Race: The Power of an Illusion, Movie Review Example

The main thesis of the episode “The Story We Tell” is the reasonableness of concept of race interpreted from the biological aspect. The title of the film alludes that race is a story or narrative invented few hundred years ago to defend national interests and accomplish commercial or political goals. The development of the race theory was connected with the establishment of the state. The extracts from legal documents and specialists’ analysis corroborate the core statement of the film and permit to follow the logic of evidence particularly successively.

The study of the gradual process of creation of deep-rooted belief in race as a crucial category of identity and black racial inferiority begins with explications of T. Jefferson’s perspective. His wide-known words proclaiming equality sound rather ambiguous if we keep in mind that he was a well-off slaveholder. To justify human bondage in his work Notes on the State of Virginia (1781), Jefferson asserts: “I advance it, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind”. These words may be regarded the first attempts to articulate the theory of race. The first Africans came to the country in the beginning of the 17^th century. By the time Jefferson’s Notes had been written, “slavery seemed the natural state”.

The next point that should be considered in connection with ethnic problems and state benefit is the attitude to Indians. They were not involved in slavery, but they inhabited the lands essential for the state boarders extending westward. The idea of assimilation was helpful to ensure peaceful existence and get hold of the territories. Historian George M. Frederickson claims: “The original view of the Indians was that they were naturally white people, and they looked slightly brown because of exposure to the sun and because of the way they treated their skin. Jefferson felt that, among many people of that time, felt that the Indians were good human material, and the problem with them was not race but culture, that the Indians were savages but they could be civilized”. Nevertheless, this Enlightenment-oriented idea was not realized. The Indian question got the final settlement in 1830, when The Indian Removal Act passed. The Fifth Annual Message of A. Jackson stated about the lack of “intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any change in their condition” and position “in the midst of another and superior race”.  Thereby, the attitude to Indians transformed gradually to fit the interests of the States. The Indians opposed the traitorous act; in 1838, the US Army forced them to yield their homes.

In the 19^th century, the belief in racial superiority was justified by scientific researches and lectures held all-over the country. They debated the phenomenon of slavery, the status of black people, differences between the races. A physician S. Morton in his “Crania Americana”, based on the investigation of skull size and capacity, concluded that white American males surpass other nations; black people were on the bottom of smartness gradation. Such conclusions provided convincing reasons to suppose black inferiority ground for their position. Paul Finkelman emphasizes: “The ultimate defense of slavery is a racial defense that blacks are inferior, and therefore they are ready-made slaves. God created them as slaves”.

The film impresses by uncovering historical events and personalities that put much effort in the creation of race theory and racial supremacy/inferiority, slavery rationale associated with this concept. The most astonishing fact is that their names are associated in the USA with liberty, freedom and democracy promotion. The enslaved Africans, the exiled Indians and the Mexicans had to waive their rights, either physical or territorial, for the expansion of the establishing state. The film is significant for the course; it does not merely analyses the roots of the concept, but it also sheds light on its connection with application for the country’s benefits. It helps to get clear focus of some forces that guided American politics few hundred years ago.