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: Â 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?
* Race is your biological features. It can be consisted of either skin color, skin tone, eye, or hair color. It’s not something that can be changed. Race is an indication of the heritage which you were born, regardless of location or learned behavior.
Race means a lot of things to me. It describes me to be unique. And that God made me different than other people. It defines me.
> How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I define race as the specific traits that one has that distinguish you from others. Most distinctive traits would be the tone of your skin to the texture of your hair.
That means that not everyone is the same and that race is unique to its own. Every race is not the same as they also have features that other races do and don’t.
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The term race refers to the concept of dividing people into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics (which usually result from genetic ancestry). Races are assumed to be distinguished by skin color, facial type, etc. However, the scientific basis of racial distinctions is very weak. Scientific studies show that racial genetic differences are weak except in skin color.
Race doesn’t mean much to me. I actually never heard of it or thought about it when I was in my origin country. I can’t put exactly myself in any race. I am supposed to be “Asian” but mostly people think Asians are from china and Japan. I am not from any of these country or similar to them in appearance. I think labeling people in races is another way to discriminate other. Whenever we heard of someone from a particular race, we automatically form biases about that person without even knowing that person.
How many races do you think there are? What are they? How do you decide which race someone belongs to?
I believe in the existence of only one race -the human race- and think of the differences in physical appearance between humans as something that make us unique. Since there is no scientific evidence that supports relevant difference between “races”, I also believe that the prejudice and discrimination against certain groups is not a matter of racism but classism. I think that the obstacles we face and the words people use to explain our behavior is related to the social class we belong.
1) RACE is defined as the color, origin, group or the nationality a particular person is from.It is believed and followed that the members of certain race possess certain characteristics or certain abilities. Each race members have their own characteristics , colors and behaviors.
For me, I am known to be in the Asian race followed by the brown skin color tone and the Asian look.However, I do not posses small eyes and white face as the most Asians from China or Korea looks. Most people thinks Asia is only China, Korea and Japan. That is how they categorize Asians. But I am from Nepal and I am an Asian. I feel shocked sometimes when people thinks Nepal is in Europe and marks my race as European. But Nepal is in Asia and I am an Asian.
> Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
My first ideas about race would have to be from a combination of family, friends, school, and movies. After a while, race just became something to fill out on a piece of paper (filling out forms for jobs, applying to schools/colleges, applying for licenses, medical papers, etc.). I think since middle school, I already had an idea that race wasn’t a biological thing, but a matter of how we treat and address each other. In middle school, I used to watch a lot of videos about origin of life and how we evolved to how we are today from a single-celled organism and so on. So, a majority of my sources of information were refined as I grew older and continued along my education in school and onto college (my questions on race, were pretty much answered and never really researched/dove deeper into the topic).
I’ve really only viewed a person by their actions, and their body language (whether it’s tensed, relaxed, etc).
> How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I believe that race can be defined as a person’s physical characteristics meaning bone structure, skin color, and eye color. I think that a lot of people get the idea of Ethnicity mixed up with Race in a lot of situations because it seems these days people think that these words are synonyms. However I would define ethnicity as cultural factors like nationality, regional culture, ancestry, and language. For me race is a social construct that we have created to separate each type of person in this world based on their physical characteristics and stereotypical actions. Personally I don’t agree with using race as a way to define a person. I believe ever since people started classifying each other by race there have been problems between races that could have been avoided that we still have today because of stereotypes that come along with description of race. Humans are humans and the only thing that makes us unique from one another is our ethnicity or in other words where we come from in this world because peoples’ genes are all pretty similar.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I would define race as the physical appearances of a person, by the external parts of the body, which is the hair color, skin color, types of hair, etc. Race of the person is already determined by their parent genes. The person may belongs to a particular race that were assigned to them when they were born. But it doesn’t change the person internal mindset and behavioral. In society, we determine a person by their race, but it doesn’t makes the person that is superior than the other person. Every person is born in equal opportunity. The path of the person life cant be determined by the race. Race means nothing to me, because race has nothing to do with the person mindset and behavior, every person is born in a particular race but its mindset and behavior is taught by their parent and their personal experience.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
Looking back at when I was a child, I would say that I found out about race when I started school in New York. I was in the third grade and I was made aware that there are different races. I was born in the Dominican Republic and race is something that I never thought about before moving to the U.S. It was in third grade that my teacher spoke to us about all the races and I started noticing that people had differences.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
Race is a common issue,we must look at the whole factor of race it seems to be understandable or justify but it’s wrong. Refreshing back from when i was growing up, in a Caribbean country where mostly 85 % percent people were black, there was that one girl from my kindergarten class she was an albino race but for what ever reason she had the attention of everyone to be the most beautiful girl compare to the rest of the girls simply because of her complexion,if you ask me now i will probably think different i dont know why her completion made her so superior that every other students from class at that time.Even how much we try comprehend race or class problems, we can never be certain of what outside issues we are going to be faced . I think racism should be discussed with children in Kindergarten, because that way it will prevent them from issues they might be facing later on their lives. It’s never too early to explain to them that other people might act different towards them. But its important,nonone wants their children to feel like they’re worthless or harmed just because of his/her colour.
Look around the room or around your community. Who do you think is likely to be most similar to you, biologically or genetically? Why?
I think that someone who has the same skin color or a family member would have be the most similar to me genetically. If I should choose one person, it would be my mom, because we resemble each other in terms of facial appearance and skin color. Having faces that look alike made me think that my mom and I have similar genetic makeup. In terms of skin color, I am a person who is very interested in sports such as athletics (sprinting) and soccer, which require good athletic ability. Over the years while reading sport articles, experts normally assume that black people are more athletic than people of other races because of their genetic makeup, and I believed. This is why I was convinced that the person most similar to me genetically would have to be black especially because I am also very athletic. However, I had second thoughts about the assumption mainly due to the following points. Not all black people are athletic and a white track star, Dafne Schippers, won the 200m at the recent Athletics World Championships, in a time (21.63 seconds) that majority of black women have never ran, so I now realize that more research is needed on genetics because I start believing what experts say.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
Although the existence and non-existence of race continues, interestingly, I would define race, as what you acquire from your parents. I perceive it as your genetic and biological makeup that gives and shows most, if not all, of the traits and elements of these two mechanism that validate who you are – a replica of your parents or a family , or distance family member (whether skin color, eyes, nose, hair, etc). Secondly, it means to me that I know from which particular group or blood line I came from; and if i share some DNA composition with someone other than my race or skin color, it’s probably because that person’s great, great, grandfather shares some genetic biological elements with my blood line.
How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
In my definition, race to me is a classification system that is use to categorize humans into groups based on there ethnic, genetics and even appearance. When I filled out various of applications ,forms ,letters, there are always only a basic four to five different race group to pick from to categorize yourself. Sometimes I wonder why does it matter to know what race I belong to. Would you only accept me into the college/organization/company if I’m a certain race? Or just for other purposes? I am Sri Lankan and I am categorized as Asian. When I meet new people they always ask me “If your brown(Asian), why do you have such a “Hispanic” last name(Fernando)”?.Well..history. I believe it is important to know where you come from and your true identity and not just what other people label you as.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
My ideas of race were taught to me by family, friends and my surrounding community. I was taught all the bias that are faced by blacks and then all the other bias passed on to other races. I never really discriminated against other races but I did believe the differences that were taught to me, true. I lived according to those beliefs as well. As I became other and race began to be addressed more often, I started to learn the differences were not much of a difference. My perception changed and I promised I would not pass these false beliefs to my children or other people.
Where do your ideas about race come from? What are the sources of your information?
My ideas of race come from my everyday life. I would say mainly from television. My mind clouded with stereotypical traits and social norms of other races. That changed entering school, seeing different races and living in the same environment. We all act the same its the environment that molds us into who we are. As I grew older my view of race changed again entering high school. Seeing people of the same race act differently from one another. One thing I haven’t seen differently is the food. The culture stays with the race but personality, actions, likes, dislikes, and attitudes all change between each individual. My source of race is the world around me There’s still a lot I don’t know about other races other than the stereotype, but I’m very open minded to have those stereotypes shattered and ready to embrace and respect the culture of each race.
> How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I would defined the word as an idea made by people to distinguish the difference of skin tone, facial expression, beliefs, eye color and type of hair of others. The word race is use to separate other people from us just because they are different from us. To me the word race shouldn’t be use at all, because every one is the same. It doesn’t matter what skin tone, eye color, hair type you are because every individual could have their own interest and be good at what they do.
Question 1:
I would define race as the physical features of your body, whether it’s skin color, your hair , your eyes and etc. It’s something you’re born with and live with for the rest of your life, it cannot be changed and it should be something you should embrace because it makes you for who you are.
Race to me is everyone being their own unique person. Everyone has similarities and differences whether it’s genetic or physical features.
question ! : Race is something that defines differences and uniqueness among people from all over the world. I believe that race is based on one’s skin color and the origin of a family. Most of the time, we make judgements about one’s race while just looking at their skin color. Most of the application forms in United States ask for race and have very specific options, that define either the skin color of a person or their place of origin. For example, Black, white, Asian.
> How would you define race? What does it mean to you?
I would define race as a something people use to distinguish diffrent groups of people. Some of the traits people consider when categorizing someone into a certain race would be skin color, hair texture, and practically all other physical traits. This is not always a good thing because people often unconsciously judge an individual based on stereotypes.