Race And Biology Research Paper

Race and Biology

Camiren L. Gates

Southern New Hampshire University

IDS-400 Diversity

2-2 Short Paper

There have long been a debate concerning whether there is any scientific validity to the concept of race and based off results of the research that was conducted, an answer has surfaced. Based off the American Anthropological Association, scholars in many fields have argued that “race” as it is understood in the United States of America was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America, which included the English and other European settlers, the conquered Indian peoples, and those people of Africa brought in to provide slave labor. (Connect with AAA, 1998)

The tragedy in the United States has been that the policies and practices stemming from this worldview succeeded all too well in constructing unequal populations among Europeans, Native Americans, and peoples of African descent. Given what we know about the capacity of normal humans to achieve and function within any culture, we conclude that present-day inequalities between so-called "racial" groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance but products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances.” (Connect with AAA,

Jablonski stated that "Over the course of evolution, human ancestors became bigger and more active as they moved into hot, open environments in search of food and water. In these places, one big challenge was keeping cool. The adaptation they made was to increase the number of sweat glands on their skin while at the same time reducing the amount of their body hair," explains Jablonski. With less hair, perspiration could evaporate more easily and cool the body more efficiently. "But this less-hairy skin was a problem because it was exposed to a very strong sun, especially in lands near the equator." Strong sun exposure damages the body. "The solution was to evolve skin that was permanently dark so as to protect against the sun’s more damaging rays."(Only Skin Deep, n.d.) She goes on to say that "As some groups moved into regions farther from the equator where UVR levels are lower, natural selection favored lighter skin, which allowed enough vitamin D-forming UVR to penetrate their skin." Jablonski and her colleague George Chaplin sought to prove their hypothesis that human skin color correlates closely to annual levels of UV radiation levels based on geography and other environmental factors. They measured skin reflectance (a way to quantify skin color by measuring the amount of light it reflects) in people around the world. Their actual observations of