On the site, "Race: The power of an illusion" it shows how sorting people by race can be hard to do so. Skin color, finger prints and even blood type can't be used to classify people in a specific race due to this large spectrum of difference in people. In reality, skin color cannot determine if I am White, Black, Asian, Hispanic etc... People with darker skin color are said to be either Black or Hispanic. In my own experience I am Hispanic and have fair skin that can cause me to be mistaken for White. Skin color has a wide spectrum. The website showed that mainly peoples skin color is between light and medium, when you click on the light skin, it actually shows there is 2/4 light skinned people from Black and 2/4 from White. Finger prints,
Race-thinking: what is it? Isn’t the world past the issue of race? Do races even exist and if so, what does it mean to have a racial identity? Is colorblindness possible and how important is it? These are the questions Paul Taylor addresses in the book “Race: A Philosophical Introduction”. Paul Taylor is a self-proclaimed “radical constructionist” who will maintain that race is very real in our world and in the United States as a whole (p. 80). Taylor takes care to ensure he addresses the real needs concerning racial dynamics in the U.S., referencing historical events, prevailing policy affairs, and even pop culture to explain that everyone capable of forming opinions ought to have some sort of grasp of the concept of race-thinking. As Taylor will analyze, race and race-thinking “has shaped and continues to shape private interactions as well as the largest political choices” (p. 8). In other words, race-thinking encompasses everything we do and every interaction we have. In this paper I will attempt to interpret and expound Taylor’s views and definitions of race, concepts associated with race, and input my own interpretations as they are appropriate.
The diversity among people is widely spread throughout the world. One can be grouped into various ways. People come in all shapes, sizes, colors, personalities, genders, and interests. LIfe would be hectic for someone to try and categorize people in every way possible. At least people are not the only thing impossible to fully separate. Animals and plants can also be placed into different categories. People can be classified into three categories: Leaders, Followers, and Independents.
Race can be sternly characterized as the distinction in individuals based on physical features like the
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.”
One day while watching the history channel I noticed that the main focus of the history was either on the evolved development of science or the Caucasian race. In that moment I asked myself, what did I know about my own history besides slavery and all the historic events after that? I became upset with the fact that I came up with nothing on the history on African Americans before slavery. In my 21 years of life I have took a total of 12 history classes and none them talked about African American history before slavery. Once I did research on African American history from articles, to books, and to documentaries I wondered why none of this was taught to students or shared with the world. I would to explain and describe a theory called “political whiteness” and gave details on why I believe that it is a big part of why African Americans don’t know their own history.
You come from a middle class white family, you went to a school whose demographic was mainly white, you live in a white neighborhood, the majority of your friends are white, you decided to continue your education at a college that has a heavily white student body. Notice any similarities? Every aspect of your life has been white. In the past we have had conversations about race, and your opinions always seemed to be unsettling and never really showed any empathy to the struggles minorities face. I never could figure out why you thought this way until I heard the term white privilege in my English class. Once I acknowledged the fact that unknowingly my race has given me advantages that people of color do not have, I am more aware about the racial
All over the world, race is used by others to assign meaning to the way you look; people will use physical characteristics like: nose shape, eye shape, hair texture and most infamously, skin color to categorize race. Race isn’t a tangible concept, Social Construction Theory determines it’s more of a social idea created by institutions in society, meaning that it is created by society and is constantly changed. The notion of race is perpetuated and conserved, and therefore, must be changed by adjusting society’s preconceptions about race, institution’s structure and laws that are negatively based on race, and how education and awareness about race can create positive change.
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.
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.
The biological understanding of race in the United States is that people from different places have different genetics and genes in their body, accounting for different traits in each people. These people could be grouped together by their biological traits because their similarities in genes would make them look alike. People wanted to believe that there actually were true biological differences between people. Race in the past and present (somewhat) has been categorized based on continental origin, skin color, nose structures, and hair type. To define a person’s race, someone could ask questions like: “what type of hair do they have, curly or straight? Is their skin dark or light? Are their eyes blue, brown, or black?” Based off of these
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,
There is a difference between the biological and social view of race. According to the Race, Power of an Illusion (part one) video, varying race from a biological perspective is due to the various locations in which different cultures lived. For example, the skin color of people in the Tropics is darker than the skin color of people in Norway. Melanin is responsible for pigmentation in the body. Darker skin tones produce more melanin than lighter skin tones.
People's beliefs and ideas about each race and how broad or narrow the spectrum is varies greatly depending on where the question is asked. For example, in West Africa, race is based on if a person has Arab heritage or not. In Brazil, race is based on physical characteristics but it is much more specific than the American classifications. Another difference is that in America, we tend to think that race is based on differences in genes whereas in other countries and at other times, people have associated race with differences in blood, the mind, and the soul. Difference classification of mixed races also differ from country to country.
What makes you a certain race? Does it signify biological differences or is it the product of social categorization? Race cannot be truly interpreted without reflecting on the purpose of the division of races. We functionally use the concept of race to distinguish or set apart certain groups based upon identifiable physical traits. The idea in hindsight seems practical; in the same way we label animals or even food groups.
According to section of “The Human Spectrum”, skin color is a poor way to define races into categories like ‘white,’ and ‘black’ because when people assign to the gatherings based on skin color or any of the other physical factors, so then we all obviously lose information about which they are as an individuals.