Difference between revisions of "Race"

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'''Race''' is an archaic (i.e., out of date, no longer considered valid) scientific concept which classifies human beings according to broad physical characteristics such as skin color.  
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[[File:Modern Han Chinese in Ming Attire.jpg|thumb|300px|Modern Han Chinese in Ming Attire.]]
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'''Race''' is a concept which classifies [[human]] beings according to broad [[physical]] characteristics such as [[skin]] color. Many assert that race is more than physical and claim that different races have different [[Psychology|psychological]], intellectual and [[religious]] characteristics.  
  
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==Historical Definitions of Race==
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Various different classifications have been proposed for human races in the past.  [[Evolution]]ary textbooks used to have a chapter on [[eugenics]] that discussed various "races", such as Negroid (mostly [[African]]s), Mongoloid (mostly [[Asia]]n) and Caucasian (mostly [[Europe]]ans) and which of the races were the furthest along in evolution.<ref>For example, Hunter, George William, ''[[A Civic Biology]]'' (1914), [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/hunt196.htm p.196]: "At the present time, there exists upon the Earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure.  These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the [[island]]s of the [[Pacific]]; the [[American Indian]]; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of [[China]], [[Japan]], and the [[Eskimos]], and finally the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America."</ref>
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The five races of mankind were considered to be:
 
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#Black (Negro)
 
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#Brown (as in India)
 
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#Red (Native American)
 
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#Yellow (Oriental)
 
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#White (Caucasian)
 
  
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The amount of [[melanin]] in one's skin naturally determines how dark it is. Some historical ideals of beauty exalted the lightness or darkness of skin. The 19th century American song, "The Yellow Rose of Texas", referred to the slightly dusky color of a girl's skin.
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The concept of race is no longer considered scientifically valid, as there is little genetic difference between the so-called races, and those differences are mostly superficial. However, there are various animal species or subspecies with genetic distances between each other that are lower than that between human populations. For example, Coyotes and Wolves have an Fst Distance of 0.057, compared to 0.11 between Europeans and East Asians, 0.19 between East Asians and Subsaharan Africans, and 0.15 between Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans <ref>https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/592206</ref>. However, race in humans does not cluster so much as it forms gradients, or clines, for example a gradient in East Asian ancestry that stretches from Eastern Europe to Mongolia, or an increase in sub-saharan African ancestry that increases from North Africa to Central Africa. Where the line is placed for defining race, or ethnicity, can therefore be arbitrary.  
  
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Since prehistory, human populations have gone through periods of isolation and intermixing which lead to differences between groups. [[Scientists]] now believe that these are largely a matter of different statistical frequencies of variations from an agreed-on standard, rather than racial differences as was once thought. Modern [[Homo sapiens|humans]] share approximately 99.9% of their [[DNA]]. Of the .1% that does vary, 85% of the observed variation is unconnected to membership of any particular group of people.
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Despite its questionable validity, race is still detailed in government census and other forms, mostly for convenience in classifying individuals into groups.
  
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==Modern Definitions==
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In a study done in 1999, 75% of [[anthropologist]]s disagreed with the statement, "There are biological races in the species Homo sapiens" amongst cultural anthropologists 80% disagreed, and 69% of physical anthropologists disagreed<ref>http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/presentations/POST_WWII.PDF#search=%22stanley%20marion%20garn%22</ref>
  
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===Biologic===
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The belief that one race is inherently better or worse than others is known as [[racism]]. For historical accuracy it's worth noting that until the events of the 1960s holders of racist beliefs were termed 'racialists' rather than the modern term, 'racists'.
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Modern biology acknowledges phenotypic and genotypic differences between groups of people.  These differences may be obvious, like skin color, or non-obvious, like a difference in allele frequency. None of these differences ''within'' the species are as significant as differences ''between'' species.
 
  
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===Sociologic===
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Human [[Geography|geographers]] today prefer to discuss people in terms of ethnicities rather than races; the principal difference between one's [[ethnicity]] and one's race is that race is superficial while ethnicity carries with it a whole host of cultural traditions. For example, the [[Anglo-Saxons]] of the [[Britain|British]] isles have cultural traditions that are distinct from the ethnic inhabitants of [[Germany]]'s [[Rhineland]], though both ethnic groups would be considered racially caucasian.  
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Race is also viewed as a socio-political construct, used conveniently to justify certain political policies.
 
  
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===Religious===
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A '''race''' also refers to a competition of speed (see: [[racing]]).
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Religions have taken different views on race that have generally paralleled those of society as a whole.  Religion has been used to justify racism, and to help eradicate it.    Many Christian groups were involved in founding the abolitionist movement; others helped propagate racism.  For example, the Morman Church banned Blacks from serving as priests until the 1960s.<ref>http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/neither/neithertitle.htm</ref>
 
  
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===Legal===
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==See also==
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In constructing or deconstructing racial barriers, the law makes reference frequently to different kinds of "race."  '''Cultural''' race is race based on a unique culture.  Affirmative action post-''Grutter'' makes appeal to cultural race as a partial justification for affirmative action.  '''Historical''' race makes references to the shared experiences of a people that have enhanced or degraded their status as community members.  Creating an Israeli nation, for example, is a reference to the genocide & discrimination that Jews have endured as a historical race.
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*[[Racism]]
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*[[Eugenics]]
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*[[Ethnic Groups Gallery]]
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*[[Race and intelligence]]
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*[[Western atheism and race]]
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*[[Atheism, race and gender]]
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== References ==
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Sociology]]
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[[Category:Ethnicities]]
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[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Latest revision as of 22:31, February 27, 2022

Modern Han Chinese in Ming Attire.

Race is a concept which classifies human beings according to broad physical characteristics such as skin color. Many assert that race is more than physical and claim that different races have different psychological, intellectual and religious characteristics.

Various different classifications have been proposed for human races in the past. Evolutionary textbooks used to have a chapter on eugenics that discussed various "races", such as Negroid (mostly Africans), Mongoloid (mostly Asian) and Caucasian (mostly Europeans) and which of the races were the furthest along in evolution.[1]

The concept of race is no longer considered scientifically valid, as there is little genetic difference between the so-called races, and those differences are mostly superficial. However, there are various animal species or subspecies with genetic distances between each other that are lower than that between human populations. For example, Coyotes and Wolves have an Fst Distance of 0.057, compared to 0.11 between Europeans and East Asians, 0.19 between East Asians and Subsaharan Africans, and 0.15 between Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans [2]. However, race in humans does not cluster so much as it forms gradients, or clines, for example a gradient in East Asian ancestry that stretches from Eastern Europe to Mongolia, or an increase in sub-saharan African ancestry that increases from North Africa to Central Africa. Where the line is placed for defining race, or ethnicity, can therefore be arbitrary.

Despite its questionable validity, race is still detailed in government census and other forms, mostly for convenience in classifying individuals into groups.

In a study done in 1999, 75% of anthropologists disagreed with the statement, "There are biological races in the species Homo sapiens" amongst cultural anthropologists 80% disagreed, and 69% of physical anthropologists disagreed[3]

The belief that one race is inherently better or worse than others is known as racism. For historical accuracy it's worth noting that until the events of the 1960s holders of racist beliefs were termed 'racialists' rather than the modern term, 'racists'.

Human geographers today prefer to discuss people in terms of ethnicities rather than races; the principal difference between one's ethnicity and one's race is that race is superficial while ethnicity carries with it a whole host of cultural traditions. For example, the Anglo-Saxons of the British isles have cultural traditions that are distinct from the ethnic inhabitants of Germany's Rhineland, though both ethnic groups would be considered racially caucasian.

A race also refers to a competition of speed (see: racing).

See also

References

  1. ↑ For example, Hunter, George William, A Civic Biology (1914), p.196: "At the present time, there exists upon the Earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the islands of the Pacific; the American Indian; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan, and the Eskimos, and finally the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America."
  2. ↑ https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/592206
  3. ↑ http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/presentations/POST_WWII.PDF#search=%22stanley%20marion%20garn%22
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