Before we view the first of three parts of the film “Race: The Power of an Illusion”, you will participate in a pre-viewing activity for each episode described below.
YOUR TASK: Answer ONE of the four questions listed below using the comments section featured below.
> How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
> How many races do you think there are? What are they? How do you decide which race someone belongs to?
> Look around the room or around your community. Who do you think is likely to be most similar to you, biologically or genetically? Why?
> Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I would define race as a social construct that defines a population of people who share a similar biological makeup, a possible common ancestor descents, common language spoken, and physical characteristics. Some may argue that race doesn’t exist; it is just a social construct.I agree! Interracial marriage has increased drastically over the centuries, more and more people are multiracial. That is why asking an individual what race they are is a very difficult question, having to choose one of their multi-race. I strongly go by the ideology of we are one species! Race is an attempt to group the human species, biologically.
Replying to question # 1
How would I define race? And What does it mean to me?
I would define race how I was taught it. I was taught that there is the African race, the Caucasion, and the Mongolian race. Within those races there are ethnic groups and nationalities. If I have to think about race and what it means to me it’s going to have to entail what I have been taught, which colors my view. I feel race can have physical, biological traits and similarities. But I also feel race has to do with Nationality and Lineage as well. How far back do you go About 10 generations. 7-10 generations. And you should do this on both sides of your family. It has been a belief during slavery times and even now that if you have one drop of black blood in you… you are considered black. And I think it goes back to science with the dominant and recessive genes and traits. Scientist have found black to be a dominate trait and white a recessive trait. According to Jewish people race is determined by the mother. What ever race your mother is that is what you are. Are they trying to say women are more dominant than men 🙂 Hey you never know.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I would define race as one thing, the human race. Within the human race are different ethnics, culture, characteristics, religion, etc. which make us humans different.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
Race is a group of people who may born in the same place, and they follow the same ethics and cultures. However, it’s not mandatory that people in a same race has to follow same religion as well as characteristic difference are present between the people of same race.
3.)Look around the room or around your community. Who do you think is likely to be most similar to you, biologically or genetically? Why?
When I take a look around my community I see people from all different race, cultural and are from all around the world. However, when it comes to seeing which individuals are more similar to myself or my family biologically I would say any Hispanic. Since race might mean a group of people born in the same place, follow same religion and share the same culture. Therefore, there are Hispanics that share the same biologically meaning and might look similar like myself or family but still be from a different country.
I choose to answer How would you define race? What does it mean to you? To me I think race is a way of classifying humans by appearance. If humans looked all the same then there would not be race. Due to the fact there are different types of people in terms of looks, color, etc we categorize them. In scientific studies we need to classify people in different categories. Sometimes it is easy for scientists to distinguish different type of behavior and what not among different people.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
I believe each and every person develops their own interpretation/ideas about race. Although, I feel strongly that their ideas depend on where they reside. One’s environment can determine how one feels about a certain race. I believe that if the environment that one is raised in is diverse, that person is more likely to be accepting when it comes to each and every race. Also, i believe ideas and interpretations about race come from how one’s family speaks about race. If a persons family speaks negatively about one race, it is likely that this person will grow up speaking negatively about one particular race as well.
The source of my information is what i have observed within everyday life. I grew up half in Maine and half in Brooklyn. Clearly these places are drastically different. The diversity in Maine is slim to none and in Brooklyn, the diversity is incredibly large. I feel as though people from New York interact with many different races, where as people from Maine really do not know what other races are outside of their state. With this said, many people from places such as Maine where the diversity is minimal, tend to base their opinions off of what their peers say about certain races. All in all, in order to understand different cultures, races, and people, each and every person has to immerse themselves in a culture/race to truly see what all types of people are like.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
Race is a word that classifies a group of people who usually come from the same area and has similar outlook, skin color, and behavior. There are different kind of human races. Race clarifies how specific areas people act, behave, as well as about their lifestyle. When we see anyone new, we can have an idea about him or her from their prospective race.
I choose to answer the question about Race definition then I will explain its meaning to me.
Race is a manmade approach used to classify humans based on their origin, spoken language or physical appearances. There are no scientific evidences that support Race but groups of people from different places use it to take advantage of other groups and deprive them from basic rights. No matter how hard I will try I will not be able to deny the existence of Race in our social environment. It is something that defines who we are and whose group we affiliate to . Race is less noticeable in mixed communities because of the interaction between different people but it is unavoidable in small communities. Interaction, education and government social policies can be used to solve the problem of segregation that is based on Race.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I define race as a group of people who share the same culture, background, language, and same physical characteristics. To me race is just a creation of society to categorize people belonging to different parts of the world. Humans as a specie have become different over time, creating diverse groups that make the word race difficult to categorize humans.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
My ideas about race come from my family. They were the first to give me any kind of information and I based my ideas off of theirs. I asked questions and they were able to draw conclusions from them. I don’t think all they’re answers were correct. However, they were able to base their opinions and judgments to answer the questions. For example, when I asked my mom, “Why are African Americans considered black and not brown?” She replied because it goes back to slavery days and the idea of African Americans being black has always stuck with society.
Race is a complicated issue. It is not just a complication in society but in understanding what it means or what it is supposed to mean. It raises the question of why did past generations come up with this method of distinguishing between different groups of humans? I believe that it is just a past belief in order to separate not just physical and biological features but also in the way that we act, think, talk, walk and distinguish ourselves among others in the world. However, it has developed into a much greater problem and the effects of the past beliefs on what it should be has put a burden on many groups of people who were not even asking to be different in the first place. Race comes in many textbooks, speeches and also online articles but some do not tell the whole story behind it. i get my ideas from a variety of sources and i make my judgements on what I believe is fair. I believe that race should not exist and that the excuse of what it has become should be eliminated because we are all human. Therefore, with every human comes imperfections and we are all definitely imperfect because of this as a result. As far as similarity goes, I think that the sky is the limit but in terms of appearance possibly Latin American to Western European people, but I think that we are all similar because at the end of the day we are all “Human”.
4) My idea of race would have to come from my history as well as my society. I grew up in a predominantly African American community. Growing up seeing a dark skin person just meant they were African. But as i got older I realized I cannot justify someones race based on the color of their skin. There were a lot of people I met that if I still lived with the mentality that dark skin meant you was African I would of been screwed. I say society influenced my idea of race because media and the internet play a big role in how people classify themselves. They say the lighter your skin the prettier, but they also confuse the term “race” for something else. One day i was taking a survey and i asked my proctor why do I have to check black for race if I am African? I am still looking for this answer and refuse to check black so i check other.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
My ideas about race came from my family and the community that i live in, also the source of most of the information was in fact the very city that i live in today and that is New York City, this place is the most diverse city on earth. I have learned about the many different races they are because in this city alone you have over a hundred and some countries, as i grew up i got to venture out and experience the many races, cultures, and religions. The Knowledge i gain from the interactions with everyone i came across gave me a more in depth understanding of where everyone came from and their history. In all, i can’t beat the experience that i have, other then traveling the world.
Race is considered to be a group of people with the same background and physical appearance. What does race means to me? Race means nothing in my point of view, someone should not be treat differently because of their background or their physical appearance. People should be treated equally despite their “race”.
Look around the room or around your community. Who do you think is likely to be most similar to you, biologically or genetically? Why?
When I look around my community, there are predominately African American and Hispanic people. If I had to choose who is more likely to be similar to me, I would say everyone. I do not believe in race. We all grew up together, shared similar experiences, speak the same language. Besides my family who share the same blood as me, we are all the same if we strip ourselves of our skin. So why pretend we are biologically different because of what society considers “race”.
Look around the room or around your community. Who do you think is likely to be most similar to you, biologically or genetically? Why?
When I look around my community consist of predominately African American and Hispanic people. If I had to choose who is most similar to me, besides my family who share the same blood as me, I would say everyone because if we strip ourselves of our skin, we are all the same. We all may not share the same DNA, but our makeup is very similar.
> How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
Race are the differents traits and culture that together are part of what humam being definition in term of how different people around the World are.
> How many races do you think there are? What are they? How do you decide which race someone belongs to?
According to Wikipedia race as a social construct, is a group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics. Keeping that definition in mind you can say there are many races. There are many groups all over the world which each have their own distinct characteristics. After watching the video I understood that race is a human invention. Although we may have certain distinct physical characteristics our mitochondria shows that there’s more similarities then we think
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
Race identify which group of people do they belong to. It help us know where they come from, which languages they use, what type of food they eat, and what their culture or religion. It also describes the physical appearance for each group.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
Race is how one group of people perceive other groups as being different based on certain characteristics, such as, physical appearance and attitudes . Pigmentation, body structure, hair, eye, nose, mouth, lifestyle and social existence are among the judgmental classification of ones race.
The issue of race has been around since ancient times whereby one group of people feel like they are superior to other groups. This feeling of superiority is perhaps only a matter of privileged existence but of no significant biological evidence.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
Race is the broad division of people based on their visible characteristics like skin color, hair texture, and facial features. From my perspective race is just the set of visible biological traits,having nothing to do with person to person interaction.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
My ideas about race come from society. It ranges from TV (social media) to what friends say. We are brain washed to think that race is how one looks talks wears ect. This is backed by social media and other things we deal with in our daily lives. Throughout the day we can see how people are judged by their race.
Race in my definition would be considered as stereotyping a certain ethnic group as they are “seen” by other individuals. People always categorize others by their appearances such as nose structure, type of hair, height,color, and etc. Just because people are darker or lighter everyone should have the same equal rights, no one should be treated differently or have more power than others.
how do you define race? what does it mean to you?
race can be considered as a group of people who share similar or different characteristic such as hair style, eye color, skin color, and physical body structure. race is the opportunity that is given to a certain group over another group of people. we are created race because of favoritism. we all know that the society gives the white people a lot of advantages over black people. they have more privileges. we watched from the movie how they will rather give a job to white guy that has criminal over a black guy that has no criminal record. even though the black guy is graduated from college, they will still prefer the white guy. For example there are areas where only white people are allowed to live there. racism is exist because we not treated people equally. racism means a lot to me. I come to realized how people creating barrier to prevent others from advancing. racism stands in front of us like a big mountain to kill our dreams.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
In my opinion, race is not a physical differences from people. Race is a group of people who have the same religion, culture or level. It means the people in the same race can understanding each other easier. That’s why from the beginning of this class, I believe race should be a group of people who was born and come from the same town. However, I’m sure that race is not biological and no genetic also