Friday, Sept 8th at 7:30 pm join the Westchester Society in White Plains (7 Saxon Wood Rd, White Plains, NY) for a viewing of the film “Race, the Power of an Illusion.” Director: Christine Herbes-Sommers
This is a three-part documentary originally shown on PBS that traces the idea of race as a construct of society, politics and culture. We will screen parts 2 and 3. Each part is approximately 56 minutes in duration.
· Part One – We will not be screening Part 1 at this time. “The Difference Between Us” – examines the contemporary science – including genetics – that challenges our common sense assumptions that human beings can be bundled into three or four fundamentally different groups according to their physical traits.
· Part Two – “The Story We Tell” – uncovers the roots of the race concept in North America, the 19th century science that legitimated it, and how it came to be held so fiercely in the western imagination. The episode is an eye-opening tale of how race served to rationalize, even justify, American social inequalities as “natural.”
· Part Three – “The House We Live In” – This part uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics and culture. It reveals how our social institutions “make” race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status and wealth to white people.
There will be discussion after the screening.
There is no admission charge, but donations are encouraged.