The concept of race has a long rich history, going as far back as ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. In general, the term race has been used to imply different categories of human – including people of a certain skin color (e.g. the white or black race); religion (e.g. the Jewish race); nationality (e.g. the American race); as well as the entire human race (i.e. the human race) (WikiMedia, 2013). The varied understanding of the idea of race is because of its both biological and social gist. The popular definition of race, however, relates to an individual’s physical appearance such as their skin color, hair color, eye color, bone/jaw structure among other attributes.
In the last two centuries, in particular, the issue of race has increasingly become emotive with negative connotations. Race has been used to justify majority of the most inhumane injustices and mistreatments perpetuated by members of one race to other humans of other perceived inferior races (WikiMedia, 2013).
Ethnicity, on the other hand, refers to a population of people share identity in terms of real or presumed common ancestry or genealogy. There are often several ethnic groups with a give race, which are distinguished by their individual aspects as country of origin, language spoken, traditions and cultural traditions, as well as their beliefs and rituals (WikiMedia, 2013). Ethnic strife is also a major cause of relational problems among the varied ethnic groups in America.
The problem of racial discrimination remains a major social issue in the United States. This is especially because racism is at the heart of such major social problems as poverty, crimes, and income inequality especially among the minorities in America. There was false optimism that the problem of race and racial discrimination would be dealt a blow with the 2008 election of Barrack Obama as the first black president of the United States. It was presumed that the American people would ignore the racial constructs of whiteness as a privileged group. On the contrary, there has insignificant reduction in racial profiling in the country during the administration of President Obama. There is a still widespread inequality in education, health, housing due to racism in identity among the white on the one hand and people of color on the other (WikiMedia, 2013).
The biological basis for race is argued to be fundamentally flawed as modern scientific investigations building on genetic research along with fossilized remains show that all of us evolved in Africa, from where we migrated to the rest of the world. All humans, albeit of their physical features are known to readily exchange genes when producing off-springs. The variations existing in human traits (phenotype), which are physically evident, are attributed to anatomical and physiological adaptations which people have adopted for the purpose of increasing their chances of survival along with extending longevity in their different environments (WikiMedia, 2013). No particular set of traits can be purely attributed to any one group or “race”. This evident from such examples as grey eyes (typically associated with light complexion) is also to be found among dark-complexioned people as is the case with curly hair (associated with dark skin) being found in light-complexioned individuals. Therefore, the biological basis for race would hold water if the differences in human beings were evident at the most basic biological level i.e. in chromosomes or genes – instead of being 75 percent identical.
On the other hand, race is a social construct. Our concept of “white” and “black” is indeed a product of social context, and particularly an American-oriented social construct. For convenience, race was afforded biological basis so that some people are innately “superior” to others and thus deserve to be privileged. In conclusion, therefore, race is an idea and not a fact.
Reference:
WikiMedia. (2013). Introduction to Sociology/Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology/Race_and_Ethnicity
