Step 1: Story of Race
The rationalization of non-European people and some European population, such as the Irish served a primary purpose of differentiating individuals within a population. Individuals within a group set are different from the others. Thus, the concept of rationalization acts as a tool to bring out the different categories that are present in our population.
Eugenics was an idea suggested by Plato that was inclined towards the sustenance and uprising of superior human beings with regards to their genetic traits. Plato suggested the practice of selective mating. This is where individuals with superior characteristics would be paired, and sterilization of inferior beings practiced (Mason). This would help in achieving a preceding generation of superior beings.
Step 2: Exploration of the Human Spectrum Area
This section explains a continuum in the variation of the physical traits by highlighting the extent to which categorization of many individual results in the observation that the slight differences between two people increase gradually within the criteria. Whether we are conducting comparisons between skin tone height or eye color, if we plot the data of all the subjects with variation we will get a smooth curve ("RACE - The Human Spectrum"). From the smooth curves, we can conclude the continuous nature of the physical variation characteristics in human traits from an individual to another.
Cline is a concept defined as the gradient in a measurable trait. This concept focuses on the trait rather than the population composition as it can possess several clines. To some extent Cline is seen to measure gene differentiation resulting from physical migration (Stevenson 48). For instance, the composition of a cline within the African population comprises of less variation compared with a cline that include Africa and other continents. For this reason, we can see the concept of Cline relating to the concept of the continuum in a way that indicates that in both we have continuity in variation. Continuum focuses mainly on physical variation while Cline shows the gradient of gene and variation.
Step 3: Race and Human Variation Area
Africans have the greatest genetic variation when compared to other races in relation to Europeans, mainly because they possess some alleles in their genes that are no present in Europeans genes. However, all the alleles present in the Europeans genes are present in the African genes. For this reason, the variation between Africans is seen as the greatest compared to Asians in relation to Europeans. To back up this concept according to ("RACE - Race and Human Variation") the population in Africa has been in existence for a longer duration compared to any other place in the world. For this reason, gene mutations and variation took place for longer periods if you compare. Even after the migration of some of the members of the African population to Europe it is discussed that the remaining beings continued to change and adapt to the environmental factors.
The population concept abstract interpretation of race views race as a cluster of the local population that has generic differences with other clusters of the population within a locality. It, however, clarifies that no single individual can possess traits that are conclusive of the characteristics of the entire population. Each member of the population composes of a unique genetic trait that is different from that of the rest of the population ("RACE - Race and Human Variation"). This population concept stipulates that every population qualifies to be categorized as a race.
The essentialist abstract interpretation of race views race as categories where humans are differentiated based on physical variations. The essentialists categorize each race as first being pure then to the category of the intermixture of the races which they term as impure races ("RACE - Race and Human Variation"). They view the existence of these races in the first place to be pure with the categories of pure Africans, Asians, and Europeans. The intermixture exists as groups in between the races i.e. between Africans and Asians, Africans and Europeans, Europeans and Asians and finally those who exist in between the three races.
According to Charles Darwin’s concept of evolution, there is the sharing of biological makeup which is transferred through gene from the parents to offspring. The two above concepts highly ignore the fact of biological transfer of genes from the host parents. Thus, this makes these concepts to be biologically invalid. These concepts further fail to fit within the genetic data and thus open another loophole for criticism.
In the animation of out of Africa section, the colored dots represent the measure that represents the overall genetic variation between the human populations around the world. The dots with more color are in place to represent larger magnitudes of variations compared to dots with lesser colors. As explained in ("RACE - Race and Human Variation"), Asian and European populations are seen to have lesser variations compared to the African population since it is assumed that as migration occurred the rate of change declined among the immigrants. However, the remaining population continued to evolve, and this explains the face that more different gene compositions exist among the African race and lack among the others.
Step 4. Only Skin Deep Area
This section is based on the concept that skin variation is as a result of geographical position and the sun and not race.
According to Anthropologist Nina Jablonski, Ph.D., skin variation is a response of adaptation associated with the geographical positioning of an individual with relation to the sun. This concept has been backed up by other scientific researchers that associate darker skin pigmentation to adaptation to strong sun rays especially in areas around the equator. Strong sun exposure to the body can be associated to cause damage to the body. With reduced hair and increased pores, the body is more exposed to the sun rays. The elevated pigmentation can be associated with the body self-protection mechanism that has taken place over millions of years ("RACE - Only Skin Deep"). This pigmentation prevents excess UV rays from damaging the skin.
The concept of natural selection involves the eradication of weaker beings who fail to adapt to a changing environment. The failure to keep up result in dying off or migration of these weaker beings. In Africa, especially around the equator individuals are associated with darker skin pigmentation due to high levels of UV rays from the sun. The further way from the equator individuals possess lighter completions to enable better absorption of UV rays for the purpose of vitamin D ("RACE - Only Skin Deep"). Individuals living in arctic areas and have darker skin are viewed to be taking foods with high vitamin levels.
What I found most interesting about the professor’s lecture is that she takes the time to explain in detail how skin pigmentation, geographical location and the sun all relate.
Step 5: What Is Race? Is Race for Real Section
In the section what is race? Is race for real? The facts about race that I was aware of prior to taking this course were:
Race is a modern idea
Slavery predates race
Race justifies social inequalities as natural
Skin color is only skin deep
Colorblindness will not end racism
Some of the facts that I was not aware of were:
Race has no genetic basis
Race and freedom were born together
Human subspecies don’t exist
Most variation is within and not between races
Race is not biological, but racism is still real ("RACE - The Power Of An Illusion | PBS")
In the sorting people activity comparing with the self-identifying result, I performed average. The sorting people activity tells that the genotype-phenotype and ancestry can easily mistake or unclearly identified if we use physical differentiation. When conducting the sorting categorization by use of only the physical traits, I found out that it was easy to categorize wrongly an individual based on the physical differentiation solely.
The notion that anthropologist have used to discredit the existence of biological distinction in the categorization of races has caused me to change my view with regards to race. I used to think that there were biological distinction and burros that defined the categories of race, but now I understand that it doesn’t exist. Rather race categorizations are simply judged by physical appearance
Works Cited
Mason, Andrew J. Flow And Flux In Plato's Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 2016. Print.
"RACE - Only Skin Deep". Understandingrace.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 May 2016.
"RACE - Race And Human Variation". Understandingrace.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 May 2016.
"RACE - The Human Spectrum". Understandingrace.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 May 2016.
"RACE - The Power Of An Illusion | PBS". Pbs.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 May 2016.
Stevenson, Joan C. Dictionary Of Concepts In Physical Anthropology. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. Print.
