WJU Psychology professor Stephanie Caine joins Mark and Rex to discuss the idea of race as a social construct. The classification system based on skin color developed over the last four centuries is not grounded in biology or theology but rather was constructed in order to maintain a societal hierarchy. Thankfully, we can abolish those older categories and together write a new story.

TRANSCRIPT

0:02

Welcome to Jessup Think I'm your host, Mark Moore, and your co host, Rex Gurney. And Rex on the show today, we're so excited to have one of our own psychology professors, Stephanie Caine has been with us just a few years now. But she teaches in the undergrad and our graduate level or master's in counseling, right. And she's on the show today to help us understand the idea of race as a social construct. The idea that race is not something that these classifications that have been given to race is not something that is God given. It's not something that is etched in stone, but it's something that society has created, and then placed on people, and then we've been living with that construct. And so we're so excited to have Stephanie's expertise on this, as we continue the conversation on race. And and we want to make that, you know, we want to keep this a part of the conversation.

1:01

It's a priority. And not just for this podcast, but it's a stated priority of our university. And we want to be, you know, part of this conversation. We don't want to just, you know, let it sort of by osmosis or something just sort of die out because it's uncomfortable. It's important to keep to keep this in front of us. It really is.

1:28

Well, Stephanie, we're so excited that you're on the show. Another another person from the psychology department we've had, we've had a couple we had Richard Mollison, so awesome, Dr. Wallace. So excited to have you on and excited to continue our conversation about race. We've, you know, Rex and I looking at the podcast and looking over even at the summer, I've really wanted to make sure that that it is a priority. It's a priority on campus for us. And it's a priority for us to continue this conversation to help us think about it in a better way and a theological way, in a relational way. And to be to be better informed and in the conversation.

2:15

Right? We don't want to let the conversation digest because it's an uncomfortable one. It's important, right? Relax with us. And so we're trying to,

2:23

yeah, definitely. So excited to have you on. And today, I kinda wanted to look at race as a social construct. Like, if maybe with the conversations happening this summer, people may have heard that there's some room in like, or you know, even into the phone, and like, I don't know exactly what that means, right? So can you help us kind of put some framework on that, that idea of race as a social construct?

2:49

Sure. And you know, before we even jump into that, I just want to acknowledge what talking about race does to people will have different reactions, there's some people who are excited about it, and you know, very knowledgeable and really want to contribute to the conversation. And you know, they can't get enough of it. And then you have people in the middle who are not familiar with it, and, but they're open to hearing more about it and learning more about it. And then you have people who really experienced discomfort with it. And as a result of the discomfort that they feel that there can be some defense mechanisms that come out. So there's people in different areas of the spectrum with that I'm not going to shame anybody for where they are in the process, because it's fluid, you can there's going to be certain elements of, of talking about race that's going to cause people who maybe were initially comfort, comfortable, uncomfortable. And then were people who were initially uncomfortable, comfortable, but I do want to acknowledge that for the people who are listening t