10 thoughts on “Week Three

  1. The term “race” has a long history and before it was used to divide people by physical appearance, as skin color and to justify racism and genocide in order to put people with white skin above those with different skin color. I vaguely remember, how in my school (outside the USA) we studied that there were 3 major races: White, Asian and Black. And now, with the united efforts of scientists, anthropologists, genetics it was proved that we all are the same subspicies of homo sapiens and there is no race genes. The term of “race” is not biological but sociological, “artificial” and was emerged thru the society. And now with globalization and open-minded society, there is no “race” but ‘populations” that share “ethnicity”. And it’s great, in my opinion.

    • I like the way you break it down MPeabus. However, so with “population that share ethnicity”, should we rather base ourselves on ethnicity rather than race? If it’s ethnicity, why? Also, if we categorize ourselves into ethnic groups, do we share any biological, sociological, or any genetic trace at all that will define who we are?

      But you have good point and I value it.

  2. Racism has been a growing problem for years. I feel like people are afraid of those who are different from themselves. They feel their security in who they are, is threatened so they feel that they have to put others down to feel good about themselves. Working in retail I have encountered “personally mediated racism” under the suspicion aspect of it by my manager who constantly tells me to watch a group of African Americans who he assumes will steal our merchandise because of the way they’re acting. Which shouldn’t be that way.
    I really liked how the author used the concept of the gardener being the government and explaining how we should mix the soils together so that the flowers can grow stronger and beautiful together.

  3. The idea or debate of race is like a law – it continues to evolve over time with different meanings or ideologies, which to me, means almost the same thing if we are to look deeply into human origin. And like most social scientists, biologist, philosophers, theorist, etc, the debate will continue and new ideology about it existence or non-existence will always continue to raise questions by old and new academic disciplines alike. However, if the debate should continue on race, don’t we have to trace where the first human(s) came from? And when we do, should or shouldn’t we say race is a primordial matter that has evolved with all its genetic, biologic, social, and all other criteria put together as we, humans evolve and spread out throughout the world and accustomed ourselves with different behaviors, social lifestyle, etc, as our skin color changes?

  4. The concept of human races appears to be solidly grounded in present-day biology and our evolutionary history. But if you asked that conference of geneticists to give you a genetic definition of race, they wouldn’t be able to do it. Human races are not natural genetic groups; they are socially constructed categories.

  5. The topic of race and racism is an interesting and very sensitive topic depending to whom you speak. Individual races and ethnicity have went through a lot in our history and it not only affects one group of people or skin color. The problem with this topic for me is that all the occurrences are manipulated for American conservancy. Historians select what is valid or important and leave out the rest. We are educated by the government therefore the ideologies reflective of the ideas that benefit the individuals that manipulate the laws and policies to fit in with the current trends.
    Growing up in a community of mixed ethnicity has really given me a different outlook on many of the ideologies appropriated to different “races”. I notice that individuals would stand up for ideas that are beneficial for themselves as long as they realize the importance for self-preservation. When I act on my ideas, its foundation is not on race, but centered on emotion and beliefs.

  6. I learned from the reading that race is “the idea of race which refers to superficial physical differences that a particular society considers significant.” A lot of people mix up the meanings when they describe race and ethnicity. Race is now used to categorize a group of people, which ethnicity describes the culture where these people originate from. Race is just a category because all people come from the same species. People are then separated into groups to specify which race is which.

    • I’ve always been categorized in two different races because I come from two different backgrounds. My mother being Dominican and my father being Black American. Even though I grew up knowing that everyone was the same, they just might look different on the outside. I’ve always had it hard choosing what race I would categorize myself as, but I do know that I am BOTH Hispanic and African American.

  7. “Race” was once known as a way to describe someone different. Race was a division of physical appearance such as hair, skin and eyes and a division of how much power a race had towards another. It’s to say that much of those ideas haven’t change today in respect of race. However people around the world have been migrating from one place to another throughout the years, adjusting to custom, languages and beliefs. Thanks to that people have been evolving with different custom, culture, or even skin color. For example my parents are from Mexico and they have different beliefs from people on this country. I was born and raised in the U.S so I know the country history. Thanks to my mom and dad I have two cultures that I can share to my kids. My kids would probably be a lighter or darker skin color than me depending on who I marry. Depending on who might my kids marry, their kids would be different, and so on. Race should not be the reason on why you treat differently, or judge someone on how they look and act. For example if a Mexican steals something you will assume that all Mexicans are alike. We all were born with hands, eyes and legs, besides color and culture we are all the same and if cancer or other disease doesn’t judge how people look, or act than why shall we.

  8. Race has always been a scientific word for me. So when I hear race, I just picture, different species or something. However the term “race” used in society is used to describe different groups of humans. It’s like a generalized version of “ethnicity” but the word “race” has a lot more tension and history since it has a negative context to it. There are different appearances in humans, but we are genetically all the same, with probably a few minor differences, but as a species we are all the same. It’s always weird to me to hear someone say another person is of a different race. Good thing is that from the articles to further states that race is not a scientific thing, but a social thing. I feel racism won’t really be gone, since we are all entitled to our opinions and with society trying to be politically correct (aka: P.C.) about almost everything. Sad part is history is steeped in the concept of race, and treating one another differently because of it (either positively or negatively).

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