{"id":351,"date":"2024-02-10T13:33:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T18:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/?p=351"},"modified":"2024-02-10T13:34:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T18:34:03","slug":"rpl-act-space-traders-and-racial-realism-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/2024\/02\/10\/rpl-act-space-traders-and-racial-realism-discourse\/","title":{"rendered":"RPL Act, Space Traders, and Racial Realism Discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"

In order to properly analyze and breakdown this discussion I wanted to break the readings into 3 separate sections. First, I will be covering the Racial Preference Licensing Act<\/em>, followed by The Chronicle of the Space Traders<\/em>, then ending with the Racial Realism<\/em> piece.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Initially, when I started reading the Racial Preference Licensing Act<\/em> it stated, \u201cUnder the new act, all employers, proprietors of public facilities, and owners and managers \u2026 could obtain a license authorizing the holders or their agents to exclude or separate persons on the basis of race and color\u201d (pg. 46), and I thought there\u2019s no way it\u2019s promoting segregation again. But it wasn\u2019t until I kept reading further that I became more curious about this concept. You see, there\u2019s a section in the work where it states, \u201cSecond rule of race relations, civil right policies are often symbolic rather than substantive\u2026 they will infrequently be enforced for blacks, though in altered interpretations they may serve the needs of whites” (pg. 49).This immediately made me think of Affirmative Action and how just by changing the perspective of how you view a law can drastically change the implementation of it. This, I fear, has been happening too long within the United States where we use our legal system and agencies to help black people but instead they never completely accomplish what they were trying to do. What this piece makes the reader ask is what if there was a policy that ensured benefits for black people without disrupting the heavily white dominated society we live in. There\u2019s a lot more to it than just owning a license. For instance, \u201cLicense fees and commissions were placed in an \u201cequality fund\u201d used to underwrite black businesses, offer no-interest mortgage loans for black homeowners, and provide scholarships for black students seeking college and vocational education\u201d (pg. 47). Not only this but, \u201cholders are required to pay to a government commission a tax equal to 3% of the income derived from employing, serving, or selling to whites during each quarter in which a policy of racial preference was in effect (pg. 46). Basically, anytime that business helps a white person it will cost them financially.\u00a0 Furthermore, if a person does purchase this license then they are obligated to display it or have people aware that they have it. This is useful because now black people don\u2019t have to worry about whether or not they will be discriminated against based on color by the employer (pg. 53). I also find it useful because it tells everyone you are openly racist. By owning this license you are subject to people having their own opinion about you and your business. If you aren\u2019t racist, why buy the license to begin with? Another point this article made was how this law dilutes both financial and psychological benefits of racism (pg. 53). For example, a person who does purchase this license to prevent black people from working at their establishment, is indirectly helping black people because the funds go back to them. People will become less likely to buy their white privilege.<\/span><\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean this license is completely beneficial. I do have some concerning points in regards to how it will work. Within the article it talks about those who do discriminate without the license are eligible for punishment under the RICO status (pg. 47). My question is how exactly would they test to make sure someone is actually discriminating? If a business has no black workers, without the license, does it automatically mean they are breaking the law? My other problem with this license is the exact purpose of it. You are allowing someone to openly discriminate against someone without the fear of punishment by law. This can end up badly as a lot of the major companies can just purchase this license and never hire any black people. Now, any black person who wishes to become an astronaut, doctor, or take part in some financial industry will never be able to do so. The job availability will drop drastically.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next article, The Chronicle of the Space Traders<\/em>, I found to be more entertaining as it was presented in a more story format. Nonetheless, it doesn\u2019t mean there aren’t any significant messages. This work captured my reaction perfectly when it stated, \u201cDoes the promise of restored prosperity justify our sending away fifteen percent of our citizens to Lord knows what fate?\u201d (pg. 60). I like this quote because I found myself questioning what would this country look like if black people really did disappear. It mentions how black people are responsible for a lot of the financial cost of this country. Yes, but at the same time it\u2019s not as if we put ourselves in that position. I like to use the game analogy. As black people within this country, we are playing a game, we understand the rules but we cannot change them and the rules are ever-changing whether we are ready or not. The most we can do is learn the rulebook and adapt to win. There were some other good points made in this work. I liked the insertion by Golightly, because he doesn\u2019t only highlight what will happen as a result of this \u201cbanishment\u201d but also how in the past, previous measures to return black people to their homeland was a considerable option (pg. 62). Feeling unwanted isn\u2019t anything new in this country. What this article also serves to do is show how this nation feels about certain demographics of people. It mentions this, but do you really think that if the aliens came down asking for all citizens who identify as white to come with them there would be little to no resistance. Another scary thought would be considering there were no aliens at all. Let’s say one day congress decided to draft an economic relief bill that included the adoption of a new selective service system. Do you think this bill would pass if it meant \u201cbenefiting\u201d the country?<\/span><\/p>\n

The last reading, Racial Realism<\/em>, I found to be dismal and lacking solutions. This article reminds me of my Civil Rights and Civil Liberties course I have taken previously where we discussed and analyzed the decisions of multiple society-changing court cases and doctrines within the US. People need to be aware that in court decisions, there will always be human bias involved. This is seen in the article where it mentions, \u201caccording to Holmes’s scientific and relativistic lines of attack, judges settled cases not by deductive reasoning, but rather by reliance on value-laden, personal beliefs. To Holmes, such judges engineered socially desirable policies based on these beliefs which, like all moral values, were wholly relative and determined by one’s particular environment\u201d (365). I will also add to this, besides moral beliefs, it can simply be how they interpret the constitution. For instance, some judges are more textualist in a sense that they take the words of what is written and directly apply it, with little consideration of moral beliefs. This is when judges sometimes vote against what they may personally feel. I will disagree with the article on one point and that is how rulings of one case cannot be applied to another (pg. 367). Yes, not every situation is exact but that is the whole point of establishing a precedent so that it can help create a sense of order. If this wasn\u2019t the case then nothing would ever be legitimate or hold any legal value. The reason I say this piece is dismal is when it declares, \u201cRacial Realism makes us look historically at how black people have always been subordinate but this doesn’t leave us helpless. It \u201cenables us to avoid despair, and free us to imagine and implement racial strategies that can bring fulfillment and even triumph\u201d (pg. 374). I don\u2019t like the idea of \u201caccepting\u201d being subordinate in order to fuel your goals. I do believe there is still hope in \u201crule of law\u201d, although the article makes it clear that the law only periodically and unpredictably helps oppressed people (pg. 364). My counter to this, using the University of California v. Bakke example they offer, it\u2019s about who is the interpreter. If Racial Realism looks back historically, then it would recognize this to be true as well. My example for this is Thurgood Marshall. See how one person was able to shift the balance of equality simply by interpreting the law. The right to vote is very powerful. If it wasn\u2019t, my ancestors wouldn’t have died for it. All it takes is putting the right people in power. This is why Trump appointing the most Supreme Justices than any other president before him is so significant. Not only do they serve for life, but all legal proceedings and how the constitution \u201cshould be read\u201d are left up to them and their ideals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, the readings were all interesting and thought provoking. I am curious to see what you guys have to say about them!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to properly analyze and breakdown this discussion I wanted to break the readings into 3 separate sections. First, I will be covering the Racial Preference Licensing Act, followed by The Chronicle of the Space Traders, then ending with … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6376,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}