Flashback Friday.
Laura A. sent in a video in which African American men ask people in Fuzhou, China, what race they believe people in some photos are:
It’s a good example of the social construction of race. Notice how several people in the photos who would be considered Black in the U.S. don’t seem Black to the Chinese people looking at them, because they don’t have the features that they assume Black people have (such as big lips). Since they don’t have those features…they can’t be Black. We also see here that racial differences that would be easily identified in one culture (such as the U.S.) aren’t necessarily recognized in the same way in another. If race were a fixed, biological characteristic, we’d expect more consistency in how it’s defined, how many races people are divided into, and so on.
At about 3:45 you can see the African American men compare their skin color to some Chinese teens (?), who initially define themselves as “yellow people.” But after comparing their skin color, the Black men tell them they’re Black too. I wouldn’t say that the teens seem to be taking the news with great excitement.
Of course, it’s also interesting that the filmmakers refer to the people in the pictures as “really” Black, and tell the Chinese people who are guessing whether they are right or wrong in guessing their race, which implies there actually is a specific race that they belong to. They’re correct in saying that’s the race most people in the U.S. would place those individuals in, but since race is socially constructed, you can’t really say any way of categorizing people by race is “right” or “wrong.”
Originally posted in 2009.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 15
heatherleila — April 17, 2009
This is interesting. I've done a similar thing with students in my Spanish classes. I tore out pictures of various Hispanic-American celebrities and put them by celebrities of other nationalities or races or ethnicities and had students guess which person was American or which person was Hispanic and so on. It was an interesting class because it seemed to defy what most students thought about who can be Hispanic or who can be American, etc. I had one Black student tell me that Black people can't be Hispanic. Even when I assured him that there are many Hispanic people who are black, he said "No, Black is Black."
I think culturally I know what he meant. But even as I pointed out a picture of Cristina Milian who is Black and Cuban-American and still participates in African-American culture...he didn't really believe me. The point of the lesson was that Hispanic is a cultural idea and isn't related to race at all.
Sushu — April 17, 2009
I found it interesting that he framed the question often not as "What race is this person?", but rather, "Where's this person from?" and then "Is this person black or white?". Part of it is because his pronunciation for race was a bit off, so it was hard for the Chinese people to understand (the difference is like saying "rice" when you mean "race"). In addition, the idea of a person's place of origin is much stronger than race in China. So the people they polled responded better to "Where are they from?" When people did understand that they're asking about race, and were not given a dichotomy of White vs. Black, they gave much more interesting answers, like Asian Indian or East Asian.
There's also this sort of odd assumption that we would know all off the people that he speaks of, even if the Chinese don't. Why would the Chinese know Oprah, anyway? Do they know any Chinese talk show hosts?
theunbeatablekid — April 17, 2009
There is also the question of how the race of the interviewer and the circumstances of the questions effect the answers. Would the questions be answered differently if it was asked by people identified as Chinese or White?
In line with what sushu was saying, there does seem to be a problem with the way the first guy is saying zhongzu which means race. There is also a confusion of race, nationality and place of origin. What race is he, what nationality is he, and where does he come from can be very different questions.
Cecil — April 17, 2009
I think it is also important to consider how famous (often successful) people of color tend to be white-washed. American beauty ideals are based around whiteness, and so we see a very common thing like straightening of hair. African Americans do not have naturally straight hair, but a large percentage use chemicals or hot irons to straighten their hair. Beyonce and Oprah both alter their hair to make it more "white," and so asking what race they are can be confusing if you are using physical indicators.
Not to mention race is a socially constructed concept...
Shifting Categories of Race « fuzzytheory — April 18, 2009
[...] categories with shifting boundaries and content. A perfect example of this was pointed out at Sociological Images: “Laura A. sent in a video in which African American men ask people in Fuzhou, China, what [...]
Dubi — April 20, 2009
I always have trouble figuring out people's ethnic background. I mistook an Indian fellow student to be hispanic, and a mixed-black-and-white for a middle-eastern (my bet was on Greek or something). I'm terrible at this stuff.
Though living in a building where most of the tenants are Asians, I'm getting better at telling apart the different ethnic groups in what was until two years ago just one big group for me.
Louisa — April 21, 2009
Um, this person has really bad pronunciation. At first I couldn't even understand what he was asking. A lot of people seemed to have trouble understanding him, because he wasn't asking what race they were, they were asking where the person was from. "Ta she chong na li lai" is where is this person from? And he was saying what "zhong zu" the person is, but it is really hard to understand him. His pronunciation for that phrase was especially off.
Also there is no "way" to say Oprah in Chinese, that's like how do you say Zhang Ziyi in English?
Just Sayin' — April 27, 2009
As a mixed-race woman with light skin and Trini features, people tend to assume I'm whatever they are when my hair has been straightened. This can be interesting because it invites an openness I wouldn't otherwise experience. When my hair is natural, people generally assume I'm "other". Also interesting but in a much less pleasant way.
Kate — June 24, 2009
When I was in china I was told "Chinese people aren't racist. There aren't any black people in China, so we can't be racist."
The Jamaican woman I worked with (who was black) was spat on regularly, and people yelled out to her in the street that she was a monkey.
Gilberto — June 10, 2010
Hey I am in Fuzhou, China. I am looking for a spanish teaching position Laura. Can you help me? I live in Cangshan district. gilbertomoma@gmail.com please email me if you know about a position. Thanks
Bill R — October 10, 2014
This makes no sense.
You're saying:
Some people, who have very little contact with different races, can't always determine the race of others.
THEREFORE race is socially constructed.
Put aside the issue of race and all that connotes. There's still no logic in the argument.
Jess — October 10, 2014
There is an issue with the author's construct of race. For example, Beyonce is half white half black. However, she is rarely construed as being white. It's interesting how individuals whom come from multi-racial backgrounds are labelled as the non-white race.
Ronald Sims II — February 23, 2024
I am the original creator of the “Race Game” video in which My buddy Wily and I asked people which race they thought people were in the photos. The entire Point of the video capture how arbitrary people’s perception of race is. Given that Wily (biracial Afro-Canadian) and myself (African American) are both light skinned men, Chinese folks seldom thought of us as racially black we sort of knew the outcome of showing people images of arguably racially ambiguous people.