The American Association of Physical Anthropologists pointed out that old racial categories were based on visible traits such as skin color and certain facial features. It was also mentioned that shape of the body and the head as well as the size of the body and the head were deciding factors of racial categories. While the visible traits such as skin color did not surprise me, shape and size of the head and body did surprise me. I did not think that those would be factors that would be taken into consideration while determining racial categories. 

Another statement made by the AAPA, “The human species has a past rich in migration, in territorial expansions, and in contractions. As a consequence, we are adapted to many of the earth’s environments in general, but to none in particular,” confused me. This statement was confusing to me because it seemed to contradict itself. However, after I read it a couple times, I understood it a little better. From my understanding, this statement simply means that even though we, as homo sapiens, have adapted to many of the earth’s environments, there are no specific ones that are better for us. 

Another interesting aspect of this article by the AAPA was when it was mentioned that even though we tend to mate with people who speak our language and share some culture with us, there is no link. “…there is no causal linkage between these physical and behavioral traits, and therefore it is not justifiable to attribute cultural characteristics to genetic inheritances.” This was really interesting to me because many people mate with people of their culture expecting correspondence thinking that there is a causal link between physical and behavioral traits. 

The American Anthropological Association pointed out that as US society was being constructed, European-Americans fabricated deeply into American thought linking superior traits to Europeans and inferior traits to blacks and Indians. This made me wonder that maybe if everyone was treated equally from the beginning when this concept of race was constructed, then we would not have tons of racial problems today. Maybe, people would not think they are superior to others because the color of their skin is lighter. 

From everything I have learned throughout this course and throughout my life so far, I have come to know that race is a socially constructed concept. It is a misconception that allows certain people to have untrue feelings of superiority. We live in a world with so much diversity that defining people through race is a far reach. Even within cultures, there is so much diversity. One point that proves that race is not a major factor of life is from the AAA article that stated that there is only a six percent difference in genes between different races. This just goes to show that no matter what race we are classified as, we have much more similarities than we have differences. Another point I mentioned earlier from the AAPA was that there is no causal link between physical and behavioral traits. All in all, race is a concept that cannot be used as a determining factor for everyday life.