The passage argues that it is far too easy to fall into the “race pit,” which refers to using thinking of race as a biological concept. It takes a lot of unlearning and relearning to realize that race does not divide humans genetically, because there are no subspecies of human. We are all extremely genetically similiar to one another.
There have been many instances of misuse of race, such as when scientists used race to try to justify why African Americans tended to have higher atheltic abilities, or when trying to puzzle out which races had higher IQs. In addition, t has been concluded that African Americans tended to have lower birth weights and higher rates of infant mortality due to environmental conditions, not genetics.
Despite race being a biological fiction, race still affects everyone’s lived experiences. These physical differences that have originated in the history slavery have divided people for centuries, resulting in people of color having lower life expectancies, and higher rates of cancer or other illnesses linked to environmental factors. Race is a biological fiction, but racial divisions are very real and affects people’s outlooks on life.
I believe that this idea that race is a social construct, rather than biologically rooted, can be extremely important in overcoming biases and prejudices.
I agree that race as a biological concept has been rooted in our society for far too long, and though society now understands that race is a social construct, it still has implications in our daily lives. As it said in the article I read, race matters, but not race based on genetics, but race as in lived experience. How do we go about overcoming biases and prejudices to enact real change? Since our social institutions and practices are shaped by social race, do we start there?
I read the same article as Lily and found the article highlighted the importance of the misinformed interpretation of race as a part of science. Scientists who base their research or campaigns on race lack validity as it is rooted on something entirely social. Traits such as birth weight and athletic ability cannot be distilled to a single race, encompassing upwards of a billion people.
However the lack of scientific backing does not negate the very real social impact that race has. Factors that are often attributed to race are a result of the upbringing of each individual. The trends that may be seen along races don’t stem from biology but from the world around us. Societal pressures conform certain individuals to a confined range of stereotypes, further perpetuating these false ideas.
In order to break beyond the falsities that exist within the scientific world, it needs to be understood that many traits associated with race have historical links to oppression. The excuse of biology of furthers the white-centric beliefs of too many in modern America.
Race is a social construct that generalizes people from across large swaths of land, and within each race, genetic variation is vast. Race is not, in my opinion, a useful starting point when talking about biology since it is not a biological reality. What is useful is seeing the medical risk factors and co-morbidities attributed to certain races more than others due to disproportionate environmental racism and poverty. Race affects one’s health because of socieital injustices, not because of biology, assumed anatomy of races, or genetics.