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Race as a biological vs. social construct
Race: Biological Reality or Social Construct
Is race about culture or biology
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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, …show more content…
race has been an arbitrary classification that did not rely on a biological basis. Therefore, human races have been social constructions rather than biological categories. Human races are not biologically real because there are human characteristics, such as height and skin color, that vary on a continuum.
They are just social or cultural constructions. In fact, racial labels are not precise depictions of human variation. They are only cultural labels. In other words, “race” cannot be determined by skin color, height, genetic variation or other physical characteristics. In fact, racial classification on the basis of skin color has been arbitrary throughout history as some fair skinned people have been classified as “black”. In other words, racial classification was highly subjective. This is one of human characteristics that exhibit clinal variation. As established by “Race Reconciled Re-Debunks Race”, if skin color could be used to determine race, then children with the same parents might be classified as different races. Height is another characteristic that exhibits clinal variation. These two traits differ among humans according to environmental and behavioral factors, such as nutrition and lifestyle. Genetic variation does not offer proof of the existence of biological races because even people who live in the same region, such as the Sub-Saharan, can exhibit significant genetic and physical variation. Due to the vast diversity between all humans, racial classifications do not account for the genetic diversity between
humans. In fact, genetics is not the only factor that contributes to the diversity seen among humans. Human variation is also a result of evolutionary history, environmental factors, behavioral factors and migration. In fact, migration is what makes it seem as if humans could really be classified into races and one of the main reasons diversity is observed among human populations. The sources that claim that races are biologically real because humans evolved on separate continents fail to account for the fact that even in the same region, humans can exhibit significant genetic, physical and behavioral differences. The frequency of alleles in this population can vary just as much as it does among all humans. This is analogous to finding significant differences in these traits among family members who inhabit the same house. This also means that genetic variation cannot prove the existence of biological races either.
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
Many of the readings we had this semester has given me a better outlook on the society I know today. Mainly, the most obvious characteristics of people, race. Race: The power of an Illusion, allowed me to understand the construction of a complex distinction of people. These distinctions and classifications created a divide in humanity, and re-enforced a system that not only favored the white race, but embedded a virus of hatred for colored people to succumb for future generations. The man made term and meaning of race is a important tool that the white elite used to oppress non-whites. It 's in this film, which provides us with there ridiculous claims of black bodies inferiority and theorized inevitability of extinction. False scientific theories
Racism is often considered a thing of the past, with its manifestation rarely being acknowledged in the United States today. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a documentary that addresses the legacy of racism through its significance in the past, and its presence in society today. To understand racism, it is vital to understand the concept of race. Race is a social invention, not a biological truth. This can be observed through the varying classifications of race in different cultures and time periods. For instance, in the United States, race has long been distinguished by skin color. In nineteenth century China, however, race was determined by the amount of body hair an individual had. Someone with a large amount of facial hair, for example,
Race: The Power of an Illusion was an interesting 3 part film. After watching this, it made me questioned if race was really an illusion or not. It is absolutely taboo to think that the one thing that separates people the most may be a myth in itself. “We can 't find any genetic markers that are in everybody of a particular race and in nobody of some other race. We can 't find any genetic markers that define race.” (Adelman and Herbes Sommers 2003). Racism is something created in the U.S made to create supremacy for the creator. Racism is not just the way someone thinks, it is something that has is manifested in our society to separate us and can be traced to our everyday activities.
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.
In society, race clearly affects one’s life chances. These are the chances of getting opportunities and gaining experience for progression. The social construction of race is based on privileges and availability of resources. Looking at society and the formation of race in a historical context, whites have always held some sort of delusional belief of a “white-skin privilege.” This advantage grants whites an advantage in society whether one desires it or not. This notion is often commonly referred to as reality.
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.
Social Construction Race Race has been one of the most outstanding events in the United States all the way from the 1500s up until now. The concept of race has been socially constructed in a way that is broad and difficult to understand. Social construction can be defined as the set of rules determined by society’s urges and trends. The rules created by society play a huge role in racialization, as the U.S. creates laws to separate the English or whites from the nonwhites. Europeans, Indigenous People, and Africans were all racialized and victimized for various reasons.
...lieve that races are distinct biological categories created by differences in genes that people inherit from their ancestors. Genes vary, but not in the popular notion of black, white, yellow, red and brown races. Many biologist and anthropologists have concluded that race is a social, cultural and political concept based largely on superficial appearances. (4)
Why is it impossible to use biological characteristics to sort people into consistent races? Review some of the concepts such as “non-concordance” and “within-group vs. between group variation.”
The concept of race is an ancient construction through which a single society models all of mankind around the ideal man. This idealism evolved from prejudice and ignorance of another culture and the inability to view another human as equal. The establishment of race and racism can be seen from as early as the Middle Ages through the present. The social construction of racism and the feeling of superiority to people of other ethnicities, have been distinguishably present in European societies as well as America throughout the last several centuries.
People from various parts of the world have different features that can be used to identify where they originate. The question of whether or not human races truly exist is now a prevalent one in the scientific community. Some scientists believe that race is biologically meaningless while others believe that race can be used to determine medical treatment for a person (Jorde & Wooding, 2004). Although there are genes that determine the different physical characteristics of people their genetic variation is mainly due their geographic location. There is some biological basis for the phenotypic differences in humans, but the way we define and understand these differences are flawed. There is no individual trait or gene that separates members of one race from all the members of another race (Brace & Gill, 2000).
Race is everywhere. As westernized individuals, we are collectively raised to see race in other human beings, in hairstyles, music, and almost every aspect of our day-to-day lives. However, race isn’t as black and white as we make it out to seem because race does not actually exist. Then how do we see race, you may ask? Well, this is because race is socially constructed to oppress certain groups of people.
Goodman would say. Race is a cultural concept. Physical differences can be explained by mutations, breeding, migration, and geography. What I found to be the biggest factor was first migration from central Africa to the rest of the world and the different environmental stressors to survive where they migrated, such as skin color which is what seems to be the largest definer of race. As humans moves to other areas of the earth that did not have such harsh heat they did not need the same amount of melanin in their skin anymore so skin color got lighter. Then when these people settle in the area they breed and have children that carry on the gene for lighter skin and other