The Science Behind Race

"AAA Statement on "Race"" AAA Statement on "Race" American Anthropological Association, 17 May 1998. Web. 23 July 2015.

The purpose of the article” Shades of Difference: theoretical Underpinnings of the Medical Controversy on Black-White Differences in the United States, 1830-1870”, was to show a difference between beliefs and sound theory’s that are based on medical debates on slavery, racial differences and disease, and black inferiority. Throughout the article conflicting doctors raised the same scientific findings but let their predisposed assumptions, reach biased conclusions. From 1830 to 1850, doctors argued the legitimacy and clarification of their conclusions.

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists.”(4)

Lopez criticizes both authors on how they fell prey to the assumption that “blacks” and negroes” were racial terms naturally existed back then. Which is not the case for back in the 1600’s, African and Europeans did not see themselves as “whites” or “blacks”, it wasn’t until

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

As slavery became a more divisive subject in American politics, justification was required for both sides to advance their interests. Much of the research by whites into the nature of black people in this time led to what is now known as scientific racism. With “discoveries” from both sides of the debate around slavery changing the way white people viewed blacks, both Thomas Jefferson and Johan von Herder present their case using nature, among other aspects to either reinforce or alter the view of slavery and black people in general.

What if we suddenly discovered that our most basic assumption about race? For instance, that the world's people can be divided biologically along racial lines was false? And if race is a biological "myth," where did the idea come from? How do our institutions give race social meaning and power?

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.

The article starts by describing different variations in biological features, such as skin color, and even some unseen variations. The author then goes on to say that race, how the current culture views it, is not correct- rather, that race in itself, is actually socially constructed. The author returns to the previously mentioned variations and elaborates that they are on a spectrum, rather than a binary system, with one or the other. Cohen goes on to say that the combinations of the spectrum of these different traits is vast among even different African places. Cohen then goes on to talk about how race in genetics is another way to prove that race is in fact a social construct by explaining that a very small percentage of gene pairs goes

What is most intriguing about Rush’s observations is that he argues that black skin, a defining characteristic of the slave, is not the result of biological difference but rather the result of the skin disease leprosy. This is both integral and problematic for the de-escalation of negative stereotypes of development of human rights for slaves. It argues that there is not a biological hierarchy between white people and black people and even goes as far to say that “that all the claims of superiority of the whites over the blacks, on account of their color, are founded alike in ignorance and inhumanity. If the color of the Negroes be the effect of a disease, instead of inviting us to tyrannize over them, it should entitle them to a double portion of our humanity, for disease all over the world has always been the signal for immediate and universal compassion” (Rush 295). While this statement carries a positive sentiment and bold political stance, it undermines the report given by Rush just three pages earlier when he said, “The leprosy induces a morbid

Race is not all biologically real. According to Fuentes, race cannot be categorized as black, Asian or white because there are morphological and physiological variations (Fuentes 2012:74). Humans are all one race, whether they are different in skin color, body shape and size. Many religious beliefs support the idea of everyone being equal, regardless of the previous differentiations mention above, but science has devoted to the study of where humanity has originated and has expanded the idea of the word 'race'. Scientifically, humanity rose from the first ancient apes that best fit the characterizations of today's humans. Whether this is true or not, it is indeed very convincing that perhaps our first ancestors could have spread to different

During our spring we were asked to watched a movie “Race the Power of an Illusion" was a three-part series and investigated race in society, science and history. It's true that race has always been with us, right? Wrong. Race is one topic where we all think we're experts. Yet ask 10 people to define race or name "the races," and you're likely to get 10 different answers. A person's race affects how they are treated in society. The skin color of a person will be used against them at every turn, a black person will always be seen in a slightly negative light, Asians will always will be looked at slightly more positive and white people will always be seen as the people of privilege. There is no equality unless there is darkness or blindness. Color

Benthien shows that the question of divergent skin pigmentation continues to puzzle the scientific community. However, the legacy of the ostensibly scientific findings of the past, the depersonalization of Blacks, the notion that skin color defines a person’s character and intellect, the alleged “bad smell” and the “oily texture” of Black skin, have informed racist discourse for centuries. And in the second part of the chapter, Benthien discusses the appearance of these themes in the literary work of two German authors, Heinrich von Kleist and Hans Henny August Jahnn. While the selected text passages echo central themes of scientific racism, Benthien uses that section deliberately to add some additional familiar racist themes to the discussion,

After Charles Darwin published the Origins of Species, society began to turn away from religion and towards science to justify slavery and segregation by seeking out physiological and psychological differences between Blacks and Whites (Parks & Heard, 2009). Physiologically, some Whites argued that black people were the missing link between apes and humans. Psychologically, others like Frances Galton proposed his theory of eminence, or the notion that certain abilities, many of them psychological in nature, could be inherited, just as physical characteristics are (Galton, 1892). In collecting data from 12 separate groups from well to do white men, Galton (1892) concluded that the most influential men had at least one influential relative and therefore, their successful positions in life were due to genetic eminence or a predisposition for a high social rank. Even though Galton (1892) ignored environmental influences that could shape eminence and intelligence, he attracted followers even more than a hundred years later. This includes Arthur Jensen, Charles Murray, and Richard Herrnstein and their theories that black people were an inferior race because their IQ scores are significantly lower than white people’s IQ scores (Jensen, 1969; Herrnstein & Murray, 1994). Supporters of these theories, once again, latched on to tactics of dehumanization in order to justify black oppression without considering how this oppression shapes an individual’s mind and behavior.