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Whether you’re at basketball game or in the mall, you can see that people vary in size, skin color, and appearances. But did you know that no matter how different we all are as humans; we are just a single race. The variations that we see in everyday life are just physical differences but genetically humans are the same and “race” is term that has been used to distinguish human because of those physical differences. You may be wondering how one person from Canada and one person from Africa the same race, but it has been proven through the HGP (Human Genome Project). This project was led by scientist from all walks of the earth in order to try to understand and map the genetic structure of humans. They found that the term “race” is a false term to try and classify us by where we are from, geographically. There is no denying that we are different but through the HGP they have made us understand how, biologically, we are all the same. Race/ Classifying Humans What is race? Race, as defined by Webster’s dictionary, is the division of mankind based on skin color, facial features and other physical traits. But this is no longer the truth that it has led us to believe. The first thing that they must do is identify the links between the social meaning of and race and its genetic definition. Scientist have to figure out the ancestry of the groups of different people. There is a distinct signature in our DNA due to the fact that most modern humans are descendents from and African group who migrated to other parts of the world over 100,000 years ago. This has caused our DNA to have certain traces of our ancestral DNA imbedded within us as well. Scientist use polymorphisms to determine the similarities between groups. There are different typ... ... middle of paper ... ...e of mice and other organisms. Society in general still fails to understand this concept and therefore does not establish this vital information to the public. This information will make people think and hopefully change certain aspects of their mentality about what race is and how they perceive it to be. It’s time that more individuals become educated on the matter and realize that race is a term we no longer need to use. “Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned... Everything is war. Me say war. That until there is no longer 1st class and 2nd class citizens of any nation... Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes, me say war. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race me say war!” ― Bob Marley
This variation has no substantial ties to skin color, but does show genetic variation from different geographical locations in the world. These variations are not categorized in groups of what people call race, but rather ethnicity. Ethnicity, defined by Stephen Cornell, is a sense of common ancestry based on cultural attachments, past linguistic heritage, religious affiliations, claimed kinship, or some physical traits. Race, as most people catoragize it, encompuses many ethnicitys. Ethnicities are local populations, this makes sense that they would tend to have less genetic variation compared to each other then the rest of the world as they would share genetic adaptations resulting from the environment they live in. This can include skin color, but can also
Culture, Not Race, Explains Human Diversity, Mark Nathan Cohen, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 17, 1998, pp.B4-B5. The term race refers to a biological subdivision of a species. At one time, scientists held that there were as few as three such subdivisions in the species Homo sapiens: Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid. Mark Anthony Cohen points out that this is an antiquated view, yet it lingers as a common belief in society. Mark Nathan Cohen makes an interesting point in his article “Culture, Not Race, Explains Human Diversity”. While the article does deal wholly in the realm of the opinion, it is supported by numerous scientific facts. In fact, Cohen’s usual method of drawing in a reader is to make a blanket statement and then “beef it up” with several scientific facts.
In America, essentially everyone is classified in terms of race in a way. We are all familiar with terms such as Caucasian, African-American, Asian, etc. Most Americans think of these terms as biological or natural classifications; meaning that all people of a certain race share similarities on their D.N.A. that are different and sets that particular race apart from all the other races. However, recent genetic studies show that there’s no scientific basis for the socially popular idea that race is a valid taxonomy of human biological difference. This means that humans are not divided into different groups through genetics or nature. Contrary to scientific studies, social beliefs are reflected through racial realism. Racial realists believe that being of a particular race does not only have phenotypical values (i.e. skin color, facial features, etc.), but also broadens its effects to moral, intellectual and spiritual characteristics.
There is a specific meaning to race and how its role impacts society and shapes the social structures. Race is a concept that “symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies” (Omi & Winant 55). In other words, Omi and Winant get down to the crux of the issue and assert that race is just an illusion. Race is merely seen as an ideological construct that is often unstable and consisting of decentered social meanings. This form of social construction attempts to explain the physical attributes of an individual but it is constantly transformed by political struggles. The rules of classifying race and of identity are embedded into society’s perception. Therefore, race becomes a common function for comprehending, explaining, and acting in the
Yudell, M. (2011) A short history of the race concept. Race and the Genetic Revolution:
Race, as a general understanding is classifying someone based on how they look rather than who they are. It is based on a number of things but more than anything else it’s based on skin's melanin content. A “race” is a social construction which alters over the course of time due to historical and social pressures. Racial formation is defined as how race shapes and is shaped by social structure, and how racial categories are represented and given meaning in media, language and everyday life. Racial formation is something that we see changing overtime because it is rooted in our history. Racial formation also comes with other factors below it like racial projects. Racial projects seek
Race has no biological meaning. There is only one human race; there are no subspecies, no single defining characteristic, traits, or even gene, separates one “race” from another. Instead of being a biological concept, race is a social construct, and a relatively modern one at that. It was created to give light-skinned Europeans an advantage by making the white race superior and all others inferior. Throughout its history, the concept of race has served this purpose well.
Through research of DNA samples, scientists have been able to declare that race is not biologically constructed due to the similarities between human genes. Nevertheless, in reality, people still emphasized on biological aspects such as skin color, or hair texture to categorize others into different races. This in turn, denied the true identity of race, which it is culturally constructed. Ethnicity, by definition is also culturally constructed, therefore it greatly resemble race. There is no real clear line to distinct the two.
In the past, races were identified by the imposition of discrete boundaries upon continuous and often discordant biological variation. The concept of race is therefore a historical construct and not one that provides either valid classification or an explanatory process. Popular everyday awareness of race is transmitted from generation to generation through cultural learning. Attributing race to an individual or a population amounts to applying a social and cultural label that lacks scientific consensus and supporting data. While anthropologists continue to study how and why humans vary biologically, it is apparent that human populations differ from one another much less than do populations in other species because we use our cultural, rather than our physical differences to aid us in adapting to various environments.
First of all, race does not really exist. The concept of race was invented by people so that they could compare themselves to others based off of something obvious. Race is something that can easily be seen by the
Reflecting directly on the cultural attitudes and sociocultural messages explained throughout this course, it is clear that race, gender, and sexuality are all socially constructed in one way or another. Contrary to popular belief, race is actually almost completely socially constructed, it is not biological. Further, a human’s DNA does not differentiate at all to create any specific race. However, society has categorized certain things, such as skin color, to determine the race of individuals. In simpler terms, there are not specific genes that parents pass on to their offspring that determine their race; society categorizes people into specific races when they are born based on their
Race, like other social constructs, was created to simplify the complicated world in which we live. By creating race, people were able to divide into the categories “us” and “them.”
A biological race is a population of the same species that develop characteristics that differ from other members of the saame species. Humans have been divided by races. Some sources point out that human races are biologically real because they are the result of humans evolving on separate continents. Therefore, it would be hard to find out more about these stories without acknowledging that race has a biological basis. They also point out that the human genome proves this. In fact, it is said that races differ predominantly in the relative frequencies of their alleles. However, other sources argue that human races are not biologically real because humans are and have been a single interbreeding species. In fact, throughout history,
Race is a term that references on differences such as, facial characteristics, skin color, and other related characteristics. Race is not in reference to genetic make up. A feature of race as a social construct is that it down plays the extent to which sectors of population may form a discrete ethnic group. Based on specific characteristics race makes up a person and differs within groups. In other words race is a large group of people distinguished from others on the basic of a common heritage or physical trait.
It’s also something scientist would often wonder the same thing until the facts were clear enough for them to understand that race is nothing more than a myth as it was said in “ Newsweek.” Over the years it has been known through science that there is no biological reality to the human race as it was said in “Newsweek.” However, there would be times when race would be used in the field of science but has been known in a different way. In the reading of “Scientific American,” it has said that researchers will acknowledge that there would be a few areas where race as a construct might still be useful for research in the field of science. Things such as a political and social for instance instead of what many are used to such as biological and variable as they are known as the wrong way of looking at people of different