Race and "Raciology"

Mariam Traore                                                                                                              September 21st, 2016

Race and "Raciology"

    Race has always played a major role in defining a person's identity. It is interpreted differently in different parts of the world, and every field has their unique approach to it. Race was created to divide human bodies into groups and label them. "Race is a concept that signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human body."(Omi & Winant, 2008, p.92) In the film "Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1," microbiologist Pilar Ossorio stated "There's as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups." Dr. Ossorio's comment was in retaliation of an experiment that was conducted by a group of students of different racial groups. Their objective was to know who they are most similar to and who they are most different to, by looking at their mitochondrial DNA. At the end of the experiment the students realized there are all likely similar to each other and the difference was very slight. "What the study of complete genomes from different parts of the world has shown is that even between Africa and Europe, for example, there is not a single absolute genetic difference, meaning no single variant where all Africans have one variant and all Europeans another one, even when recent migration is disregarded,"(Gannon, 2016) Therefore race cannot be defined by genetic evidence. This experiment also showed both the scientific and sociological viewpoints of race.

    I personally think the hardest and most confusing question one can answer is 'what is your race?'. In the United States of America I have to identify myself as African American, since there is not much option to chose from and this seems to be the closest to accuracy. I was born on the American soil, and raised in Mali and Ivory Coast. I grew up in countries where I was being treated as the 'other' or the American girl. Back there, I would identify as one thing and here as another. The reason why I now see myself as African American is because of my parents being from Africa and I having the American passport. Dr. Ossorio's evidence would show that you can be genetically similar but then be of difference races. That is where science and sociology correlate in race, because scientifically you are similar but sociologically you are not. Race is more of a social construct, it is assigned to you since birth and as you grow up you can chose to be fluid with your racial identity but not everybody might accepting of how you identify yourself. In the case of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who chose to identify as black but was nationally broadcasted on the news for committing racial fraud. In an interview with Matt Lauer of NBC's Today Show, Ms. Dolezal stated “I do take exception to that because it’s a little more complex than me identifying as black, or answering a question of, ‘Are you black or white?’...Well, I definitely am not white. Nothing about being white describes who I am.”(Johnson, Pérez-Peña and Eligon, 2015). Race is just something we see and use to create boundaries between us when in reality we are all very much alike.

Mariam Traore                                                                                 September 21st, 2016

                       

References

    Gannon, Megan. (2016). Race Is a Social Construct, Scientists Argue. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/

   Herbes-Sommers, Christine.[Eliabe Ribeiro Vidal]. (2016, June 27) . RACE: The Power of an Illusion - Episode 1: The Difference Between US (PBS Documentary). [Video File]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/B7_YHur3G9g

     Johnson, K., Pérez-Peña, R., & Eligon, J. (2015). Rachel Dolezal, in Center of Storm, Is Defiant: 'I Identify as Black'. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/rachel-dolezal-nbc-today-show.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

    Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s.  New York: Routledge.