Race is a term that has held much importance in our society today. It surrounds politics greatly and society in general. When learning about race from an anthropological standpoint however, I don’t believe that it carries the weight that society puts on it. According to lecture race is a concept that leads us to believe that humans can be separated into distinct and meaningful biological groups. There is an assumption that traits on which race is based don’t change, which is not true. Race was constructed in the 18^th century so that people of color were put at a huge disadvantage. Race continues to be of much importance to society and is still being used as a tool by some to put people of color at a disadvantage in our society. What needs to be understood is that it is a social construct and holds very little biological influence. This is all important information when trying to explain the non-existence of biological race.

The statement from the AAA says, “Historical research has shown that the idea of “race” has always carried more meanings than mere physical differences; indeed, physical variations in the human species have no meaning except the social ones that humans put on them.” Although we use physical differences to set the guidelines for different races, the idea of it is much larger than actual physical differences of people. Race has been created by society in order to create a large divide. They also talk about how during the 19^th century race was used to justify slavery. This further shows that race is a societal construction to disadvantage groups of people. They mention that as US society was being constructed leaders fabricated different cultural and behavior characteristics associated with certain traits and each “race” and constructed negative traits with people of color while constructing positive traits with Europeans. All of these facts tell us that race is not a biological construction but a social one in order to put others at a disadvantage.

The AAPA states, “Pure races in the sense of genetically homogenous populations, do not exist in the human species today, nor is there any evidence that they have ever existed in the past.” This is further information that shows that race is not as much a biological construct as many believe. Although I have been aware of the societal construct of race, I was not aware of how little biology had to do with race and how race does not truly and accurately reflect one’s biology. They also say, “Humanity cannot be classified into discrete geographic categories with absolute boundaries.” This is very important because many people want to be able to create distinct categories for everyone and to create distinct races based on the physical and biological traits, which is just not possible. They mention that human progress for millennia is based on culture, not on genetic improvement, which I think is a very important point. This shows just how much culture has an influence on people and groups of people rather than mainly biological influences.