A social construct is an idea or that appears to be natural and obvious to the people who accept it, but may or may not represent reality. This means that it remains largely as an invention of any given society. In our world today many people see race as a social construct but it was once considered a biological process but we know that this is untrue. Through research it has been shown that there is no gene common to all blacks or all whites. If race were to be identified in a genetic way, specific racial classifications for individuals would remain constant across boundaries. After reading the texts by Tatum, Ferdman & Gallegos, Mukhopadhyay & Henze and watching the movie “Race: The Power of Illusion”, there are many ways for me to know
…show more content…
It was shown that when scientists and anthropologists of the time were studying this topic it was shown that they were rejecting three fundamental premises of a very old racial ideology: “1) The archaic sub species concept, two parentheses the divisibility of contemporary humans into scientifically valid biological groupings and 3) The link between racial traits and social, cultural, and political status.” Mukhopadhyay & Henze also discussed the United States racial categories that are used on the Census. They believed that race as biology was being inconsistently used and that the terms used on the census are partially valid because “the biological attributes used to define races and create racial classifications rely on only a few visible, superficial, genetic traits – such as skin color and hair texture – and ignore the remaining pre-ponderings of human variation.” The final instance proven by scientists was that there doesn’t seem to be substantial evidence that race, looked upon as a biological category and “"racial" characteristics, such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape, are linked to behavior, to capacities, to individual and group accomplishments, to cultural institutions, or to propensities to engage in any specific activities.” After looking at these three examples it is easy for me to agree with these
It was shown that when scientists and anthropologists of the time were studying this topic it was shown that they were rejecting three fundamental premises of a very old racial ideology: “1) The archaic sub species concept, two parentheses the divisibility of contemporary humans into scientifically valid biological groupings and 3) The link between racial traits and social, cultural, and political status.” Mukhopadhyay & Henze also discussed the United States racial categories that are used on the Census. They believed that race as biology was being inconsistently used and that the terms used on the census are partially valid because “the biological attributes used to define races and create racial classifications rely on only a few visible, superficial, genetic traits – such as skin color and hair texture – and ignore the remaining pre-ponderings of human variation.” The final instance proven by scientists was that there doesn’t seem to be substantial evidence that race, looked upon as a biological category and “"racial" characteristics, such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape, are linked to behavior, to capacities, to individual and group accomplishments, to cultural institutions, or to propensities to engage in any specific activities.” After looking at these three examples it is easy for me to agree with these