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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:
The Difference Between Us,” 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: The Difference Between Us"
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 (Herbes-Sommers Race: The Power of
an Illusion, Episode 1: The Difference Between Us" 2003). 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/race/000_About/002_04-about-01.htm
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
Herbes-Sommers, C., & Heather
Strain, T. (Writers), & Smith, L. M. (Director). (n.d.). Race: The Power
of an Illusion, Episode 1: The Difference Between Us" [Video file].
Onwuachi-Willig, A.
(2016, September 6). “Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs. The
New York Times. Retrieved fromhttp://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/16/how-fluid-is-racial-identity/race-and-racial-identity-are-social-constructs
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