Do you believe race exits? Or is this a social construct?

Question

Please elaborate rather then just a yes or no.

Answer 1

Race is largely a social construct.  Scientifically, it's a sketchy category at best, and our ideas about racial types don't really hold up too well to scientific scrutiny. As the poster above me pointed out, it's not based on genotypes.  Even categorizing race based on phenotype doesn't hold up very well; in analyzing bones for racial characteristics, some characteristics are more likely in certain populations, but they aren't limited to those certain populations.  So, you could easily have a caucasian person that has Asian facial proportions for example.

For all intents and purposes, race tends to be about skin color.  There are some secondary features that tend to be predominant among different racial groups, but they're not limited to those groups.

Different societies also have different ideas about race.  Someone might be considered "white" in one country (Brazil, for example) and be considered "of color" in another.  That is a strong indicator of race as an arbitrary construct of society.

Answer 2

Race exists as a biological fact if you define it as a particular strain of characteristics that identifies a particular population of animal or plant. Historically populations develop certain tendencies due to geographic separation by being on islands, separated by oceans or mountain ranges. "Races" of agricultural plants and animals have also been developed by selective breeding by a controlled separation (by man). Look at our dogs. From German Shepherds to toy poodles all are the same basic animal but each breed is actually a "race". with respect to the Human species the separation by oceans, mountains and even large rivers directed the evolution of the races with the concentration of certain genetic traits. in the last 500 years man has become very mobile at migrating around the Earth with the advent of ocean going ships and discovering that the "Earth was not flat". Another example of race is with domestic cattle. There are red ones with white faces (Hereford breed), all black (Black Angus) these are meat breeds generally shorter and stockier with less bone and more flesh. There are black and white (Holsteins) with long legs and large udders for high volume milk production. The long legs help keep the large udder from dragging the ground.  There are several other "races" of cattle all that can interbreed and probably from a common ancestor. Brahmas (India), Jersey, Guernsey, Shorthorn, Long Horn (Texas), etc. So - "race" definitly exists and certain races of the same species can have very different traits.

Answer 3

That's interesting because yes, there are definitely different races and they would exist without our defining them. However, the fact that we have categorized and separated ourselves on the basis of race, means that it is a social construct!

Answer 4

Yeah, of course race exists, and yes, it Is a social construct. Not to go all "conspiracy theorist" on y'all, but it was the d**n people in control trying to keep the population of the world divided, prejudiced and weak so that they could be manipulated easier.

...Okay, rant over, I swear.

Answer 5

race and creed are alive and kicking and long may they remain so

Answer 6

no,its a pigment of the imagination

Answer 7

Race does not exist based on genetic information. Ethnicity is a real way to put people into categories which uses culture as a basis to group people. Also it is very difficult to define "races" even if we wanted to because there are no clear lines between populations everything kind of fades into eachother, for example if you look at the geographical locations of where a particular trait such as hair color, you will see it slowly change to a new color as you move away from the area you are looking at. It is not like one city has blond hair and one has black hair. Plus there are no populations where all the people all have a particular trait. So no race does not exist. It is a social construct.

Answer 8

Of course it does.

Answer 9

If you had a stretched out rainbow, how would you be able to tell where red ended and orange began? It's the same with race. It is an atificial description but it does have relevance, because red is not orange, and it definitely isn't blue.

We are not a homogenous species, despite what the PC police try to tell you. Some groups have genes specific to them. A pygmy is very different to a a Japanese person, different enough to fufill the criteria for a sub-species.

The Brazil example from Heather is very nice, but Brazilians are a historically modern blend of African, European and Native South American. It would be like saying mixed fruit juice means there is no such thing as apple juice. The classical 'racial' divisions come from the physical barriers of geography, and founder effects of small groups of settlers expanding out to become an entirely new ethnic group. The genetic norm for one of these 'seperated in antiquity' groups will differ from another in pretty consistent ways. The visible differences aren't the only differences between races either. It's an ignorant person that thinks that. One particular blood type gene is native only to Africans, and it's used to measure the amount of European ancestry in African Americans. The Kilanje tribe in Kenya have very dense muscles, some Finnish people have very thick blood that makes them near tireless, some Italians have massively high cholesterol but don't get heart attacks.. There is a very long list of race specific genes, although these will spread as humanity becomes more mobile.

Brazil is a great exampleof racial harmony though.

Answer 10

Race only exists in the mind. It's a catergorization based largely on phenotypes, and not genotype.

Because phenotypes are not mutually exclusive to each so called "race", it's only a broad catergorization.

For example, if some mutation occurred to a so called "Aryan" person's DNA before birth, and as a result the Aryan developed squinty eyes, darker skin, and a flatter nose... would you call him part of the "asian race"?

What makes him different from an asian, if he has near exactly asian DNA? Nothing. It's all in the social mind.

The inherent purpose of the concept of race is to form prejudiced ideas-- to quickly evaluate someone with as little data about the person as possible.

Answer 11

I don't think it exists because it would be difficult to draw definitive lines from where one 'race' ends and another begins. For example, to use a personal example,  technically I'm Caucasian (both parents from Poland), however I learned in osteology that I have certain dental features that would indicate that I am of Native American or Asian descent (which could probably be traced back to when the Mongols invaded Poland, raping & pilaging, etc). It's really all mixed up & you can't really seperate out & put people into neat little categories, into what people refer to as 'race'.  I think sometimes when people talk about 'race' they are really referring to ethnicity & culture.

Answer 12

it does exist.

Now, i know many people are touchy-feely about being black, white, orange or purple or whatever. But think of it this way: when you get a dog, you ask what race it it. stop being so racits then!?

Answer 13

Yes and it is. Just remember that all humans are of the same species and indeed we vary very little if you compare us to dogs - all the same species and can interbreed - think chihuaua and great dane! Actually don't, the mind boggles!

Answer 14

surely race is a human concept.

Answer 15

Race absolutely exists, and it is a social construct.

Answer 16

I think one can argue that since the idea exists in society, it does exist.  But from an anthropological aspect, race doesn't exist and it is a social construct.  As a physical anthropologist, I have to argue that ancestry exists.  One can see differences in ancestral environment in the bones of some people.  Does that equal race?  No, because the idea of race has a different meaning in different cultures, while the idea of ancestry is typically universal.  If someone is descended from Europeans, that is a fact that can't be refuted very easily.  However, race is something abstract that can't be given a universal definition.  What it means to be black or white in one culture can certainly mean totally different things in another.  Basically, race is an idea, a social classification that has meaning only to the culture that creates it.