A particular interesting statement that stuck out to me from the AAPA reading was that pure races do not exist, nor have they ever. I have known this to be true, but I found it surprising that so many people still use race to justify so many inequalities, even though there is no one truly superior race. While thinking back on America’s history of colonialism, white people believed themselves to be truly superior and deserving of all of the land they “found.” This is what lead to Native Americans, people of a different race to be kicked out of their homes and had their lands confiscated. Another good example to look at is the holocaust. Hitler believed that the Aryan race was truly superior over all others and used these ideals to justify and encourage the killing of millions of Jewish people. The fact that all of these people from our history truly believed that the race they were defending was superior, even though there has never been proof of one truly pure and superior race astounds me. A lot of people still think like this today too. White supremacists are rampant under Tr*mp’s rule and have the notion that white people are the purest, best race to ever exist. I think it is important that people read articles like the ones assigned to us, and do a little history to see that race is a concept that was made up to justify the exploitation and sometimes killing of a minority race.
Based on what I’ve learned so far, I would explain the non-existence of biological race to someone unfamiliar with the topic by showing them some historical facts about how the concept of race even came about. For example, Johann Blumenbach came up with his own conception of race based off a study of only 60 individuals. This is clearly skewed and inaccurate, but some of his ideals still carried on into the formation of what race is today. Also, I would explain the fact that based on where populations are located geographically, different physical differences will occur in height, weight, skin color, etc. For example, people who live closer to the equator tend to be darker-skinned than those living further away from it. I would explain that they are multiple factors that play into how race developed, and explain that there was never one pure race and that it was just a concept made up in order to marginalize others. I would use examples from history, such as the ones I mentioned above to show how we are really not as different as certain people have tried to make it seem. Lastly, I would use all of this knowledge to tie into current events, and show how race is still a big factor that comes into play in many societies across the world. In conclusion, I think it is very important that people understand the non-existence of biological race on their own terms, since so much information on the topic has been fed to us in the frame that people want us to understand it on.
Race was created to exploit people, definitely. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find a point in history where race was used in any other way than to establish a dominant group and an “other”. By labeling the populations that were affected by colonization, white people made it so they were practically inhuman and no deserving of basic rights. They were kicked of their land and killed the same way one would do with an animal, despite them all being of the same species, and therefor deserving of the same rights.
You make a good point by saying we need to tie this into current events to show that race is being used to marginalize minorities in exactly the same way as in the past. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that racism is a thing of the past. Recent events, including the blatantly racist tweets from the President, make it apparent that this is far from the truth.
Hi Diana,
I really liked how you used Native Americans and Hitler as examples to explain how race has been wrongly used even though as you mentioned there is no one superior race. That was a really good way of explaining to people who might not otherwise understand in other terms. In the AAA article, it was mentioned that there is only a six percent difference between different races. So, you are right, it is surprising that people still use race to justify many inequalities. I am also glad that we were assigned these articles. I agree that articles like this should be made more available to the public because they are eye opening. Many people may not know these facts which doesn’t justify their racism but it would be better if they were made aware of facts like these.