ABSTRACT
When confronted with the unknown, many societies tend to transfer observations of unfamiliar phenomena onto their mental map of what is already known. Just as twenty-first century’s effort to search for extra-terrestrial life forms on other planets is based on the idea of “life as we know it,” ideas of people of other races have historically been based on what is familiar, what is considered to be “known.” Race as a category is entangled with empirical knowledge, misinformation, and ideology, all of which seek to justify and sustain particular beliefs. This chapter will explore how knowledge about otherness is socially constructed and justified in the areas of drama and literature. Knowledge of race results from taxonomical observations made for colonial, medical, bureaucratic, or other purposes such as political movements. This knowledge is often articulated in the form of inaccurate stereotypes deriving from perceived behavioral patterns, political shorthand that condenses biological features such as skin color and other bodily characteristics, racialized cultural artifacts such as hip-hop or chopsticks that are associated with particular groups or cultures, and check boxes on government forms that require information that encode racial characteristics.
