Sunday, October 2, 2016

Revision: The Study of Race and Biology

Sharon Bonifaz September 21, 2016

The Study of Race and Biology

Huffington Post

Force Change

In order to understand the relationship between race as a sociological concept and race as a scientific concept, one can refer to genetic genealogy testing. For many years, the notion of race has been tied to biology which has ultimately resulted in the classification of racial groups. However, after years of extensive research it is evident that race is in fact a social invention and a biological myth because no genetic factors can determine race. Yet, race continues to be associated with biology for several reasons one being that phenotypes varies across different bodies.

Nonetheless, Pilar Ossorio’s statement in the film Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1, is evidence that no genetic marker can classify people into racial groups, thus proving no biological ties to race. This is demonstrated by a group of students who sequenced a small sample of their mitochondrial DNA. By doing so, the mitochondrial DNA which is only inherited by the mother and does not contain any traits, will work as a gate to trace back to the mother’s ancestry. When the results were done, the small sequence samples were more identical between two people from two different racial groups rather than two people within the same racial group. Regardless of the human biological variation, this goes to prove that all humans are genetically alike.

Nonetheless, being born in the United States and having parents that come from Ecuador, I have always identified as Hispanic/Latino American. Though my mother’s side of the family can easily be mistaken as White because of their pale skin, green/blue eyes, and blonde hair, my father is always attributed to being Hispanic/Latino. However, I have been attributed to being Asian, or Hispanic/Latino, and White. Although it is exciting to get different answers when I ask strangers to guess my racial identity, it is also troubling when I think about being a Hispanic/Latina in the work force. Since being a female already comes with a wage gap, being a female and not White will be more of a struggle in today’s society.

According to Sullivan’s Racial Identity and Intergroup Attitudes, “for many whites, race does not play a consequential role in their daily lives” (263). Whereas, on the contrary, colored people in Brazil often associate a lighter skin tone with increasing social status (Lovell, 90). Proving that skin color is an important factor in today’s society, and also that the preferred color skin is tied to Whites, because they are least likely to face discrimination and poverty. This is evident since the dominant group is Whites and the minorities are people who can fall under Blacks and Hispanic/Latinos. However, what is outrageous and discouraging is that our external features are ultimately the deciding factor used to place people into racial groups. Though race will always be a biological myth, society will always find a way to classify humans and relate it to biology so that the social construct of race may be justified. In terms of my own racial identity, I will not let society discourage me and as a minority I will take pride in my future success.

References

Lovell, P. A., & Wood, C. H. (1998). Skin color, racial identity, and life chances in Brazil. Latin

American Perspectives, 25(3), 90+.

Sullivan, J. M., & Ghara, A. (2015). Racial Identity and Intergroup Attitudes: A Multiracial

Youth Analysis. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 96(1), 261-272.

Jashane Morrison Revised- Want to hear the truth? Race is a biological myth

http://www.azquotes.com/quote/914176

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/wgbh/nova/evolution/does-race-exist.html

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

Revision: Taking on Race as an Artificial Construction

Taking On Race as an Artificial Construction

Comparing and contrasting the skulls of various races
https://boneclones.com/product/human-male-and-female-skulls-african-asian-and-european-COMP-120-SET

There is no real distinction amongst human beings between races. Scientists have tried numerous times in the past to find a difference between the biological makeup of Blacks and Whites by comparing the size and structure of their skeletons and other body parts. According to episode one of “Race: The Power of an Illusion”, there have been experiments in scientific history that evaluated the brain size of African and European individuals. When gathering human remains for evaluation, the brains of African women and European males were compared and contrasted with one another. This resulted to an inaccurate conclusion that African individuals generally have a smaller brain and skull size than that of European individuals. The reasoning behind these experiments was to 'prove' why we, as a civilization, should treat people of color inferior to Whites (Omi and Winant 1994).

Several years later, it was proven that there is no real difference between the size of an African and a European individual's brain. Even after this error was rectified, racism and the dehumanization of African individuals has existed for several centuries. Additionally, studies, and interpretations of the Bible were wrongfully used to justify the reasoning behind the exploitation and marginalization of people of color. When attempting to comprehend why racisms still exist, it is important to keep in mind that there have been many laws that were established in American history, which subject people of color to inequality. The idea of race and what it means to be a part of a racial group is deeply embedded in us as human beings. For several decades, we have been disciplined to judge other human beings based on their phenotype, which gives us more of a sense of (racial) organization.

In episode one of “Race: The Power of an Illusion”, students took samples of their Mitochondrial DNA, which could solely be inherited from their mother (Wilson and Hunt 2002). In doing so, the students chose who they believed they were going to be more genetically similar, the person that they chose were often people of their own racial. Turns out the students whom were racially similar did not share as many genetic similarities with their own race as anticipated. Pertaining to the two examples above, and a combination of other facts that prove that race is solely a sociological term, no one can deny that Pilar Ossorio’s argument is valid.

After reflecting on the idea of race and its importance in today’s society, I believe it is imperative to inform ourselves about the history of race and what it means to be classified into a racial group. I am not ashamed to identify myself as an African American woman, whom has Caribbean roots. I have strong cultural pride and it continues to get stronger as I learn more about Black individuals and all that they have endured in the past. After investigating the reasoning behind Ossorio's statement, it becomes more difficult to understand who gave the "superior race" the authority to classify non-whites as inferior. Pursuing this further, as I dig deeper into the significance of race, it angers me to know that a single term, with the help of other aspects, could cause such an abominable effect on the human race.

Work Cited

Clark, B. A. (2013, April 06). Laws Designed to Disarm Slaves, Freedmen, and African-Americans. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from http://www.old-yankee.com/rkba/racial_laws.html

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (3RD ed.). New York: Routledge.

H. (2016, June 27).

RACE: The Power Of An Illusion - Episode 1: The Difference Between Us (PBS Documentary). Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7_YHur3G9g

Wilson, J. H., & Hunt, T. (2002). Molecular biology of the cell, 4th edition: A problems approach. New York: Garland Science.

URLs

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-01-03.htm

http://sociology.about.com/od/R_Index/fl/Race.htm

Revision: The Misconceptions of Race

https://mediadiversified.org/2015/05/01/why-arent-politicians-talking-about-racial-discrimination-in-the-job-market/ (photo)

In the film "Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1", microbiologist Pilar Ossorio commented "there's as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups". For over 200 years scientist believe that race is biologically real, but because of this scientific concept race is a social construction filled with inequalities. Today people identify race by physical traits such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape but lack the understanding that the evolution of race is rooted from negative ideology.

The scientific concept is that race is biologically real, but there are no genetic markers relating to race. For two hundred years scientist studies the human skull, eyes, heart, hair texture, and the human anatomy in general of different races. With these studies proclaimed external differences to explain superiority and inferiority ideologies among African American people. Scientist search to find any organ that was fundamentally different in size or character to prove the superiority of whites versus inferiority among African Americans. During the 20th century whites thrived while Native Americans were sent to reservations, immigrants crammed into urban ghettos and African Americans lived under Jim Crow laws. During that time diseases spread rampant, infant mortality and death rates went up but that only justified the preordained natural order for blacks and other races. That was confirmation of exactly what you should expect of African Americans being biologically different and being at the bottom of the social hierarchy. This relates to the article by W.O. Brown titled "Racial Inequality: Fact or Myth" because he discusses racial purity laws. In the film, whites that procreated with blacks where cast out and considered mongrels. In "Racial Inequality: Fact or myth", it also touches on anti miscegenation laws that were created to stop white and Blacks from being together (also Jim Crow laws).

Fredrick Hoffman’s extinction thesis practically said that all African Americans should be extinct because not even with aid or education can help how they are biologically made up. He compared the rates of death and disease among blacks and whites, and his research showed major differences. But Hoffman failed to mention or compare the resources and living arrangements. This relates to the example of the basketball league where whites dominated that sport. But later on African Americans would dominate in that sport in the early 90s. During the earlier years of basketball, resources were limited to African Americans due to reasons such as segregation, while whites had access to everything. Because of scientific misconceptions and false superior/inferior ideologies, race has become a social construction filled with inequalities that entail discrimination, stereotypes, prejudices and racism throughout the world.

My father is Dominican and my mother is Crucian and Puerto Rican. I would say I am Latina. I classify myself as a Latina because of the countries my families are from. But just like the DNA project the students did with tracing their ancestry, we can all belong to any type of race, and skin color has nothing to do with it. At first the film affected what I thought about my race with an instant stereotype that being Dominican means you’re good at baseball. But with the evidence proving that there is no biological relation to race, it just makes me think about the general idea of "why are Dominicans good at baseball" or "why is anyone good at anything"? First of all practice makes perfect. I strongly believe in that because as long as the resources are available you can learn or become good at it. With sports, if you have access to a park and have the resources to getting a basketball you can practice then perfect it. But if you’re learning to swim and don't have access to a pool or your neighborhood and school doesn't have the resources to get one then you'll never learn. There is no such thing as Dominicans having an extra arm muscle or their anatomy being biologically capable of playing baseball better than anyone else. Any race, or anyone can be good at anything with the dedication and the resources.

Works Cited

Brown, W. (1931). Racial Inequality: Fact or Myth. The Journal of Negro History, 16(1), 43-60. doi:1. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2713996 doi:1

@. (2016). Why aren't politicians talking about racial discrimination in the job market? Retrieved October 02, 2016, from https://mediadiversified.org/2015/05/01/why-arent-politicians-talking-about-racial-discrimination-in-the-job-market/

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Revision: Shaped by Social Forces

Alexandrea Johnson September 20, 2016

Shaped by Social Forces

Race has always held significant position in society. It is a concept whose definition is constantly fluctuating and expanding with the sociohistorical dogma of the time. An important aim of the race conversation is understanding the concept through two lenses: a sociological lens or a biological/scientific lens and explaining the relationship on micro and macro-level basis. It is used to categorize and predict behaviors, traits, personality, culture etc., of individuals based on their phenotypical features as a result of their genotypic traits. Prior to the concept of Race Formation, we attempted to understand race biologically. “[Race biology] inquires into all the factors capable of changing the innate constitution, that is, the quality, of a race, in a favourable or unfavourable direction,” (Lundborg, 1931). Race was something viewed as consistent, innate, and unchanging, however, the discussion of race formation gave new significance. Scientific racism laid the ground work for the social construction.

This photo was taken from Google.

Race can also be a basis in which identities are created and legitimized by social structures in which we give meaning via our participation. Race has always been a complexity to understand, however it has essentially shaped the understanding and organization of our social world from being incorporated in the implementation of public policy, to reference to a thought collective or “common sense” based on information taken from individual experience (Omi & Winant, 1994). Microbiologist Pilar Ossorio commented, “There’s as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups,” in the film “Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1.” This statement debunks many biological arguments on the concept of race, yet does not repudiate the notion that race indeed is a social fact. The movie exposed the many issues with race being a biological argument rather than a social one. The Mitochondrial DNA samples of the students in the movie were all entirely closer than they imagined, especially when compared to whom they believed they shared the greatest difference.

This photo was taken from oogle.

My personal view of race is quite conflicted. I am Black not only due to my phenotypical features, but also in regard to my position in society. Not only is that a label that would be ascribed to me, my treatment in society would prove it to be so. I am reluctant to call myself African American because I am so far removed from my African ancestry feel out of touch with the culture. I’ve have been born, raised, socialized and assimilated into American culture although I am generally not accepted. Nor are the spaces created for American culture, created with individuals like myself in mind. Golash-Boza mentions a study that described cultural racism in school systems which illustrated that African American students were more likely to receive punishment by administration due to their perception of the students oral expressions, body language & manner styles. They attributed the student’s failure to their culture as well as their behavior (Golash-Boza, 2016). Always viewed under the matriarch archetype, generally characterized as overly strong, aggressive, confrontational, loud, I was treated as such throughout much of my school experience as a child. I was also a student who got punished for the way teachers perceived my body language and passionate expressions. “Many dark-skinned women in this study battle to invalidate controlling images to prove, for instance, that they are not violent and not ghetto,” (Wilder, 2016). As an adult I find myself speaking, walking, and talking with a keen attentiveness in particular spaces, an action that is subconsciously conscious due to the internalized preconceived notions that are attached to my phenotypical features as well as from experiences in school for being punished for speaking a certain way. I used attribute many explanations of people’s behavior, including my own, to the notion of race (on the basis of skin color and culture) rather than the socialization of people in institutions based on race, however, now that I am more knowledgeable I know that people’s behavior in regard to race are a result of the socialization in which they receive.

References

Golash-Boza, T. M. (2016). Race & Racisms: A Critical Approach (brief edition). New York: Oxford University Press.

Lundborg, H. (1931). Social Forces. Race Biological Perspectives, 397-401.

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial Formation. Race and Ethnic Relations in the Twenty First Century, 91-107.

Wilder, J. (2016). Revisiting "Color Names and Color Notions": A Contemporary Examination of the Language and Attitudes of Skin Color Among Young Black Women. Jounal of Black Studies, 184-206.

http://web.mit.edu/racescience/in_media/what_dna_says_about_human/

https://www.buzzfeed.com/dayshavedewi/we-showed-a-bunch-of-people-a-problematic-photo-to-see-if-th?utm_term=.wjJG1Bl5g#.lpM6KEYgV

The Conceptualization of Race

“ Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode1,”is a film represents a scientific evident that within any racial group there are so many genetic differences. Students in the film who looked similar to their pairs thought that they would be generically more similar than those who looked different than them. Though, after the use of DNA generic test, students were surprised to found that they had more generic similarity to those who looked different than them. The film shows how our understanding of race is socially constructed. Race is socially conceptualized to classify people based on their physical appearance. While modern science shows that people have diverse genetic makeup, even among those who share “similar” skin color, the “folk concept” of race enhanced the idea that one’s visual appearance can explain the outcomes or behaviors of the collectivist group that the person belongs to.

Michael Banton (1989) explains in his book, Racial Theories, that race is no longer a “phenotype” which means physical characteristic. When we use the word race we are more likely to think about “the folk concept” of the word. According to Banton, the folk definition of race is the social formation that is created based on everyday experience (Banton, 1989). The use of such a word is not based on the academy of science. In fact, Michael Omi and Howard Winant (2008) would say that there is a racial formation that conceptualized the word race, which continues to emerge through scientific racism, and media (Omi& Winant, 2008).

The racial formation of race as a social concept was first created by some racist scientific Europeans, who argued that people are genetically different from one another and used this explanation to classify those who share the same ethnicity at one level of the racial hierarchy. In 1851, Samuel Cartwright, who was a physician, explains that“Drapetomania,”which is a disease related to mental issue, caused slaves to run away from their owners (Newitz, 2016). Cartwright’s works boosted the negative stereotype that portrays African Americans as dangerous.

Moreover, media continues to misrepresent African American as violent. One of the consequences of this racial formation is the murder of a Black man in Minneapolis during traffic stop by a policeman who claimed to feel threatened by the Black man. This incident demonstrated how media is disproportionately impacting Black people. According to the Yvonne Jewkes, a professor of Social Science, (2014) “there is little evidence that the United States has moved away from the centuries-old stereotype of Black males as “violent savages.” (Jewkes 2014, 5).

Race continues to reform around scientific theories that creates stereotypes. Racist ideologies used science to support certain claims to categorize individual based on what they call “genetic makeup.” Although it may seem that individuals with similar skin color share the same genes, the skin color genes have many versions. The diversity of the skin color gene results in diversely in skin color; there are people with different degrees of lightness and darkness. For instance, I am a Middle Eastern, and I am considered to be “White,” my skin color is not white, and I do not feel that this is the right category for me. This makes skin color not a reliable characteristic to group people. Therefore, using skin color to classify people is silly as using fingerprints to group people.

A picture for Samuel Cartwright by Equal Justice Initiative;

A History of Racial Injustice

A picture that was taken by Castile's girlfriend on her camera
phone after the police shot her boyfriend.
By: The Daily Mirror newspaper

Works Cited

Allen, N., Rouge, B. (2016, July 7). Fatal Shooting Of Black Man Philando Castile By Police

During Traffic Stop In Minneapolis Caught on Video By Girlfriend. The Telegraph

News. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/07/fatal-shooting-of-black-man-by-police-during-traffic-stop-in-min/

Banton, M. P. (1998). Racial Theories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-12.

Jewkes, Y. (2014). Punishment in Black and White: Penal “Hell-Holes,” Popular Media, and

Mass Incarceration. Atlantic Journal Of Communication, 22(1), 42-60.

Newitz, Annalee. (2016). “The 9 Most Influential Works of Scientific Racism, Ranked”

Gizmodo Media Group.

Omi, M.,Winant, H. (2008). Racial Formation, Understanding Race and Racism in the Post Civil

Rights Era. The Social Issues Collection. 1-99.