UCLA News:
The Unitarian Church of Los Alamos (UCLA) presents a three-part viewing and discussion series centered around the documentary series Race: the Power of Illusion, 7-9 p.m. beginning Sunday, Nov. 2 in Robinson Hall at the church at 1738 N. Sage St. The video series originally aired in 2003 on PBS.
“The division of the world’s peoples into distinct groups – “red,” “black,” “white” or “yellow” peoples – has became so deeply imbedded in our psyches, so widely accepted, many would promptly dismiss as crazy any suggestion of its falsity. Yet, that’s exactly what this provocative, new three-hour series by California Newsreel claims. Race – The Power of Illusion questions the very idea of race as biology, suggesting that a belief in race is no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the earth. Yet race still matters. Just because race doesn’t exist in biology doesn’t mean it isn’t very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.” –California Newsreel
- Nov. 2 – Episode 1: “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.
- Nov. 9 – Episode 2: “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.”
- Nov. 16 – Episode 3: “The House We Live In” asks, If race is not biology, what is it? This episode 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.
This series is open to the community, and is free of charge.
The Unitarian Church of Los Alamos is a congregation that welcomes people of diverse beliefs who share a common vision of a fair, just planet where all people are valued. Whoever you are, wherever you are on your life’s journey, you are welcome! The church office can be reached at 505.662.2346. For more information, visit www.uulosalamos.org.
