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episode one
episode two
episode three
Expert Connections
Clips
View excerpts from the film as well as new short videos of U.C. Berkeley instructors describing how they use the series in their teaching.
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Trailer for Race—The Power of An Illusion
Trailer: Just because race doesn't exist in biology doesn't mean it isn't very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.
episode 1
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Measuring Genetic Variation Between Groups
"There's as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups." -Pilar Ossorio
episode 1
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Perceived Racial Differences in Athletic Ability
The idea of race as biology is persistent on America's playing fields, but it is an idea that is not true
episode 1
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Naturalizing Social Differences
The biology becomes an excuse for social differences.
episode 1
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Differences in Skin Color
If we were to walk from the tropics to Norway, what we would see is a continuous change in skin tone. And at no point along that trip would we be able to say, "Oh, this is the place in which we go from the dark race to the light race."
episode 1
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The Difference Between Us: Racial Classification as Cultural
Think about race in its universality. Where is your measurement device? We sometimes do it by skin color, other people may do it by hair texture... There is no way to measure race.
episode 2
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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."
episode 2
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The Story We Tell: “Civilization” Policy for Native Americans
"Thomas Jefferson, among many people, felt that the Indians were good human material, and the problem was not race, but culture. The Indians were savages but they could be civilized."
episode 3
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Redlining
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.
episode 3
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Melting Pot
<p>The melting pot never included people of color. Blacks, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, etcetera, could not melt into the pot. They could be used as wood to produce the fire for the pot, but they could not be used as material to be melted into the pot.</p>
episode 3
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Race Invaders
By 1910, 58% of American mining and factory workers were immigrants. Like Mexicans and African Americans, Italians, Slavs and Jews were often desired as laborers but also feared, seen as promiscuous, lazy, or stupid.
episode 3
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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.
expert connection
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Interview with john a. powell
john a. powell, Professor of Law and African American Studies, and director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, discusses why his institute supports "reawakening" the RACE: The Power of an Illusion series.
episode 3
expert connection
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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.
expert connection
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Performance of the Nation: An Interview with Angela Marino
Angela Marino, an Associate Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, and Latin/x American Studies, discusses World's Fairs, festivals and fiestas, and relates the performance of nation to different epistemes of time.
expert connection
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Community & Urban Health: An Interview with Jason Corburn
Jason Corburn, a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, discusses race and city planning, including racial segregation, environmental justice, his safe neighborhoods project, and how place, space and health reflect existing inequalities in the US.
expert connection
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Interview with Larry Adelman, Executive Producer of the Race Series
Larry Adelman, executive producer of the Race-Power of an Illusion documentary series, discusses why California Newsreel decided to partner with UC Berkeley to redevelop and relaunch a companion website for the series.
expert connection
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Interview with Michael Omi
Michael Omi, Associate Professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, talks about the pivotal role he played in the production of RACE: The Power of an Illusion and relates the series to current issues.
expert connection
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The Evolution of Human Biology & Genomics: Interview with Leslea Hlusko
Leslea Hlusko, Professor of Integrative Biology, discusses new research in genomics in regards to human variation, and relates it to the science presented in the film, and outlines the important role human biologists can play in engaging with social issues and misperceptions about human variation.
expert connection
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Images of the Horror of American Race Relations: Interview with Michael Mark Cohen
Michael Mark Cohen, Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies and African American Studies at UC Berkeley, discusses his use of visual imagery to teach about racial terrorism and race as socially constructed, incorporating Stephen Jay Gould's scholarship to demonstrate how whiteness was created, and how a shift away from color blindness led to the current resurgence of white nationalism amid a shrinking white demographic.
expert connection
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Social Inequalities: Interview with Joanna Reed
Joanna Reed, Continuing Lecturer of Sociology at UC Berkeley, discusses how she relies on the film as a historical foundation for her students, tying it to scholarly articles and current events, and using it to introduce key sociological theories, such as Racial Formation.
expert connection
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The Urban Community: Interview with Jason Luger
Jason Luger, Lecturer of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, discusses how he uses maps and footage from the film to look critically at the built environment, from the concept of an "urban we", to the question of poverty, California as a carceral state, and the "Eight Intersectional Geographies."
expert connection
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Immigration & Citizenship: Interview with Leti Volpp
Leti Volpp, the Robert D. and Leslie Kay Rave Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley, discusses the problematic racial triangulation of groups in legal arguments, how we saw a new racial category post 9/11, the need to study pockets of resistance in response to legal rhetorical structures, and looking critically at the concept of a "model minority" as a symptom of anti-blackness.
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Segregated By Design
Examine the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy.
Go to segregatedbydesign.com to learn more about the film.
Directed by Mark Lopez
Written by Mark Lopez & Richard Rothstein
Narrated by Richard Rothstein
Designed & Animated by Mark Lopez
Music, Sound Design & Mix by YouTooCanWoo
Written by Mark Lopez & Richard Rothstein
Narrated by Richard Rothstein
Designed & Animated by Mark Lopez
Music, Sound Design & Mix by YouTooCanWoo
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How America Invented Race
By Ed Bell, Clementine Briand, Pierce Freelon, Jonathan Halperin, Aaron Keane and Drew Takahashi
The white “race” was invented by rich Virginians in 1676 in the aftermath of a populous rebellion of impoverished, indentured, and enslaved Africans and Europeans now known as Bacon’s Rebellion.
Learn more about this production here: https://worldchannel.org/episode/howpia-america-invented-race/
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How America Outlawed Interracial Marriage
By Ed Bell, Clementine Briand, Pierce Freelon, Jonathan Halperin, Aaron Keane and Drew Takahashi
In the decades after Bacon's Rebellion, an African man and an English woman - husband and wife - sing of their their fate, their future as law by law, edict by edict, their family, their marriage, their love are made illegal.
Learn more about this production here: https://worldchannel.org/episode/howpia-america-outlawed-interracial-ma…
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How America Made Skin Color Power
By Ed Bell, Clementine Briand, Pierce Freelon, Jonathan Halperin, Aaron Keane and Drew Takahashi
How skin became color, color became race and race became power as told by President Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and one of their six children, Eston Hemings.
Learn more about this production here: https://worldchannel.org/episode/howpia-america-made-skin-color-power/
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Race—The Power of an Illusion website launch (2019)
First broadcast on public television more than 15 years ago, Race—The Power of an Illusion has become one of the most widely viewed documentaries in American history, and it remains timely and relevant today. The series asks a question so basic it is rarely raised: what is this thing called race? Many of our conventional assumptions, particularly about race being biologically-based, are wrong, yet the consequences of racism are very real.
This open forum shot on February 6, 2019 featured producers of the series and UC Berkeley faculty discussing the evolution and impact of our ideas about race, then and now.
Check out the new Race—The Power of an Illusion website here: http://www.racepowerofanillusion.org/
Speakers at the launch event include:
Larry Adelman, series producer for Race
john powell, UC Berkeley faculty and director, HIFIS
Michael Omi (moderator), UC Berkeley faculty
Jason Corburn, City/Regional Planning and Public Health
Darlene Francis, Public Health and Neuroscience
Lulu Matute, Haas Scholar
Victoria Robinson (moderator), director, American Cultures Center The event was hosted by: American Cultures Engaged Scholarship
Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society
UC Berkeley Library
Center for Race and Gender
California Newsreel
john powell, UC Berkeley faculty and director, HIFIS
Michael Omi (moderator), UC Berkeley faculty
Jason Corburn, City/Regional Planning and Public Health
Darlene Francis, Public Health and Neuroscience
Lulu Matute, Haas Scholar
Victoria Robinson (moderator), director, American Cultures Center The event was hosted by: American Cultures Engaged Scholarship
Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society
UC Berkeley Library
Center for Race and Gender
California Newsreel
episode 1
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2020 panel discussion on Race—The Power of an Illusion, Part I
On Friday, Sept. 11, 2020 we hosted the first in a three-part series of events which consisted of a screening of Race—The Power of an Illusion, Part I: The Difference Between Us followed by a live panel discussion.
episode 2
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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.
episode 3
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2020 panel discussion on Race—The Power of an Illusion, Part III
On Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, we hosted a screening of Part III of Race—The Power of an Illusion followed by a one-hour panel discussion with experts.
