What Is Race?

     Race can be defined as a group of people the relate to each other through a common set of physical traits inherited through common descent or heredity. This definition of race is the widely used connotation of people today that has been transformed into a means of judgement and stereotype. In my post, What is Africa to Me, I talked about how mankind refuses to believe that humans descend from Africa. It is the allusion of race, and how one race can't come from another, especially whites coming from blacks. It segues into the face that these people are influenced by the manmade issue of race and how propaganda influences opinion. In the back of everyones' minds they are judging people by their skin color, facial features, and other physical characteristics so they can place these people into the specified racial box that they see fit. However, a certain skin hue that falls in line with a particular race is not a correct means of placing someone in a certain racial category. This is where race ends and stereotyping begins. Race was created by man, according to Stephen Jay Gould, in order to make the white man feel superior. It all started out with Samuel Morten taking measurements of skulls, and presenting the fact that a white man's skull is larger than a black man's skull, therefore the white man must be more intelligent and more superior to the black man. This was a means to make the white race feel superior to people who were different than they were, because skull size does not have anything to do with amount of intelligence.
     Race is a fabricated classification, created by man, in order to mask their fear of the different. Race was created by the white man to make him feel superior to the black man. Biologically, race has nothing to do with our intelligence or amount of beauty. Society has claimed control of race and has made the dispute grow. According to Evelyn Hammonds, racial bias now influences the way scientists think, because racial prejudices and stereotypes are implanted in our minds through societal propaganda and influence. There is almost no way for the world to get away from racial stereotypes because they are  unconscious judgements, ever present and impossible to get rid of. As with the One Drop Rule, we are presented in society to think that if a person has one drop of black blood, he or she is automatically seen as black in the eyes of society. For example: President Barack Obama is considered the first black president, although he is equally black and white. The physical features of the black race dominates the white, so our unconscious mind associates him as wholly black, although he is only half black.
     My racial definition uses a person's physical traits to judge their hereditary descent, although, it is almost impossible to be "correct" because each ethnicity is inherently diverse, so there is no way to tell if someone comes directly from a certain country or racial background. Biologically, human similarities are entirely local by geography, not race as said in an interview with Jonathan Marks. In actuality, someone could be biologically similar to someone who has a different skin tone that lives near them than to someone with the same skin tone that lives far away. Overall, race is a socially fabricated term in order to separate the human race. We are all humans. Race separates us, and in reality, race does not even exist. It only exists in our minds, and can be extinguished with the power of spreading new found knowledge of this manmade issue.


References:

Scientific and Folk Ideas about Heredity 

By Jonathan Marks 

Department of Anthropology 

University of North Carolina - Charlotte 

Interview with Evelyn Hammonds

2003 California Newsreel

Interview with Stephen Jay Gould

2003 California Newsreel