Explication:
- Blood Done Sign my name is an autobiographical account of Timothy Tyson's experience growing up in the racially divided south. When Tyson was a young boy, he and a friend teased a young black child, locking him out and calling him the n-word. He said about the episode:
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- This passage is the heart of the novel and racism itself- all racism is based on the idea that we can categorize people, and place them into a category separate from our own. In other words, we can separate our identity from theirs. This dis-identification is what what allows us to justify racism. Tyson talks about "placing a human into a category separate from our own". This is what makes racism so evil, is to determine that one category is lesser than another.
- Throughout the book, we see examples of various characters categorizing one another. Sometimes, these categories are named, and sometimes they are not. Using the n-word is the biggest example of this categorization, as it separates one group of people from another with a simple and derogatory term. However, it doesn't stop there. Tyson himself refers to other whites as radicals who attend KKK meetings, calling them "Klansmen" (51). One white woman in the book says "The whole town is full of nigger men and I just don’t feel safe down here by myself.” (88). You know she has disidentified with those men because the deep fear she feels from them. She has put them into a different category in her brain reserved for "danger". That is why when she sees a black man, she will think he is dangerous before she knows anything about him.
- Tyson's father confronts the categorization of people with prejudices in the epilogue, when he says, “That we not become prejudiced against those are prejudiced, or whose prejudices.my not be our own.” (314). Here, he is saying that he hopes he does not develop a bias against the "radicals" whose beliefs are not the same as his. He hopes to not put people into these categories.
- The problem is, our brains love categories. We begin putting things into categories within the first few months of age. The reason we do this is so we can process information faster. For instance, you know how to put a lion and a tiger into the same category in your brain. We can call that category "big cats". If you're living pre-civilazation and you suddenly see a big cat (one you haven't seen before, and know nothing about), you will be able to process the fact that that cat is likely a danger to you without knowing anything about it. The point of this exhibit is to explore the reasons why we categorize everything. In this exhibit we will show the neuroscience of why we do that, how it plays and evolutionary purpose, and how it creates a racially divided society.