JenelleWilliams 2nd October 2016
“Things that are thought to to be real are real in their consequences” – Thomas Theorem
For centuries people have been trying to prove whether or not race is “real” or just a myth we can somehow get rid of. As we come to recent years, there are many proven facts that race isn’t a biological or scientifically proven concept. For centuries people spent time trying to prove how “negros” were so different from everyone else, this was called Eugenics. Eugenics was an entire study trying to prove why people of color were inferior to white people. Of course, many of their findings weren’t rooted in any scientific facts. For years people were taught that particular traits were exclusive to specific groups of people with a particular set of physical attributions.
In later years, as science advances scientist begin to realize the falsity of its previous discoveries. Microbiologist Pilar Ossorio in the film “Race: The Power of Illusion Ossorio used a group of what seemed to be diverse students and sampled their mitochondrial DNA. After testing their DNA, the film proved that, in fact, we can have more genetic similarity with people outside of our race than with than those that we share the same racial identity with. The results were a shocking surprise, as the students themselves thought that they would have more similarities with people that resembled them physically. Although the proof that race has no deeply rooted biological truth, we can’t just decide race isn’t real.
Race may not have any scientific value but it is very real in its experiences and consequences. For centuries people have been granted exclusive access to resources and power or the lack thereof because of the pigment of their skin. We can’t just decide that we’re going to deny the very thing that has created the circumstances in which we live in today.
As an individual whether or not race was biological never really crossed my mind. My assumption of race was more of being people came from cultural similarities, not that there had to be a gene that made us the same but that there were environmental similarities that made us one. My parents and grandparents were born in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, and I was born here, because race differs in the islands from America I figured as I grew older that there couldn’t be common gene that made us all the same for the simple fact that it meant different things to be considered black in different places.
Although my idea of race isn’t set on biology I always feel like our common experiences link us together. Denying racial identity is a very skeptical topic for me, but the issue with that is race isn’t as concrete and fixed as I may want to believe so people have to choice and the option to identify with whoever they feel.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-cooper/guarding-against-damaging_b_12220386.html?
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