The Non-Existence of Race Courtney Weeks Bethune-Cookman University

Kwame Anthony Appiah who wrote “Racisms”, believes that extrinsic racism is when people has a belief that different races are different genetically and that results in different treatments. “members of different races differ in respects that warrant the differential treatment, respects, -such as honesty or courage or intelligence – that are controversially held (held at least in most contemporary cultures) to be acceptable as basis for treating people differently.” (p.691) This is morally wrong to Appiah because it is not true at all. Humans are humans, even if there are different races, the genes that contributes to race does not set different races’ intelligence and moral standards, it is the teaching and environment that shapes the people. “the genes that account for the gross morphological differences that underlie our standard racial categories are not linked to those genes that determine, to whatever degree such matters

Kwame Anthony Appiah's article “Racisms”, claims racism to be a view of racialism which are the “heritable characteristics, possessed by the members of our species, that allow us to divide them into smaller sets of races… these races share certain traits…” (Appiah). Appiah argues that humans need a definition of

To begin with, the aim of this paper is to respond to the article written by Ian F. Haney Lopez. The main idea of this article was to discuss the question of belonging of a person to this or that racial group. According to Lopez the construction of race is mostly based on the choice of the society, but not on the genetic or other information. My response to this article will be rather neutral because it is fifty percent agreed with her point of view and half a hundred percent disagreed.

The idea of race in society is truly that; an idea. However, one of the first things one notices about another human is their perceived race. Often, incorrect assumptions are made about a person, based on his race. In addition, many believe race can be determined by biological factors. However, there is no biological basis to race. Without a doubt, genes play a role in our skin, hair, and eye color; however, there are not certain genes present in an entire race and not another. Race is not clear cut; if one were to travel from either pole to the equator, a specific location could not be identified to separate any two races.

The Cambridge Dictionaries Online (2011) defines racism as “the belief that people's qualities are influenced by their race and that the members of other races are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting unfair treatment of members of other races.”

The PBS series “Race: The Power of an Illusion” effectively works to expose race as a social construct and deconstructs the false notions that race is a biological marker. The series first discusses that all human beings originated from Africa but dispersed about 70,000 years ago to various places in the world. As a result of this migration, people were spread to different locations throughout the world with different environmental conditions that affected their physical traits. It was many years after the migration in which people began to display these new physical traits such as slanted eyes, fair skin, and differing hair textures. While the series notes the physical changes that occurred during the migration it also emphasizes that race while it may seem apparent in skin color and other physical features has no real biological basis.

The meaning, significance, and definition of race have been debated for centuries. Historical race concepts have varied across time and cultures, creating scientific, social, and political controversy. Of course, today’s definition varies from the scientific racism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that justified slavery and later, Jim Crow laws in the early twentieth. It is also different from the genetic inferiority argument that was present at the wake of the civil rights movement. However, despite the constantly shifting concepts, there seems to be one constant that has provided a foundation for ideas towards race: race is a matter of visually observable attributes such as skin color, facial features, and other self-evident

The prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races; discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race, is the definition of Racism, according to Webster’s Dictionary. Today the use of the term “racism” doesn’t just fall under one single definition. Racist practices often include the idea that humans can be subdivided into groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior.

The Oxford Dictionary defines racism as “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one 's own race is superior.” If further defines the same as “The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.” (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017).There are different types of racism based on religion, nationality, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation etc.Racism expressed individually, through explicit and implicit thoughts, feelings, or acts is Individual Racism. Racism expressed socially, through institutions that promote

I am very impressed by the concept of you and Justin's visual timeline. During undergrad, I was Communications major who used creative visuals for everything so it’s always nice to see what others come up with. In addition, the two events I enjoyed from your timeline were the Model Cities Legislation and the Race Riots, which were opposite chosen events amongst Team Four. I recall from episode three of the documentary Race: The Power of Illusion, the narrator mentioned that prior to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 “urban renewal was supposed to make cities more livable, [yet, conversely] 90% of all housing destroyed by urban renewal was not replaced. Two thirds of those displaced were Black or Latino” (California Newsreel, 2014). One can only

When we speak of race, ethnicity and prejudice we are intrinsically linking racism as well. Racism is prejudice taken another step further. In contrast to prejudice, racism is based on perceived cultural superiority, which is itself based on perceived genetic superiority (McConnochie et al, 1988).

In this paper I will be arguing that racist beliefs are cognitive problems according to Appiah’s account of racisms. In order to defend this position, I will first explain Appiah’s account of how racism is heritable through genes, focusing specifically on what he thinks the connection between extrinsic racists and intrinsic racists are. Then, I will define what Appiah takes a extrinsic and intrinsic racists to be, and show how his definition of what an “insincere” extrinsic is distinctive by contrasting it with other ways one could interpret or define as an “insincere” racist. I will then present an objection that explains why I think that racialism is not heritable through genes and that an “insincere” extrinsic racist should not change

Racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. This trend has been around for a long time, from slaves, to discrimination, etc. Although in many cases, people in the time period

I took the time today to read the article titled “What is Race” by Victor M. Fernandez, RN, BSN and found myself agreeably intrigued and in admiration of his thoughts regarding race. Victor touched on an extremely insightful and significant topic; one that most people have sturdy opinions about. Race – what is it? What does this mean to you? What does it mean to our upcoming careers in the nursing field? I trust that how we characterize and assess our awareness of race is due exclusively to how we were raised. I do not mean merely what we were taught from our family or culture about race, but to a certain extent how we have lived it, and how it has lived around us. “Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide

'Racism', in the Oxford English Dictionary, is defined as "Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior", and, "The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races". The essence of both definitions seems to be that specific characteristics are used to segregate people into different levels of superiority. While the truth behind this grouping and subsequent segregation is arguable, it is generally accepted that doing this is wrong. The first thing that tends to come