Transcript What is Race? - BBS Humanities

What is Race?
Race is Visual
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Our eyes tell us that people look different.
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No one has trouble distinguishing an African from a
Chinese person, but what do those differences
mean?
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Are they biological?
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Has race always been with us?
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How does race affect people today?
10 Quick Facts About Race
1.
Race is a modern idea.
1.
Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide
people according to physical distinctions, but
according to religion, status, class, even language.
2.
The English language didn't even have the word
'race' until it turns up in a 1508 poem by William
Dunbar referring to a line of kings.
2. Race has no genetic basis.
Not one characteristic, trait or gene
distinguishes all the members of one socalled race from all the members of
another so-called race.
3. Human subspecies don't exist.

Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven't
been around long enough or isolated enough to evolve
into separate subspecies or races.
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Despite surface appearances, we are one of the most
genetically similar of all species.
4. Skin color really is only skin deep.
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Most traits are inherited independently from one
another. The genes influencing skin color have
nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form,
eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic
ability or forms of intelligence.
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Knowing someone's skin color doesn't necessarily
tell you anything else about him or her.
5. Most variation is within, not between,
"races."
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Of the small amount of total human variation, 85%
exists within any local population, be they Italians,
Kurds, Koreans or Cherokees.
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About 94% can be found within any continent.
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That means two random Koreans may be as
genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.
6. Slavery predates race.
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Slavery as a result of conquest or war, even debt,
but not because of physical characteristics or a
belief in natural inferiority.
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American slave system was the first where all the
slaves shared similar physical characteristics.
7. Race and freedom evolved together.
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The U.S. was founded on "All men are created equal."
But our early economy was based largely on slavery.
How could this anomaly be rationalized?
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The new idea of race helped explain why some people
could be denied the rights and freedoms that others
took for granted.
8. Race justified social inequalities as
natural.
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White superiority became "common sense" in
America. It justified not only slavery but also the
extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian
immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a
nation that believed in democracy.
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Racial practices were institutionalized within American
government, laws, and society.
9. Race isn't biological, but racism is still real.
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Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different
access to opportunities and resources.
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Our government and social institutions have created
advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power,
and resources to white people.
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This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.
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10. Colorblindness will not end racism.
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Pretending race doesn't exist is not the same as
creating equality.
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Race is more than stereotypes and individual
prejudice. To combat racism, we need to end
institutionalized discrimination.
Sorting People
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Complete the “Sorting People” exercise.
Sorting People
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Classifying humans into groups is a
subjective process, influenced by cultural
ideas and political agendas.
Sorting People
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If you change criteria (eye color, height, width, etc),
people fall into different groups.
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You can't draw any conclusions about those groups
beyond what you used to sort people in the first
place.
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Traits are inherited independently, rather than
packaged together. If you know one thing about
someone, it doesn't always tell you anything else
about them, so it doesn't make sense to talk about
characteristics of racial groups.
Sorting People
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Classification is cultural, not scientific.
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Racial classification has changed over time and it varies
from one place to another.
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Brazil, for example, has many more racial categories
than the U.S.
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In Haiti, you're considered white if you have any amount
of European ancestry
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The criteria are inconsistent from one group to another.
Sorting People
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There's a lot of overlap between groups.
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There isn't a single gene, trait, or characteristic that
distinguishes all the members of one "race" from all
the members of another.
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Because categories are socially constructed, there
are inconsistencies in the way different groups are
defined.
Is there a correct way to
classify?
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Following are the U.S. federal government's
current definitions for the racial and ethnic
groups we used in the sorting activity.
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Most of these categories were introduced in
1977, in response to new civil rights laws
designed to remedy discrimination. Look
closely at these definitions.
Is there a correct way to
classify?
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American Indian or Alaskan Native.
A person having origins in any of the original
peoples of North and South America (including
Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation
or community recognition.
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Asian.
A person having origins in any of the original
peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian
subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia,
China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the
Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Is there a correct way to
classify?
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Black or African American.
A person having origins in any of the black racial
groups of Africa. Terms such as "Haitian" or "Negro"
can be used in addition to "Black or African
American."
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Hispanic or Latino.
A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or
Central American, or other Spanish culture of origin,
regardless of race. The term "Spanish origin" can be
used in addition to "Hispanic or Latino."
Is there a correct way to
classify?
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Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
A person having origins in any of the original
peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other
Pacific Islands.
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White.
A person having origins in any of the original
peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North
Africa.
Is there a correct way to
classify?
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Is everybody defined in the same way?
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To be categorized as Native American, for
example, requires "tribal affiliation or community
recognition" - a condition of no other category.
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The definition for African American includes a
reference to "black racial groups" while none of
the other categories mention race.
Is there a correct way to
classify?
In fact, Hispanic or Latino is defined as a
"Spanish culture of origin, regardless of race."
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The category Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific
Islander was only introduced in 1996 previously, it was lumped together with Asians.
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What reasons might exist for defining these
groups in these seemingly contradictory ways?
Are the criteria social or scientific?
Multiculturalism
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Multiracialism – the belief that all people are from many
different backgrounds - has the potential to challenge our
assumptions about race, but it can also reinforce the
wrong ideas.
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For example, we often say that someone is part white
and half Asian or Latino – but which part? What makes
somebody part white, and how do we measure that?
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Geneticists tell us there’s not a single trait that separates
one race from another. What are other pitfalls of
quantifying race through percentages?
Multiculturalism
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In the past, African Americans were defined by different
percentages of African ancestry…the “one-drop rule”
declared that persons with any known African ancestry
were Black.
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Today, to be classified as American Indian requires proof of
at least some (usually "one quarter" or more) of Indian
ancestry.
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Can you think of any historical reasons why we might
classify these two groups in opposite ways – maximizing
the number of African Americans and minimizing the
number of American Indians?
Why not get rid of racial
categories?
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Would you consider changing your race?
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Would you require compensation?
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How much compensation would you need to
live the rest of your life as a different race?
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According to a reliable study, the average
request for compensation was 281,000KD.
Why not get rid of racial
categories?
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If all races are the same, why is
compensation necessary?