Something that made me wonder.
Ok, so apparently PBS has a new series out about the history of the idea of race in the United States, and in particular the evolution of the idea that there are actual biological differences between races, and how really race is a social construct. It's called Race: The Power of an Illusion, and that link goes to the PBS pages about the program, which I haven't really explored yet.
Anyway, I've been reading some reviews of the series, and it's made me curious about some stuff. AlterNet ran a really positive review, of course, but I just stumbled across the New York Times's review (you might need an NYT login to see it), and it's making me really curious to actually see the series in question. The Times reviewer doesn't like Race: The Power of an Illusion much, and the main reason for that dislike (besides the fact that it's a PBS series, which can make for weird production issues) seems to be that the reviewer thinks "race is a social construct" is an old idea, and the series is beating a dead horse and avoiding more interesting issues of race in contemporary society by looking at ancient history.
So. What I'm really wondering about (besides is the series any good) is whether the idea of race as a social construct is really as widespread as the New York Times reviewer seems to think it is. Because maybe it's common knowledge among regular PBS viewers, readers of the late Stephen Jay Gould (who appears in the series), and so forth, but I think there's still plenty of people who think there's valid biological reasons for racial divisions, instead of history and social traditions and suchforth. Now whether the PBS series reaches those people is a different story, but do you really think WKKK (a totally fictional station, I hope) is going to run a series about the evolution of race as an idea and tool of oppression? Allrighty then. Furthermore, if PBS had made a series about the subtle nuances of race in contemporary society based on the idea that race is just a social construct, that assumption would make that series kinda hard for the "race is biological" people to understand (again, assuming such a series would reach them, which I know is kind of a sketchy assumption).
Anyway, my thought is that the PBS series is potentially useful, if only for introducing people to the idea that racial divisions are socially invented and enforced, but maybe it is as PBS-awful as the Times reviewer says? I don't know. I'm mostly just thinking out loud here, and I'm only posting it publically because maybe someone will read it and be able to answer my questions (is the series any good? how widely known and accepted is the idea that race is more a social construct than a biological division between groups of people?)