Socialization Of Race

Until the 15th century, the idea of race was never thought of until it could be used as a sort of hierarchy used by whites to suppress those who were not white. After this point race continued to change and ever more was race used as a reason, or excuse, to bolster the social status of whites. This became most prevalent during the time of slavery and even after slavery was abolished. The ideas the non-whites were biologically less than whites became deep seated and widely believed even by those who were non-white. To show that race is simply a social construct and not biological we must look at how race is viewed different countries, how race has changed over the years, and how race is a product of the socialization of body characteristics.

This is not the case in countries seen around the world. As stated in the book, in West Africa being assigned a certain race is based on whether individuals were believed to have noble ancestry. Similarly in Brazil, where race is not linked to physical appearance as it is in America. There are a couple of explanations to why race is viewed differently across the globe. According to the book, the first is that as the Western race concept spread it was mixed with local beliefs and prejudices that mixed and eventually created new versions of race. The second explanation is that local versions of race tend to be based on demographic, economic, and political factors. This is seen as an example in the book of the Aboriginal people of Australia. In order to acquire the “free” land of the Aboriginal people they first had to erase the Aboriginal race which was done so by absorbing the Aboriginal population into the white population. This all proves that race is not biological but social, if race was biological race would be viewed the same all over the globe and it would certainly not be used for economical

If race was an innate biological factor, there would be no argument between countries what is considered white. Since what makes a person white versus non-white between countries varies it can be argued that race is social based on the difference in societies. Who was considered white was only meant as a means to economic gain. In America this was free labor, by considering anyone with a black relative to be of the black race and thus a slave. Lastly, the socialization of the difference of physical characteristics to categorize race argues that race is social. There is no proof that race is biological because when looking at DNA the human species all has the same DNA because we are all the same and the idea of grouping people to separate and suppress is ridiculous and