To What Extent Is It Possible To Move Beyond The Idea Of Race?

        To what extent is it possible to move beyond the idea of race? Name Institution Date       The idea that the U.S. is a melting point of cultures highlights that immigrants have integrated and assimilated as though every culture is appreciated. In reality, when people think of America they think of the dominant mainstream culture, and it is the minorities who are expected to assimilate. The issue of race is closely tied to culture since they are markers of shared beliefs, and values. Kenji Yoshino wrote the article “Preface and The New Civil Rights” addressing the need to redefine civil rights that bring people together and not apart without coerced conformity.
Steve Olson noted in “The End of Race: Hawaii and the Mixing of Peoples” that intermarriages between the native Hawaiians and non natives does not necessarily represent racial harmony, as there are cultural divide among the population and even defining Hawaiian culture is more difficult even after the end of European colonization. Minorities are expected to assimilate where they identify less with their identities, and yet, they are still treated differently. Intermarriages and assimilation there is acceptance of those who are different, but people still hold negative stereotypes about individual and groups from different racial categories. Biologists and geneticists have all looked at race from a scientific angle focusing on particular traits and differences, while anthropologists and social scientists mainly look at race as a social construct. “Despite the high rate of intermarriage here, ethnic and racial tensions haven’t really disappeared.  They have changed into something else, something less threatening, perhaps, but still divisive,” (Olson 302). The passage highlights that there are still differences that exist in Hawaii and even racial categorization is still present between the whites and non whites of mixed ancestry. Intermarriages do not mean that there is no longer prejudice as there are groups that are still distinct categories like the Japanese, Filipinos, and native Hawaiians. The stereotypes that people attach to those who are different from them are negative and they are associated with people from different racial groups.  Intermarriages may show that there is tolerance in the society, but not necessarily that the society is egalitarian, as prejudice in ingrained in the society and especially in the education system where the original Hawaiian Americans are worse off than other groups (Olson 306). “I, too, worry about our current practice of fracturing into groups, each clamoring for state and social solicitude (Yoshino 543).  Even with increasing intermarriages identity politics are still prevalent and this undermines civil right protections. Intermarriage span racial boundaries and networks, but people take time to change their views on prejudice as is the case of Hawaii with high intermarriage rates, but there are negative labels that describe different groups.              As people assimilate into the mainstream society, their identities may shift as they act accor...