Want to hear the truth? Race is a biological myth

            Want to hear the truth? Race is a biological myth

 In our society, the relationship between race as a sociological and scientific concept can be complicated. More importantly, in the film “Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1,” microbiologist Pilar Ossorio commented, “There is as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups.” Ossorio is referring that there are a lot of differences which entails diversity and genetics within different racial groups, such as Blacks and whites having similar genetic codes. In addition, people from the same racial background can be genetically very diverse. Surprisingly, it is common to believe that if someone looks like you must also carry the same biological genes as you. Realistically speaking, I believe there is an issue with the separating visual perception from the real. In the film "Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1" presents many pieces of evidence, by having the students doing biological testing with the help from their teacher and comparing themselves to one another. Before the results, the students of darker complexion stated that they would have similar genes to other Black students. However, that was not true for the reason that two students of different races can have the same DNA in common. Overall, Ossorio points out that race is constructed by society through history. The film explains to the audience how race is a biological myth. As mentioned in the article in The New York Times, “Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs,” race is a social construct and it is not biological, for the reason that an individual could be categorized as Black in China and might pass as white in Puerto Rico or elsewhere (Onwuachi-Willig 2016).

In our contemporary world, race refers to a group of people who share physical and cultural traits as well as common ancestry. As can be seen, race and racial identity make a unique connection with in a sense that one chooses his or her identity based on one's perception that he or she shares a common heritage with a particular racial group, whether it is Black, white, or Hispanic. As explained in the article in The Huffingtonpost.com, “A look at Race as a Social Construct,” goes into more detail about how race is somehow biologically determined by which racial group he or she belong to pertaining to the one-drop rule (Cooper, 2015). Race is a fact and it is important, something usually has to happen or someone has to learn on their own about what race is. Throughout my life, I am considered to be an African American in this society. I considered myself as an Afro-Jamaican because I knew that my ancestors were predominantly from an African descent and I was born and raised in Jamaica. Nevertheless, there came a change that truly affected my perspective on how I am viewed by society. Migrating to America, I found out that I would be considered as Black for the reason that under the one-drop rule any person with even one ancestor of Sub-Saharan African ancestry would be considered Black. After that day, I started to consider myself as Black and no longer Afro-Jamaican due to the social construct of race. Race as a scientific concept can become tricky because the diversity and genetic variation are often different among people of the same race than is it between races.  The evidence from the film and sources are ways that show that the concept of race is to be superior to others and a sense of inferior. Race as a scientific concept is false for the reason that it is used as an excuse for social differences. All in all, race is constructed by society, moreover, in the film Ossorio main focus was to explain that there is no genetic that can define a particular race. Under our skin, we are all the same and we are all created equally.

                                                External links

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/does-race-exist.html

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-about-01.html

Bibliography

Cooper, K. (n.d.). A Look at Race as a Social Construct. TheHuffingtonpost.com. Retrieved March 03, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kimberly-cooper/a-look-into-race-as-a-soc_b_6787574.html

Onwuachi-Willig, A. (2016, September 6). “Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/16/how-fluid-is-racial-identity/race-and-racial-identity-are-social-constructs