The Illusion of Race and the Person Behind the Mask

Throughout human history people have been divided across arbitrary lines and persecuted on the basis of these divisions. Race is one of these arbitrary divides. According to the PBS website, race itself is a man-made concept; it is not real or scientific “Unlike many animals, modern humans have not been around long enough, nor have populations been isolated enough, to evolve into separate subspecies or races. Despite surface differences, we are among the most similar of all species.” (http://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/001_00-home.htm) Another interesting quote from the site is “Of the small amount of human genetic variation, 85% exists within any local population, be they Italians, Kurds, Koreans, or Cherokees. Two Koreans are likely to be as genetically different as a Kurd and an Italian.” In both Hotel Rwanda and Maus it is the artificial boundary of race that gave people a sense of entitlement and drove them to dehumanize and destroy each other.

In Hotel Rwanda the Belgians arbitrarily divided the people of Rwanda into Tutsis and Hutus. The Belgians favored the Tutsis because they “looked more like Europeans.” Genetically these boundaries do not exist. Even in the movie, as a Hutu and a Tutsi are compared side by side, it was impossible to tell them apart. It was simply the race listed on their identification card that made them be treated like a different species, like “cockroaches.” These two arbitrary groups went back and forth in their power struggle, dehumanizing the other group despite their lack of differences.

During the Holocaust it is these artificial boundaries of race that divide the Jews from the Germans and the Poles. Vladek himself could pass himself off as many different races because of his appearance and his knowledge of different languages. Those killed in concentration camps did not even need to identify with the group they were being killed for being a member of. All that mattered was the label on their identification papers and the symbol on their chest. In Maus a man claims that he should not be in the concentration camps because he is German, not Jewish. It is not actually important what his race truly his, the papers say that he is a Jew and that, according to the Germans, makes him inferior. In reality, as the PBS articles point out, humans are not genetically differentiated to be different races, let alone different species which are superior or inferior to one another. In Maus the different races are illustrated as being different types of animals. It is important to note that during many scenes that take place in the present, the animals are represented only as people wearing masks. Underneath they are all the same, they are all people. During World War Two Germany (and Rwanda when the action of the movie took place) the superficial differences in appearance between people was made into such an integral part of people that they were killed because of it. In periods like these people are not at all able to see the people behind the masks.