Race is a man-made concept that was cultivated and sown so seamlessly into the foundations of society that, we have believed that it was a natural mechanism to begin with. There are those today who still have faith in the idea that race is a biological component ingrained in genetics, and on the other hand there are those who have condemn that race and its’ effects are real at all. While I concede with the notion of race being irrelevant in scientific matters and not a legitimate biological categorization, I undoubtedly refute the idea that race doesn’t matter in society.
Scientists in the past theorized that the roots of race would lie within an individual’s genetics. Yet by theorizing so, they are ultimately implying that subspecies of the …show more content…
Alan Goodman, a professor of biological anthropology, supports this thought in, “Two Questions About Race? “, by further explaining the variation among individual and how miniscule race is in that variation in comparison to other factors such a geographical location. For me a huge part of the problem to solving the question of what race truly is, is to debunk the idea that race automatically means a difference in physical appearances. The physical features of humans can only be measured on a continuous spectrum rather than a discrete measurement. Based on science, we know that chromosomes are “inherited” individually and not as “pre-made packages”, therefore height, weight, and eye color must all be accounted for separately (“Human Diversity-Go Deeper”). Taking this into consideration, we cannot pinpoint on that continuous spectrum what characteristics are attributed to a particular race. Scientists beginning with Samuel Morton in the 1820’s have tried to emulate this idea by taking a physical feature such as skull size and dictating which race it belonged to (“The Story We Tell: Episode 2”, 2003). These …show more content…
Race was implemented only after the economic progression of America required slaves to become a major source of labor (“The Story We Tell: Episode 2”, 2003). So race wasn’t actually a real categorization to begin with, but more of a moral justification for what was occurring during the colonial era. Race continues to follow this pattern and evolves throughout history in order to accommodate major social changes. For example, the Cherokee Tribe were perceived to be equal to the “whites” and were even forced to assimilate into “white culture”. Yet years later, when the idea of Manifest Destiny became popular, the Cherokees were looked on as outcasts and forced to move from their native lands. Fast forward a decade or so later and the same idea can still be applied, such as when the political priorities of the U.S. changed to limiting foreigners. Mexicans were always classified as white up until the 1930’s census when a new racial category was created to reclassify them as Mexicans (Bowman 9). Another decade later into the 1940’s and the decision reverses back to classifying Mexicans as white, due to the encouragement of immigration into the U.S. which was hoping to increase the workforce (Bowman 12). The truth of the matter is that, not even the government is really sure of what race is, hence the reasoning as to why the parameters for this categorization
Scientists in the past theorized that the roots of race would lie within an individual’s genetics. Yet by theorizing so, they are ultimately implying that subspecies of the …show more content…
Alan Goodman, a professor of biological anthropology, supports this thought in, “Two Questions About Race? “, by further explaining the variation among individual and how miniscule race is in that variation in comparison to other factors such a geographical location. For me a huge part of the problem to solving the question of what race truly is, is to debunk the idea that race automatically means a difference in physical appearances. The physical features of humans can only be measured on a continuous spectrum rather than a discrete measurement. Based on science, we know that chromosomes are “inherited” individually and not as “pre-made packages”, therefore height, weight, and eye color must all be accounted for separately (“Human Diversity-Go Deeper”). Taking this into consideration, we cannot pinpoint on that continuous spectrum what characteristics are attributed to a particular race. Scientists beginning with Samuel Morton in the 1820’s have tried to emulate this idea by taking a physical feature such as skull size and dictating which race it belonged to (“The Story We Tell: Episode 2”, 2003). These …show more content…
Race was implemented only after the economic progression of America required slaves to become a major source of labor (“The Story We Tell: Episode 2”, 2003). So race wasn’t actually a real categorization to begin with, but more of a moral justification for what was occurring during the colonial era. Race continues to follow this pattern and evolves throughout history in order to accommodate major social changes. For example, the Cherokee Tribe were perceived to be equal to the “whites” and were even forced to assimilate into “white culture”. Yet years later, when the idea of Manifest Destiny became popular, the Cherokees were looked on as outcasts and forced to move from their native lands. Fast forward a decade or so later and the same idea can still be applied, such as when the political priorities of the U.S. changed to limiting foreigners. Mexicans were always classified as white up until the 1930’s census when a new racial category was created to reclassify them as Mexicans (Bowman 9). Another decade later into the 1940’s and the decision reverses back to classifying Mexicans as white, due to the encouragement of immigration into the U.S. which was hoping to increase the workforce (Bowman 12). The truth of the matter is that, not even the government is really sure of what race is, hence the reasoning as to why the parameters for this categorization