Race and Anthropology

Art is a form of expression for humans.
Globalization has changed human interaction.
Mother carrying a child.
Ancient Egypt Culture.

What is Race?

Race is a flawed system of classification, with no biological basis, that uses certain physical characteristics to divide human population into supposedly discrete groups. These physical characteristics may include skin color, hair texture, eye shape, etc.

One Race!

Genetically there is only one race, the human race. Anthropologists consider the categories of race such as black, white, hispanic, etc, as a framework for seprating the human species.

    Physical anthropologists cosider the phenotype and genotype when considering human Diversity.

  • Genotype:

    Genotype is the inherited genetic factors that provides information on an organisms physical form. These genetic factors can be passed down generation to generation.

  • Phenotype:

    Phenotype is the way that genes are expressed in the organisms physical form as a result of the organisms interaction with the environment. These physical qualities can be of seen or unseen traits.

Origins of Race

  • Race was originally created by Western Europeans during their global expansion starting in the 1400's. Europeans put colonized people into an "international hierarchy of races, colors, religions, and cultures"(Trouillot 1994, 146).

  • Physical anthropologists take into account the phenotype and genotype when considering human Diversity.

  • Classification of people into different hierarchy such as skin color, was responsible for the transportation of more than ten million Africans throughout the course of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In the beginning planters used indentured servants and slaves which constructed and grew colonial life and the economy. However, due to fears that the white indenture servants who became free would rebel, planters imported more slaves to take place of these servants. In order to gain leverage over the indentures servants, Africans were taken to be of lesser human than the indentured servants. This resulted in greater racism and the ability for the indentured servants to have something to separate themselves from slaves(their skin color) and not be considered as part of the same class as slaves who were black.

Did You Know?

  • Human variations are gradual and change with geographic regions. Therefore if a person walked from western Africa to Russia there would not be a point in which people from one side of the road can be pointed out as belonging to one race, and people from the other side of the road as belonging to another race.

  • Racism:

    Individual thoughts, actions, and institutional patterns and policies that create unequal access to power, resources, and opportunites based on imagined differences among groups.

    Example


    Racism has lead to horrendous crimes in history. Believing that one race is inferior to another has lead to the genocide of Native Americans, Africans throughout the Trans Atlantic slave trade, hate crimes, etc. Even today racism still exists, as institutional racism is a big issue in society. Institutional racism has lead to movements like Black Lives Matter(BLM) to fight injustice in the black community.

  • Institutional racism:

    Patterns by which racial inequality is structured through key cultural institutions ,policies, and systems.

    Example


    Institutional racism has bases in discrimination in the justice system, healthcare, and schools. Some people of different groups get profiled more than others. People of Middle Eastern descent tend to be subjects of racial profiling at airports since people tend to associate them with past occurences like 9/11 and "radical Islam". In the justice system, African Americans have been noticed to be given harsher sentences than whites, and you will find higher ratios of blacks in prison than other races, having some cases be due to racial profiling. People belonging to different minority classes tend to have lower quality healthcare. One example is sending sick patients to lower quality institutions for treatment or denying patients because they not have healthcare.

  • Did You Know?

    There is more genetic differences between two penguins than between two humans.

  • Race is a Human Construct!

    • How do you know that race is a human construct?

    • How many races are there considered to be in the United States?

    • Can you name them?

    • Separating people into different categories based on physical traits has always been changing . At first the Irish, Greeks, and Eastern Europeans were not considered white, and scientists, politicians, and preachers all worked against these groups of people. They barred their immigration and excluded them from resources and oppurtunites.
    • In Brazil there are hundreds of racial classifications. These stem from different shades of skin color. Some include alva (pure-white), alva-escuro("off-white"), branca("white"), cafe("coffeee colored"), cafe con leite("coffee with milk"), and pretinha("lighter black"), to say the least. Brazil's categories of race, is a perfect example of the flaw in separating people into races. For example, in Brazil you can be part of one race, but in the united states be considered part of another. In the United states in 1940, the census had eight categories, today it has fourteen race categories. This shows that race is not natural, but created by humans.