Race: The Power Of An Illusion: Film Analysis

After watching the documentary “Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1: The Difference Between Us” I believe the conclusion of the film is that Race has no biological base or significance, rather race was created by humans and then ascribed to biology in order to explain why certain groups of people shared similar traits. Throughout the film there are many pieces of evidence to support this conclusion. In the following paragraphs I will give an example and explain each of the four types of evidence which are all utilized in the film. The four types of evidence are, analogical, anecdotal, testimonial, and statistical.

The first piece of evidence presented in the film is an example of analogical evidence. Alan Goodman states that “to understand

why the idea of race is a biological myth requires a major paradigm shift, an absolute paradigm shift, a shift in perspective, in comparison it would be like what it must have been like to understand that the world was round and not flat. I can invite you to a mountain top and you can look out on the horizon and see oh, what I thought was flat is actually curved. The world is much more complicated, in fact race is not based on biology rather it is something we ascribe to biology”. This is an example of analogical evidence because Goodman makes a comparison or analogy between understanding that race is not biological and what it must have been like for people centuries ago to understand that the world wasn’t flat. It was round. This statement also supports the documentary’s conclusion because Goodman is very clearly stating that race has nothing to do with biology, rather it is something that humans have created, and now has become so entrenched in society that it would take a major shift and overhaul of perspective to change that.
The second piece of evidence presented in the film is an example of statistical evidence. The film states that “genetically we are among the most similar of species, only one out of every thousand nucleotides that make up our genetic code is different, one individual from another.” Whereas the penguins shown next in the film have “twice the amount of genetic variation, one out of every five hundred nucleotides one individual from another. Furthermore, any two fruit flies have ten times the genetic variation as humans, one out of every one hundred nucleotides is different one from another”. This is an example of statistical evidence because data is being brought directly into the paper, which is then interpreted by a legitimate authority, Joseph Graves Jr., and evolutionary biologist, who gives meaning to the data because data does not speak by itself, it must be interpreted by someone. This piece of evidence also supports the conclusion of the film because it is showing that we are not that biologically or genetically different one from another no matter what race or race of people you are comparing yourself against. All humans are so similar genetically that our variations are around a tenth of a percent give or take between any other human you compare yourself too.
Another piece of evidence presented in the film is an example of testimonial evidence.

Testimonial evidence is when a viewpoint or opinion of an authority or person of power or great knowledge of a certain suspect is used to substantiate a claim. The most important thing to check when it comes to testimonial evidence is the legitimacy of the authority or source the information is coming from so this way it can be decided whether their viewpoint has any validity or not. In the film, Joseph Graves Jr., an evolutionary biologist states that “the measured amount of genetic variation among the human population is very small, and that is something that people have to wrap themselves around is that genetically we really aren’t very different”. This is a perfect example of testimonial evidence because a viewpoint of an authority, Mr. Graves, is being used to substantiate the claim that race is not based in or has anything to do with biology. Next the legitimacy of the claim has to be taken into consideration and since Mr. Graves is an evolutionary biologist I would say that he is a legitimate source or authority to present as evidence and thus I also believe that his viewpoint is absolutely valid. For example, if Mr. Graves was a chef or bake he would not be a legitimate authority for the topic of the correlation or connection between race and biology, however since he is an evolutionary biologist he is a legitimate authority on this

subject.
The last type of evidence presented in this film is anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal evidence is when a story or real life example is used to strengthen or bolster a premise. For example, in the documentary a doctor talks about how sickle cell trait was once considered to be a disease found mostly in black or African populations. This was given as anecdotal evidence for race having a connection to biology and genetics. However, this is also an example of how anecdotal evidence is not the strongest form of evidence because in reality sickle cell trait is found in all races and populations. The reason it seems more prominent in African societies is because of the relative resistance it confers to malaria. When malaria tore its way through Africa, those who had sickle cell trait were a lot less likely to contract the disease. Thus this increased the percentage of Africans with sickle cell trait and made people think that sickle cell trait was more prominent in African cultures when really the truth was that it just seemed that way because people with sickle cell did not contract malaria, thus making their survival rate in Africa a lot higher than those without it.
Throughout the entirety of the highly interesting and captivating documentary, the directors and producers do a terrific job of continuously displaying pieces of evidence to support their conclusion, that Race has no biological base or significance, rather race was created by humans and then ascribed to biology in order to explain why certain groups of people shared similar traits. They also do a fantastic job of providing varying types of evidence from different sources to strengthen their conclusion because the more types of evidence there are, as well as the more different sources used, each strengthen the message and power of the documentary. At the end of the film, the documentary leads viewers to take a deep and poignant look at something that they might have had a completely different view of for their entire life before the film, race.