Race Social Construct

Scanning around the classroom, you will see a sample of diversity: skin tones ranging from milk-white to dark brown and different hair textures from thick- fine hair to thick coarse wavy hair that your classmates have, and you will notice that all you guys possess different facial features, height and body type. Because of these different externally visible traits, we often classify ourselves and others into “races”. But what is race and does race exist? Can we distinguish one another heritage and ethnicity based on our physical characteristics?
What is race? According to Steve Barkan, race is referred to a category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature (Barkan 152). Most people think that race is a biological term, however, race is a social concept that has been around several hundred years. People use race to classify people into groups by physical traits. While many think race is based in biology but many scientists argue that race is a social construct, in other words, “race has no real existence other than what and how people think of it” (Barkan 153). Race is a social construct because there is still no clear definition of what makes a person a member of

a particular group. For example, what people consider as white in Puerto Rican or Brazil may be labeled as brown by many people in the United States (Justin Berg). Another evidence that supports the claim that race is social construct is a century ago, Irish, Italians and Eastern European Jews who migrated to the United States for a better life were not classified as white but rather as a different, inferior race but today they are regarded as white (Barkan 153).
We often categorize people into racial groups by the physical traits. However, can we claim someone to be one particular group based on the externally physical traits? The answer is not always. Genetics rely on short pieces of DNA called Alu polymorphisms to determine how the degree of relatedness among groups. The distribution of the polymorphisms across the population reveal the history of those populations and the effects of natural selection ( Scientific American). Given that we can categorize people into groups using genetic data, but the use of race does not always reflect the genetic differences among groups. For example, “individual from sub- Saharan African and Australian Aborigines might have similar skin pigmentation but genetically they are quite different. On the other hand, two groups that are genetically similar to each other can develop different physical characteristics due to the different selective forces that they are being exposed top. (Scientific American 83). Therefore, the outer surface of someone cannot really tell everything about a person on a genetic level.
It is true that the genetic information can be used to distinguish human groups having a common heritage and to assign individuals to a particular one because some groups do differ genetically from others” (Scientific American 80).

However, despite how much different we look from the surface compare to others, many studies have shown that “roughly 90 percent of human genetic variation occurs within a population living in a give continent where about 10 percent of the variations distinguishes continental populations” (Scientific American 80). In other words, individuals from different populations are just slightly different than individuals from the same population. Svante Pääbo, a biologist and the director of Max Planck Institute

for
Evolutionary Anthropology states, “What the study of complete genomes from different parts of the world has shown is that even between Africa and Europe, for example, there is not a single absolute genetic difference, meaning no single variant where all Africans have one variant and all Europeans another one, even when recent migration is disregarded,”. In other words, scientists find no genetic distinction that separates racial groups. Why is that? We all share common ancestor, homo sapiens. But why do we look so different from each other? Our differences are driven by natural selection. According the Scientific American, “skin color or facial features traits influenced by natural selection” (Scientific American 83). In addition, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists also states that, “There are obvious physical differences between populations living in different geographic areas of the world. Some of these differences are strongly inherited and others, such as body size and shape, are strongly influenced by nutrition, way of life, and other aspects of the environment” (physanth.com). Therefore, we are very much alike on the genetic level. No matter how much different we look from the outside, we are derived from a common ancestor. Our differences environmental factors, geographic and lifestyles lead us to have different characteristics traits.
Although race is a social construct and often being used as a biological explanation, race is real. The concept of race brings can consequences to an individual. Race plays a huge role in our everyday lives and futures. It is not hard to discern the patterns of racial equalities across the America such as income equalities, differences in academic achievement, health disparities, racial inequality in the workplace. In your every day, we probably witness people get treated differently because one particular group that they get categorized in. We should not use race as a tool to divide people and favor one particular group and disfavor other groups because, at the end of the day, we are brothers and sisters.