World Geography
What is “Race”? Not an Easy Question to Answer…
1.
Race has been a part of our nation’s
history since the first colonists arrived
from Europe. Over the course of the last
400 years race has played an important
role in shaping American culture. Today
we live in an incredibly racially diverse
nation. As a result, most Americans
believe that they have a pretty good
understanding of race. When asked,
“What is race?” most Americans would
respond by saying that it is the color of a
person’s skin. However, those who have
studied the history of race know that it is
much more complicated than that.
The Biological Science of Race
2. If you go back to the time of the ancient
Greeks, the idea of “race” did not exist
(1000 BCE to 323 BCE). People divided
themselves by religion, status, class and
language, but they did not do so according
to what we now call “race.” Then, in the
early 1700s (CE) the first study of race was
conducted, but it was based on false
science. Back then, scientists claimed that
the white race was biologically superior to
all other races. Nowadays, modern
scientists agree that the race science of the
1700, 1800 and 1900s was full of errors
and completely false. The history of race
makes it a difficult subject to define.
3.
Many scientists agree that there is no such
thing as race from a biological point of
view. One reason scientists hold this belief
is that there is no single “gene” that
determines a person’s race; biologically
speaking this means that race does not
exist. People are not born with a “white
gene” that makes them white or an “Asian
gene” that makes them Asian. A person’s
skin color, hair texture, and facial features
are genetic traits passed down to children
from their parents. People that think of
themselves as “white” do not all have the
same color skin. In fact, you may look at
someone and think that they are white,
but he/she might identify their race as
black. The lack of “shared genes” amongst
people of the same race, means that you
cannot make predictions about people
based on their race. For example, it is
scientifically inaccurate to say that one
race is smarter or more athletic than
another race because people within a racial
category do not all share the same genes.
Intelligence and athletic ability are not
shaped by a person’s race, these traits are
determined by a combination of a person’s
biological parents and upbringing.
Because there is no “gene” that determines
race, scientists spend little time studying
the subject of race. Scientists view race as a
rather unimportant topic in their field.
A Difference of Opinion
4. Race is a complicated subject because while
biologists claim that race does not exist,
sociologists (people who study
society/people) believe that race does
exist. Biologists believe that race does not
exist because there is not a single gene that
determines a person’s race. Social scientists
claim that race does exist because of
history. In the 1500s, Europeans began to
classify people into different “racial”
categories based on their physical
appearance (mainly skin color, facial
features, and hair texture). Race is
considered to be a social construct,
meaning that it is something that people
created (not science) to separate and rank
people.
5.
Throughout American History, race has
been an extremely important subject,
these racial categories were used to enslave
and segregate people according to their
race. People of color (non-whites) have
been subjected to fewer rights and extreme
discrimination/prejudice in our nation’s
past. Even though slavery has been
abolished and segregation ruled illegal,
race continues to shape how a person is
perceived and treated by others in this
country. Americans still use race as a
factor when judging others. While
biologists do claim that race is
unimportant, this belief differs from that
of sociologists who claim that race is
important and it would be harmful to
ignore it.