Race: The Power of an Illusion

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Segregated Housing and the Racial Wealth Gap

by Larry Adelman

This explainer shows how government-mandated policies of segregated housing led to the creation of the extreme racial wealth gaps experienced across the US today.

Why Humans haven't Evolved into Subspecies

by California Newsreel

While humans appear diverse in terms of physical traits, variations in our genetic makeup are in fact very limited since humans have not had the time and isolation to evolve into separate subspecies.

Unlikely mix – Race, biology and drugs

Sociologist Troy Duster warns of attempts by pharmaceutical companies to market certain drugs to specific racial groups, exposing them as apparent marketing ploys with potentially dangerous consequences.

Race and Gene Studies: What Differences Make a Difference?

by Larry Adelman

Executive producer of the RACE series Larry Adelman breaks down how to interpret genetic discoveries that appear to suggest differences along racial lines.

Scientific and Folk Ideas About Heredity

by Jonathan Marks

Jonathan Marks provides an anthropological and historical perspective into why we classify people the way we do, and why those classifications, while culturally important, don't hold up from a biological standpoint.

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Performance of the Nation: An Interview with Angela Marino

Angela Marino, an Associate Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, and Latin/x American Studies, discusses World's Fairs, festivals and fiestas, and relates the performance of nation to different epistemes of time.

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Immigration & Citizenship: Interview with Leti Volpp

Leti Volpp, the Robert D. and Leslie Kay Rave Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley, discusses the problematic racial triangulation of groups in legal arguments, how we saw a new racial category post 9/11, the need to study pockets of resistance in response to legal rhetorical structures, and looking critically at the concept of a "model minority" as a symptom of anti-blackness.

The Story We Tell: “Civilization” Policy for Native Americans

"Thomas Jefferson, among many people, felt that the Indians were good human material, and the problem was not race, but culture. The Indians were savages but they could be civilized."

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Images of the Horror of American Race Relations: Interview with Michael Mark Cohen

Michael Mark Cohen, Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies and African American Studies at UC Berkeley, discusses his use of visual imagery to teach about racial terrorism and race as socially constructed, incorporating Stephen Jay Gould's scholarship to demonstrate how whiteness was created, and how a shift away from color blindness led to the current resurgence of white nationalism amid a shrinking white demographic.

How is racism different from prejudice?

Aren't Black people on the whole the best athletes in the world?

How do you explain varying levels of success and achievement by race?

Is there a distinction between race and racism?

Why are there different levels of advancement in varying countries by race?

What is the origin of the word "race?"

Are people who are similar naturally drawn to one another?

What was early colonial Virginia like? How are race and freedom tied together? What is the tension in American history with regard to race?

Ira Berlin (1941-2018) was a Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Maryland. Among his many books are, Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves and Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in America.

Richard Lewontin

How much genetic variation really exists between people? Can genetic research help us unlock human differences?

Richard Lewontin is currently (2019) Professor Emeritus of Biology and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Emeritus at Harvard University. He has written many celebrated books on evolution and human variation books including The Triple Helix.

Why doesn't it make sense to classify people into races? How do we sort through all our confusion about genetics, biology and things like athletic ability? Where did our traditional notions of race come from?

Jonathan Marks is currently (2019) Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Tales of the ex-Apes: How We Think About Human Evolution, and Human Biodiversity and What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee.

Karen Ordahl Kupperman

How did the English and Native peoples of America view themselves and each other at the time of their first encounter? Why did the English colonize North America?

Karen Ordahl Kupperman is currently (2019) Professor of History at New York University. She is author of Indians and English: Facing Off in North America and Roanoke: The Lost Colony.

Joseph Graves, Jr.

Are certain races athletically superior? How much genetic diversity is there among humans?

Joseph Graves, Jr. is currently (2019) Professor of Nanoengineering at the Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering and author of The Emperor's New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium.

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Copyright 2018-2019, California Newsreel and Regents of the University of California. This website was jointly produced by California Newsreel, the Othering & Belonging Institute, the U.C. Berkeley Library, and the American Cultures Center at U.C. Berkeley, based on original material created by California Newsreel in 2003.