marc Aronson utilized to develop his argument in this section of the reading. For starters, Aronson utilizes a pattern of short stories to begin chapters or sections depending on how he believes they can better explain his ideas and connect them to his argument. While he does this throughout most of the book, I picked up on it heavily again in this section due to certain points made by the author. For example, Aronson provides the reader with a short story/scenario discussing the value of music and if it is tarnished by tragedy and misuse. That story:

          "Solomon writes the most unforgettable songs. His words are all about hatred, murder, death. His music is irresistible. AS they listen to the songs, many teenagers feel they are hearing a truth only they know. Solomon's fans hear his hard words and pulsing rhythms as the anthem for their generation. And then one loner, who has listened to that music -- just that music -- over and over again for days, comes into his school with a gun and starts shooting. His body and those of his victims appear night after night on the network news. Everyone knows precisely which songs the killer listened to. Are they still beautiful?" (Pages 182-183).

          Aronson uses this well crafted story/example to tie to German Anti-Semitic ideas. After this, he transitions in to discussing Richard Wagner and how his classical music was tied to his hating views towards the Jewish community and yet still regarded as of high quality and fine. He also later uses a short story to help paint a picture when describing the immigration to America through Ellis Island. Aronson uses these short stories and examples to transition into, explain , and illustrate ideas extremely effectively. 

          Another rhetorical strategy I noticed Aronson using in this section was his use of pictures to effectively reach the reader. To begin with, Aronson uses pictures to help paint/illustrate the reader a better picture of what actually happened or to show real facts and stats from primary sources. For either case, I found the author's integration of primary source pictures such as a race identification sheet for immigrants (page 192) or even the melting pot propaganda poster celebrating immigration (page 187) extremely effective in helping me understand what he was trying to say. The melting pot poster helped me better understand the fact that immigration was in fact celebrated while the race identification notice helped me later realize that this celebration was simply a mask that hid a guise of racial filtration. 

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          While reading this third section of "Race", I made a simple, yet important connection to current day social problems in the judgement and restriction of immigration in the United States. While reading about how "New York was wondrous not just for it's buildings, but for the very fact that it welcomed those awestruck immigrants", I realized the sadness behind the fact that the American mindset on immigration has changed so much since this early point in the 1900's (Page 187). Yes, while the U.S still did have it's racial prejudices then, at least it was still willing to be opened armed to all those who needed salvation without stopping them because they look different than the average white american man. While the prejudices were there in the background, the immigrants were at least allowed to migrate to the U.S without concern of being stopped or immediately deported. The American government today has attempted to place heavy immigration restrictions and bans on people from certain countries. The immigration process has become so difficult for some simply because they are different. Them being different than an average American white man scares people into thinking that "they are not like us, so they must be evil and trying to steal our jobs". This is an exact principle of racism: fear or hatred of others simply because they aren't the same as you.

          This realization further proved to me that Marc Aronson is seriously correct in his argument: race is a basic human construct that has been rooted into our mindset since the dawn of society. This modern day application leads to me having serious concerns over what is to come in the future of our society as a whole. If Aronson is correct and this immigration issue today is a symptom, how much worse will it get?

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          Overall, I found this section of the book to be quite enlightening despite being much shorter than the other two sections I've read. I am excited to continue down Aronson's winding, yet crystal clear explanation of how race has evolved over time. I hope you enjoyed the blog and I look forward to next time.

                                        -Charlie D.