Beyond Race : Human Biological Diversity

What if we lived in a world where there were no races? What if people were not discriminated against because of the color of their skin or because they are different from what we see as acceptable? This is what Kwame Anthony Appiah tries to examine in his essay “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections.” Appiah tries to point out that “American social distinctions cannot be understood in terms of the concept of race.” (102) That America is made up of so many different races that no race is the more superior or in other cases inferior to one another. America is defined by its cultural diversity; it is what makes America the nation that it is. It is the reason that we as Americans have freedoms other people

What were some of the economic and political motivations that lead to the idea of race and racial genetic differences?

This article written by Mark Nathan Cohen, who is an anthropology professor in the State University of New York; talks about how race does not define human diversity. In the article, he also mentions that in school students learn the definition of race based on “biological variation” and not based on their culture. The professor Cohen says that studies on human family tree that were based on their genetic analysis of traits do not show any relation of who those traits belong to. He gives an example by stating that even skin color is not a god indicator of who it relates to because the “traits occur independently in several different branches of the human family.”

This paper summarizes the ancestral immigartion of my primary paternal ancestors. The Thompson surname in itself traces its roots back to Reverend William Thompson (abt. 1598 to abt 1666). Within this paternal lineage are the surnames Willis, Meade, and Stevenson.

As a black girl, I have thought about race a lot. I have personally seen how race has affected my education, opportunities, dealings with police, employment, and everyday interactions with people. Of course, I know that race does not exist as a scientific category. The theory of race is not a biological reality, and has been proven as illegitimate.There is after all only one race - the human race. We all have the same basic characteristics and genetically are all homo sapien sapiens. Our physical differences can be explained by means of Charles Darwin’s concept of human variation. Thus, our various physical characteristics such as skin colour and hair texture are a result of our ancestors geographical origins. In contrast to its biological

The question that seems to be an ongoing topic of discussions is whether or not biological differences has any scientific validity when relating to race. The concept of race was established over the years based on physical features and variations of skin tone. These variations stem from environmental conditions causing slight variations in our genome. The essence of Homo sapiens is the same with slight variations in the DNA strands know as alleles. These variations are what cause physical differences that make up what we have defined over the years classified as different races. The variations have not evolved enough to prevent reproduction amongst the races.

One of the most challenging professions for African American males is social work. As a social worker, I have realized that I have to work under two domains. The first one is to work under the race identity and the second one is to work as a class identity. Although I am proud of being an African American, I usually feel sorry for myself being from unprivileged social class in the American society. The identity of being an African American male has affected my social work in many aspects. This is because it has made it impossible to carry out my professional duties because of negative perspectives and discrimination in the society. African American social workers are considered to be incompetent by the rest of the society hence making it impossible to delegate duties without any form of discrimination. This paper provides my own reflections as an African American male in the field of social work and how this identity has affected my practice in community work and advocacy duties.

Organizations are made up of man & woman, many cultures & races, and multiple generations. Some of the organizations are also comprised of disable employees. This is what we called diversity. Diversity is something that has been around in the organizations for decades. Diversity in Collins Dictionary means, the state or quality of being different or varied and range of different things. It is synonyms to variety, mixture, range, and multiplicity. According to Queensborough Community College in its website define diversity as “Understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies.” Diversity is the mixture of people, culture, race, ethnicity, and more. Diversity can somehow affect the employees and can be challenges to the managers.

Race is not a biological reality because there are no indications of some biological DNA that would have a certain outcomes of a race. The variation in skin tone comes from the mix of certain races. For example, the mix of black and white would result a skin color of Latino. However, the mix of white and yellow (Asians) will most likely result a child having more essential characteristics of white people. It is impossible to classify humans into races because human is making a new race every single moment from the combination of two people who come from different races. Light skin and dark skin have a lot to deal with the temperature, latitude and langtitude of the region. It could be characterized by a regions, instead of ethnic groups. Race

The video goes into depth about proving that race is only skin deep, and that there is no biological explanation for it. It talks about many analysis that were done on African Americans to prove their physical differences against Caucasians such as analysis on their, hands, feet, legs etc. The video goes at great length to show that we are all genetically similar, but we focus on physical appearances to separate us into groups. The students in the video used DNA analysis and assumed that they would all have genetic similarities with those who look similar to them, when in reality Gorgeous was more similar to her white classmate than her black classmate. The video describes how there is simply no way to prove race biologically, and that superiors enforced race to create an inferior group.

Is Race Biologically Real? People often use the meaning of “race” like a sticker; race is defined by skin color, eyes and body shape, hair texture and facial features. However, there are no genetic markers which will prove that one race is different than another. The concept of race isn’t biologically real but “race” it’s a method to divide a group from another one. Race doesn’t have any genetic basis. There is no genetic characteristic such as; gene or feature to tell the differences between humans. In other words, the race isn’t biologically real because there is no scientific evidence which can prove that race is biologically real because there is no ‘genetic markers’ evidence-which cannot be denoted that one particular group is different than other.

Denson, N., & Chang, M. (2009). Racial Diversity Matters: The Impact of Diversity-Related Student Engagement and Institutional Context. American Educational Research Journal, 46, 322-353.

Race, such a subjective matter that most classify solely on observable traits based on traditional race concepts. However race exists in humans through cultural and biological concepts. In other words, race is based on its scientific meaning, which is taken from its visual and genetic signs of human variety. “After all it is an idea with a measurable past, identifiable present, and uncertain future”. St. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE RACE CONCEPT Michael Yudell, PhD, MPH. Through observing the human genome project that explores human molecular selves, skin color variation, and lastly race/human variation as a whole, a clear picture of race can be scientifically explained.

The English term ‘race’ is believed to originate from the Spanish word raza, which means ‘breed’ or ‘stock’ (Race). People use race to define other groups, this separation of groups is based largely on physical features. Features like skin color and hair don’t affect the fundamental biology of human variation (Hotz). Race is truly only skin deep, there are no true biological separations between two ‘racial’ groups. Scientifically speaking, there is more variation between single local groups than there is between two large, global groups; the human variation is constantly altering (Lewontin). The majority of today’s anthropologists agree that race is a form of social categorization, not the separation of groups based on biological

Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working.