Race: The Power of an Illusion

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A Long History of Racial Preferences: For Whites

by Larry Adelman

Executive producer of the Race series Larry Adelman provides a historical overview of how institutions and public policies have benefited whites at the expense of other groups to explain the extreme wealth gap between white and Black people.

Origin of the Idea of Race

by Audrey Smedley

Anthropologist Audrey Smedley explains how race was institutionalized in the 19th century as a worldview to justify slavery, inequality, and establish who should have access to privilege, power, status, and wealth, and who should not.

Africans, Slavery, and Race

Historian John Cheng argues that ideas of racial inferiority of Africans developed and hardened in the late-17th and 18th centuries, well after the start of the transatlantic slave trade, in order to justify their place in society.

When the white residents of Eight Mile Road in Detroit were told they were too close to a Black neighborhood to qualify for a positive FHA rating, they built this six foot wall... Once the wall went up, mortgages on the white properties were approved.

expert connection

Pedagogical Storytelling with Victoria Robinson

Victoria Robinson, a lecturer in Ethnic Studies and director of the American Cultures Center at UC Berkeley, shares how she uses her favorite clip on redlining in her teaching.

Emergence of the U.S. Racial Hierarchy

As African slavery increased, lower class Europeans won new rights and opportunities, as well as payoffs and status-enhancements, leading to their identifying as "white."

2020 panel discussion on Race—The Power of an Illusion, Part II

On Friday, September 25 we hosted a screening of Part II of Race—The Power of an Illusion: The Story We Tell, followed by a one-hour panel discussion with experts.

How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Created

A 30-minute segment produced by California Newsreel from the series, "RACE – THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Created" illustrates how government policies and private practices helped create the segregated suburbs and the racial wealth gap.

What is the difference between race and ethnicity?

Robin D.G. Kelley

How did early American peoples see themselves? How is race socially constructed? How is racism more than just individual prejudice and fear?

Robin D.G. Kelley is currently (2019) Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History at UCLA. He is also author of Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class; and Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression.

How do whites feel about race, affirmative action and racial inequality? To find out, Nancy DiTomaso interviewed white people throughout the United States.

Nancy DiTomaso is currently (2019) Distinguished Professor of Management and Global Business at Rutgers Business School—Newark and New Brunswick

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.

How is race socially constructed? Why can't we get rid of the concept? How do whites benefit without having to do anything? What can we do about residential segregation and inequality?

john a. powell is currently (2019) Professor of Law and African American Studies at UC Berkeley, and the Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society.

external resource

The History of White People in America

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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.