To claim that race does not exist sounds shocking at first. So many decisions and views of the world are made taking the idea of race into account. Yet the genetic claims of race, as such claims usually perceived and discussed, are not grounded in genetics because race, aside from being a social construction, does not actually exist. Collins (2004) makes the issue clear: the human species does not have "races", even though much of human history is about race and ethnicity.
Race, as it is defined by human beings, is a quirk of genetic code. Race is a pile of traits that get lumped together by human bigotry, even though the idea of race is, in and of itself, racist because amalgamating these disparate expressions of genetic code into an identifiable definition that stereotypes lacks a spirit of tolerance for the rights and views of others.
[...] The Consequences of Believing in Race Wars, slavery, civil conflicts, etc. have all been fueled by the perception of racial differences, despite the fact that there is more genetic diversity between two "white" people than there is between a white person chosen at random and a black person, equally chosen at random. This is not a simplistic, cover your eyes and we are all the same or our blood is all the same color argument. This is that genetics are complicated enough that any sense of purebred people is not viable. [...]
[...] Humans may find ways to maintain enclaves of similar genetic coding, but these do not really change the clear path of the future because, one, race is a social construct derived from connecting the dots of various alleles in ways that are prejudicial and, two, human beings will not stay "pure" forever, regardless of any subculture's desire to enforce their DNA patterns on others. The Changing Definition of Race Of course, the race situation has changed over the years. Segregation is gone, for example, but great conflicts, from marches to riots, were needed to change things. [...]
[...] The world, thanks to history, has really put down Black people and anything associated with Africa so those of us who are mixed can't hide behind a mixed label to get away from it, even if we look something else and get mistaken constantly for being a race that we aren't part of.(Williams & Thornton p. 255) So this adds a dangerous confusion to the mix. Therefore it is important to address this as simply as possible without dumbing down the crucial difference in these two similar looking social constructions of race. [...]
[...] A multiracial future eliminates this and many of the people in power are not willing to change or consider any ideas that have the potential to make them less powerful. There is no one day at a time solution. There will, someday, be sudden and radical change once people truly come to grips with what this knowledge means to the world. Transcending Race Equals Transcending Racism None of this discussion claims that there are not ethnic components to human existence. [...]
[...] One of the reasons that amalgamated definitions of race persist and live on is because of the reality that must be confronted if one is to imagine the near-future where the current definitions collapse. Conclusion Race and its byproduct, racism, serves the same function in America and it is an outdated and inaccurate concept. No group of double helix encoded information creates rules that fully guide a person and, even accepting that nature is a guiding force of lives (as opposed to nurture), it is also too vague a standard. [...]
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