Term paper on Where Did Race Come From
Where Did Race Come From Essays
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Where Did Race Come From?
Jeffrey M. Fish, a psychologist who studied Brazilian culture and how they classify themselves stated that
different cultures classify physical differences in different ways. We classify these differences as race, but there is no such thing as race. Race is just a myth. Americans believe that Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and whites constitute biological entities called races, but it is a matter of cultural interest rather than scientific substance. This idea tells more about our culture rather than our species (251).
Race is a social construction that people were born into. We then classify different races with innate, biologically based different intellects, temperaments, and characters (Rothenberg 8). To some people racial classification is natural . A possible definition of race is through which path of social construction the society takes. Race is an idea that we created ourselves through social construction to classify the physical differences and cultural differences that we each have from our perspectives.
From infancy, human beings learn to see small differences in the faces of those around them. A baby would mostly see the faces of the parents, family members, relatives, and close friends of the family. As a black baby he/she would tend to see a much more variety of blacks faces than the faces of whites and visa versa for a white baby (Fish 256). At this point the babies do not know anything about race, but this is where the social construction of race and others begins. As human beings, we grow up with our own perceptions of race; however, our parents culture, friends, and media have huge influences.
As human beings throughout different parts of the world, we will eventually come upon the rules of how to classify race and our own racial identity. This is something that we do not even think about. It is, sometimes, being done in our heads unconsciously. One example would be television or films. The media gives their audiences a perception of how racial minorities look like and how they act, but these images that they scatter is false. The power of the media is sometimes under estimated. The media has the abilities to manipulate the philosophies of the dominant racial groups and their own beliefs (Omi, Winant 15). This shows us that we sometimes view race by some other s perspectives, which is a part of social construction. As their perspectives of race changes so will the society s definitions.
The meanings of race will eventually change over time and through different societies. Kenan Malik, form the book The Meaning of Race, says ...everyone knows what race is, but no one can quite define it (Malik 2). Different countries have much different prospective of what race is therefore they have different meanings. British law defines a race or racial group as a group of persons defined by reference to color, race, nationality or ethnic or national origin (23). A dictionary defines race as a category used in the classification of organisms that consists of a group of individuals within a species that are geographically, ecologically, physiologically, or chromosomally distinct from other members of the species (Race). If we were to open a dictionary or an encyclopedia in another country, if they had one, they would define race differently, but with the same concepts.
In a study by Dr. Fish, Brazilians have a different social construction of race or classification of race. Instead of race they call it types. They classify by physical appearances. They have two classifications for white . One named loura, meaning whiter than white , and the other being branca, meaning just white . On the other hand America s description of a branca is the same as a Hispanics despite the fact that they speak Portuguese. The Brazilian culture believes that there are enough characteristics...
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