Amin Zoud Anthropology 4311 – Medical Anthropology Dr. Margaret A. Graham January 30th, 2012 Critical Summary: Why Genes Don’t Count (for Racial Differences in Health) – MAR #5 In the article, “Why Genes Don’t Count (for Racial Differences in Health), the author Alan Goodman explains how using the term “race”, when clarifying biological similarities and differences, is inadequate. It depicts race as non-useful biological concept since there is no clear distinction between racial groups. “Race” was created culturally to explain biological variation in humans, but inevitably are just factors of racism and racialization. The article explains that since there is more variation in genetics within groups than between groups, that it is wrong to attribute health inequalities to genes. The profound message throughout this section is that race is not a scientifically effective biological category, and yet it remains as a socially constructed category.
Although these two are the most prominent, they are not the most important. The most important is the sociological concept primary socialization, but is not displayed until later. First Racism is introduced in the opening scenes through the use of derogatory terms. The main character, Derek Vineyard, begins to refer to African Americans and other minorities as parasites and problems in the United States. In this same scene he also shows views of white supremacy because he states that minorities come to America only to exploit it as opposed to establishing themselves as “model citizens”.
They’re white aren’t they?" Cecil understands that it is wrong to persecute people as long as they are white. This again shows the racist society these Americans were brought up in as it was wrong to persecute a white person because they were human but fine to persecute a black person because they were not human. In the more modern years of the twenty-first century, segregation is becoming less and less present in our society and it is now a ridiculous and inhumane
The way the Iberian evolved is a mixture between the white and the black man. This makes the Negro people to inferior to all human kind. The white man is the superior one that makes them think it is in the best interest of all to lead and control what is not developing in the way it should. Charles Darwin wrote a book “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” where it tells us about evolution and what natural selection is about. He also says that only the fittest will survive.
For nearly a century, the United States was occupied by the racial segregation of black and white people. The constitutionality of this “separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life” had not been decided until a deliberate provocation to the law was made. The goal of this test was to have a mulatto, someone of mixed blood, defy the segregated train car law and raise a dispute on the fairness of being categorized as colored or not. This test went down in history as Plessy v. Ferguson, a planned challenge to the law during a period ruled by Jim Crow laws and the idea of “separate but equal” without equality for African Americans. This challenge forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation, and in result of the case, caused the nation to have split opinions of support and
Jefferson was saying that blacks were a distinct race and is inferior to the whites. He also thought that the slave was inferior to whites because they weren’t as beautiful as white people because they no perception
Griffin wrote this book to exam facts of the dilemma of the racial tensions. He talks about how he wants to make it know that black Americans of the South are treated poorly because of the color of their skin, just how different it would be for a white American to be in the skin of a black American. Because the communication between the white and black races were non-existent as of yet, neither party would inherently be able to speak the thoughts of the
Visitors would have been better served had they been made aware that race is only half of the equation. Racism occupies the other half, and each implies the other. An exclusive emphasis upon race would lead to enumerations of physical characteristics in the absence of a framework that could organize and evaluate them. Racism performs that role, while race selects groups marked for racial defamation. The downplaying of racism may be a consequence of an incorrect understanding of the former’s relation to race.
Racism is the biggest problem still in today’s society. We may think that we have resolved the situations which had arisen with racism but obviously not. Race and ethnicity refer to cultural differences. They are represented as differences in biology or heredity. Texts construct race as a natural category.
How have cultural anthropologists sought to combat racism? Anthropologists have long disputed the concept of race and culture; history shows multiply Anthropologists different views and beliefs on this topic. Some have fueled the spread of racism with accepted prejudices, while other have committed their life works to using science to disprove these embedded theories, and prove equality of all people and cultures they belong to. In this essay I with explore a range of Anthropologists different views and opinions of race in relation to racism. We see society as varying into different divisions but we can all be seen as one race, the human race.