Blog post 1

In the film "Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1", microbiologist Pilar Ossorio commented "there's as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racil group as there is between people of different racial groups". For over 200 years scientist believe that race is biologically real, but because of this scientific concept race is a social construction filled with inequalities. Today people identify race by physical traits such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape but lack the understanding that the evolution of race is rooted from negative ideology. 

The scientific concept is that race is biologically real, but there are no genetic markers relating to race. For two hundred years scientist studies the human skull, eyes, heart, hair texture, and the human anatomy in general of different races. With these studies proclaimed external differences to explain superiority and inferiority ideologies amongst African American people. Scientist search to find any organ that was fundamentally different in size or character to prove the superiority of whites versus inferiority amongst African Americans. During the 20th century whites thrived while Native Americans were sent to reservations, immigrants crammed into urban ghettos and African Americans lived under Jim Crowe laws. During that time diseases spread rampant, infant mortality and death rates went up but that only justified the preordained natural order for blacks and other races. That was confirmation of exactly what you should expect of African Americans being biologically different and being at the bottom of the social hierarchy. 

Fredrick Hoffman’s extinction thesis practically said that all African Americans should be extinct because not even with aid or education can help how they are biologically made up. He compared the rates of death and disease among blacks and whites, and his research showed major differences. But Hoffman failed to mention or compare the resources and living arrangements. This relates to the example of the basketball league where whites dominated that sport. But later on African Americans would dominate in that sport in the early 90s. During the earlier years of basketball, resources were limited to African Americans due to reasons such as segregation, while whites had access to everything. Because of scientific misconceptions and false superior/inferior ideologies, race has become a social construction filled with inequalities that entail discrimination, stereotypes, prejudices and racism throughout the world. 

My father is Dominican and my mother is crucian and Puerto Rican. I would say I am Latina. I classify myself as a Latina because of the countries my families are from. But just like the DNA project the students did with tracing their ancestry, we can all belong to any type of race, and skin color has nothing to do with it. At first the film affected what I thought about my race with an instant stereotype that being Dominican means you’re good at baseball. But with the evidence proving that there is no biological relation to race, it just makes me think about the general idea of "why are Dominicans good at baseball" or "why is anyone good at anything"? First of all practice makes perfect. I strongly believe in that because as long as the resources are available you can learn or become good at it. With sports, if you have access to a park and have the resources to getting a basketball you can practice then perfect it. But if you’re learning to swim and don't have access to a pool or your neighborhood and school doesn't have the resources to get one then you'll never learn. There is no such thing as Dominicans having an extra arm muscle or their anatomy being biologically capable of playing baseball better than anyone else. Any race, or anyone can be good at anything with the dedication and the resources.