Essay Example on Historically racial categories were not neutral or Objective

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Inferiority and superiority Historically racial categories were not neutral or objective Groups were differentiated so they could be excluded or disadvantaged Before this exercise I thought of the term race as a group of people that share the same culture ethnicity and language After doing some research I would define the term race as a group of people with a common feature or features and having distinct physical characteristics Now race is frequently based on such the concept of genetic markers as blood groups When talking about genetics it is examined that the transmission of traits from one generation to another is a complex process The most surprising information that I learned is that there is as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups We tend to think that people of the same race are more alike than people of different races However that is not the case There is not one characteristic gene or trait that distinguishes all members of one so called race from all members of another so called race This is because there are inconsistencies in the way different groups are defined For example Africa continent has the widest range and greatest diversity of skin color Egyptian people have lighter skin then people from Nigeria People in southern India are as dark as many Africans Most traits are inherited independently of one another The genes for hair texture have nothing to do with genes for skin color blood types body shape or athletic ability

The presence of one trait does not necessarily signal the presence of another trait Another thing that surprised me as well is that we all share most of the same ancestry Humans are very much smaller genetically Genealogical researchers show that if we go back five generations we would have more than 30 ancestors If we go back 10 generations we would have about thousand ancestors Eighty five percent of all variation among human beings is between any two individuals within any local population This is because humans have always migrated and mixed their genes Genetic differences do exist between individuals and between groups but those differences do not follow racial lines The difference is mostly between males and females and our unique personal traits Furthermore our DNA is made up of bits and pieces of DNA from millions of ancestors that are unknown going back thousands of generations We are far more alike than we are different Humans come in all shapes and sizes Classifying them into groups is a subjective process influenced by cultural ideas and political priorities We all think that people of same race are alike than people of different races whether it s sharing similar physical traits genes or a geographic origin However every race has similarities and differences with all other races There are few similarities I have with African Americans such as skin color nose shape and head size My skin color is medium dark and most of the people that are from Africa are also medium dark skinned If we compare nose shapes we have long narrow noses and about half the Africans have the same nose shape Head size is thought to vary between races but people in India and South Africa on average have medium sized heads which is another similarity between the two races There are a few differences between Asians and African Americans even though there are few similarities between the two races 



One difference is the languages between those two races There are about 30 official languages in India and about 17 official languages in Africa Another difference is the religion In India Hinduism is the major religion of the population In Africa 40 of the population is either Christian or Muslim As the race concept evolved it justified extermination of Native Americans exclusion of Asian immigrants and taking of Mexican lands There are things people can do to address racial disparities At the micro level I would talk to my friends about the issue and discuss how everyone is treated based on their race denied the rights and freedom that others have taken for granted To resolve this issue I can begin with telling few of my friends to treat everyone equally no matter whom they are or what race they belong to The society can also address racial disparities at the macro level They can make rules and regulations such as to respect every individual give everyone equal rights so that they do not judge any other individual of different race Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access opportunities and resources We cannot pretend that race does not exist because that is not the same as creating equality Race is more than stereotypes and individual prejudice Races are very real around the world To understand them we must look in depth the culture see what people thinks about other cultures and social interaction rather than biology


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