Race Does Not Define Human Diversity Summary

Children and young people can now learn and understand about different cultures and beliefs through the media and within their own school and by talking openly and positively about race, religion, ethnicity and cultural comparisons and differences will only benefit children in their understanding and development of a healthy social attitude.

One of the most controversial topics of culture over the years has been that of Race and Ethnicity. Due to the diversity of humans and the ability for different cultures to categorize themselves in different ways, the topic race and ethnicity continues to expand and grow. Anthropologists have studied the question of race and ethnicity throughout time in order to better understand how cultures and societies have come to classify themselves. According to the anthropological understanding of race, “race is not a scientific biological categorical system and does not explain human biological differences” (Gonzalez Lecture 29). What is interesting to observe

The construct of race is one that is deeply engrained in every inhabited corner of the world. In this room today we can identify characteristics suggesting Asian, Scandinavian and South American descent – and I’m not being racist when I say that these differing characteristics have a real biological basis grounded on scientific evidence that shows these differences are historically recent, abundant and regional (REF). Unfortunately, the historical evidence and current affairs demonstrates that the differences have led to discrimination that in many cases has developed into a hatred that has nothing to do with the biological evolution that has resulted in racial distinction (REF).

A person’s ethnicity can play an important role in their success. A person’s cultural background can cause a certain work ethic, determine ones diligence, and success in the classroom.

In addition to this conclusion, I propose that our society can acknowledge variety of perspectives such as scientists’ biologists’ and cultural perspectives to change our misconception and oversimplification of race. It is common for us to follow the social norm. However, once we learn to be skeptical about what we think, what science tells and what our society comes up with, it will open up our minds to accept diversity and stop sticking with the social viewpoints of race which usually are negative or likely to separate groups. Although race will probably remain in our society, the important thing is that each individuals have their own aspects and thoughts on race. We should be careful to avoid misunderstanding what science tells us and abstain from misinterpretations of

Over time, humans’ understanding of race has evolved dramatically. Now, human race relations in the civilized world serve as a key issue for politicians, news outlets and sociologists. In particular, anthropologists hold to a very particular definition of race, essentially stating that race exists only as a sort of construct that humans create in order to classify each other and make assumptions based upon these classifications. In many ways, this assertion holds merit. For instance, recent scientific evidence points to numerous physiological similarities between races, and these similarities discredit the ideals of ‘scientific racism’. However, despite the new anthropological interpretation of race’s ability to deflect the principles of scientific or ‘real’ racism, this definition also fails to acknowledge the ways in which the study of anthropology, along with many other social sciences, plays into its own self-defined illusion by placing unnecessary emphasis on race and the perceived differences between humans.

Fact: “Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies did not divide people according to physical differences, but according religion, status, class, even language.” (Race-The Power of an Illusion).

Today, I participated in the 15th annual Ethics Teach-In, the topic which I chose is “The evolution of biological perspectives on race”, given by Professor Sandy Madar. Around this title, we discussed about the connection between race difference and biological difference. From the reading material, I know that scientists have already showed the evidence that from the analysis of genetics, they found 94% percentage genes are the same from everybody, and there are only 6% percentage genes differ from one another. This research means there is no exactly race difference between black people, white people or brown people and everyone is the same in biological field. Connecting the scientific result with the common reading, this research gives a strong support to the common reading book “Between the world and me”. In the book, author Coates wrote “race is the child of racism, not the father.” Exactly, the skin color means nothing at the beginning of the society, but people gave it too much meaning. The professor also referred that historical research showed that the word “race”

First we need to establish exactly '' race '' What is significant in terms of science. Remember, at first this term is only the concept of the category of biological classification. And this is just the method to classify the sub-human species into smaller units based on biological characteristics have been determined. The definition of anthropology on '' race '' that we will use is: A race is a population from birth have all these genetic factors synthesis and expression of characteristics body

Shawn, you purposely specify human diversity does originate from races. I agree with that. The sickle cell result proved first that root of genetic is not a race but ancestry. I am African American and I am glad they found out that almost everyone came from Africa. There has been social discrimination based on a false principle of identity and race superiority. some even attribute AIDS to a classification of ethnicity. the truth will come out as more people learn about diversity, sociology, and history.

Below is an interesting short article that talks about the cost of relativism on our modern day families and society in general. Another view considered in the article contrasts the children of college and high school educated parents.

When people say that race is a social construct, they mean that race is apart of culture. When a child is born, he/she is born into a certain race and environment. In this article, however, there is no such thing as race, biologically. Everyone from all over the world have similar genes. Because of the different groups of migration to different parts of the world, there are variations in genes due to to the diverse environments. Although there are different groups of people, We humans are more similar to each other as a group than we are to one another within any particular racial or genetic category. In this society, people are divided into different races due to groups trying to show superiority over other groups. Although we, humans, are technically one big group, society split us into a social construct like a building with different

Sorry everyone for being late! Since Tuesday, an Internet outage with AT@T occurred until early Saturday morning. I was able to take the quiz before problems became worse. The quiz on human diversity was very intriguing in a way that educated me more on understanding race and similarities. Even though I did pretty well on the quiz, I did answer a few questions incorrectly. In order for me to understand the questions answered wrong, I did a little more research and found a lot of information that I was unaware of. Like many other students who mentioned in their discussion post, I assumed that certain regions possessed a variety of skin color due to environmental changes, but in all honesty, no one really knows.

Eleanor Stein, a law professor described the US government policies “construction of an enemy.” It is no secret that the US government is the source of the many years of segregation that has occurred in this country. There have been many unfair policies that have stemmed from racism and greed such as the 3/5 Compromise. Racism has affected Americans from different cultures and this is shown through slavery, unfair healthcare system, and religious discrimination. Harold P. Freeman, James T. Patterson, and Eleanor Stein are all scholars that have spoken up on these matters and in an eloquent and effective matter.

As a white individual that grew up in a predominantly white town, I rarely talked about race when I was growing. The only time I typically talked about race was when we studied the Civil Rights movement in school, and even then it was only talked about in a historical context. Consequently, prior to this class, I assumed that race was a biological difference of skin color and genetics. I thought that people of other races would have a larger difference in genetic make-up because race was a genetic difference race between individuals. I then saw society using this difference as a means to belittle certain races and favor others. However, after taking this class my understanding of how we define race has changed dramatically. This class has proven my assumptions wrong, and shown me that race is not biological but rather a social and historical construct created to ensure a racial hierarchy.