Harold Ruiz Professor Milton Great Books I March 25, 2013 The Negro’s Place in Nature Even now in today’s society, sadly, we’re still having debates about whether or not all the different races around the world should fall into the category of human species. The word “race” is only just a perception we humans use to identify ourselves because of some our physical differences. On “The Negro’s Place in Nature” by Dr. James Hunt, he and other scientists argue, with their bias scientific approach, whether the “Negro” should be considered human like the European, or a separate species nearer to the ape. Dr. Hunt presents so-called “factual” claims from other scientist, in whom he agrees with, that “the Negro race in some of its characters is the lowest of existing races” [page 6]. As stated earlier, the meaning of the word “race” is merely the categorization of different populations, on earth, among humans.
Minorities in America pursued on finding the “whiteness” in order to be placed on a higher-class level since “whiteness became a sense of property” for them . “Whiteness protected one against being an object of property” since it “insured greater economic, political, and social security” .The racial hierarchy placed individuals into certain classes based on their color, whites being the highest and the rest on the bottom. The minorities in the bottom felt insecure and found it unfair that whites received the highest ranks in society thus causing unrest between racial groups. However, even though certain minorities were passed as white, the government, which was ruled by the superior Anglo-Saxons, determined their status level in society. Nevertheless, they were definitely not in the same status level as
In other words, as long as middle and working class groups are split along racial lines, they will fail to see how their combined efforts could change the political imbalance and promote policies that reflect their interests. A vision of American society can highlight racial differences rather than commonalities, which makes it difficult for Americans to see the need and appreciate the potential for mutual political support across racial lines. “When the U.S. was founded, equality was a radical new idea. But our early economy was based largely on slavery. The concept of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted” (“Race: The Power of an Illusion”).
Additionally social science has played a peculiar role in the problem of race according to Bobo. Throughout his paper speaks to the social injustice and inequalities that still are very prevalent and insist that affirmative action is necessary to continue to attempt to level the playing field for racial
Eugenics The idea of eugenics is clearly an old world set of ideals that in hindsight are both absurd and naïve. What today we might consider a problem in society based on lack of opportunity, eugenicists would view as a continuance of bad genes being passed from generation to generation. According to these old world ideals factors such as race or race mixing contribute to these social blemishes. Early eugenicists sometimes defined race by physical appearance, language, or region of origin. In addition to physical or regional attributes, eugenicists would accompany their definitions of race through anthropometry, which is the measurement of body parts.
This is just another example of how races are a socially constructed term. Another example of how race is a socially constructed term, is in the past and even in the present race has been used as a way to separate two groups of people. This allows one group to do things to or treat in a manner that would be considered unacceptable, but is tolerated because they have found a way to make the other group inferior to them. An obvious and well known example of this is slavery people made it common knowledge that blacks were inferior to other races and it made it socially acceptable for them to be bought, traded and treated like
Consequently because of their brown colored skin they are seen inferior compared to the Anglo and it sustains like this even in the twentieth century. Ralph Guzman, author of The Function of Anglo-American Racism in Political Development of Chicanos: from Chicano Politics: Readings, states that the Anglo assume that Mexican Americans “are their inferior” (49). Who are they to say that Mexicans are inferior? Their light skin and colored eyes do not make them a better person compared to any other. The fact that many of these Mexican Americans come from very poor cities and where poverty is extreme has to do a lot with these Anglo’s assumptions.
In our world, mankind has classified the people living on this planet by the colour of their skin. The categories that came out of that are known as races. Those who believe the race is a real biological entity argue that we still believe in it. Those who view race, not as a biological entity but as a social construction, argue that race is a figment of racist imaginations. Science, they claim, has disproved the reality of race, and only prejudice gives it validity.
The Social Hierarchy of Race “Race” is not a viable biological concept. Although the ideas of race have been seen throughout history as far back as ancient civilizations, it wasn’t until the 19th century that anthropologists made attempts to systematize racial divisions, according to the Oxford American Dictionary. The American Anthropological Statement on Race as well as Jonathan Marks article “Science and Race,” both stress that race although treated as a biological variation between people, is actually a way to classify the human race into various subspecies according to the cultural rules of society rather than the laws of biology. Race may have begun as an innocent way of describing one’s lineage but over time stemmed into a pyramid of
The definition of race has always been somewhat of a question mark in the science of anthropology, sparking debates in terms of the ‘correct’ approach one should take in classifying race. Classification in an anthropological sense is concerned with the way different people see the world (Hendry, 2008: 20), thus a generic definition of race would never suit everyone, as different people have different theories on identifying race, and will more than likely continue to do so. Some base race purely on physical appearance such as skin and hair colour, whereas others practice a more scientific approach. Others, when asked “what is race?” struggle to give an answer, as it is a question many have never pondered on before. A satisfactory understanding