Mariam Traore October 3rd, 2016
Race and "Raciology"
 |
| From The Webner Family's Blog |
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 October 3rd, 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®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1
Webner, Bob. 2013, July 19. The President Speaks about Race [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://webnerhouse.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/the-president-speaks-about-race/
External Links
No comments:
Post a Comment