Do You Think Race is a Social Construct?

Do you think races represent local gene pools? Or do you think race is an arbitrary social invention?

 

Hi,

I think that the races really are different. I don't know that they are but I think that they are.

Peace.

 

We are all on one tiny little pebble floating through an infinite space. It is ridiculous to draw imaginary lines in the dirt and claim we are different because we are on the other side of that line. There is only one human race

 

both

 

yes, in that race means physical (biological) similarities and differences.


Tho no in the sense that socially we acknowledge what makes us the same & different.

Tho I would def answer yes...

Of course there is both beauty in differences & similarities.....we can all get along, it keeps things interesting.

I feel that culture and ethnicity are more of a social invention.

 

Race is literally only skin deep. Biologically there is about as much difference in skin color as there is eye color. I think its basically all cultural.

 

Absolutely.

When presented with a form which offers a free text box for "race", I always thing the best way to fill it in is to write "human"

 

It is historically a social creation.

Ireland, and Scotsman, and Brits, all have white skin, yet their respective cultures have gone out of their way to FIND differences and to create a tier system of who is more "proper or important" and thus "higher on the value chain".

It's completely made up, and holds no basis in biology. It's based on visual appearances which account for very little of the human genetic code.

 

I agree with this. My missus is of Chinese origin. I am of European origin. We are very different people. Her family is very different to my family. We are not one singular race of people, far from it.

The term "human" is just like the term "dog" but everyone can see the difference between a poodle and a wolf. When it comes to mankind though we have to believe that the many cultures of people are apart of the same family.

I think it's all hokus pokus.

 

Why do you ask?

 

Holy Fuck, stupid still runs rampant around here I see.
Race is not a social construct or any such stupidity.
there are different races because differing groups of homo whatever evolved in differing habitats/environments and subsequently developed differently genetically.

you bozos are confusing race with ethnicity/culture (again )
race is much more than skin color, pigmentation is but one outward manifestation of many genetic racial physiological differences.
Maybe some of you are confused because we all all the same species, but it really isn't very hard to imagine.
you see all different types of dogs, yet they are all the same species.

now does it really matter in the big picture,
fuck no,
we all be the same kind of critter.

 

now to come back with a nicer response, I think the OP is thinking of cultural/ethnic differences that are often exhibited amongst different racial groups.
In that respect, yes, it is ALL what could be considered a "social construct" as any cultural or ethnically based behavior is.

But the question is does the OP consider it to be a positive or negative thing?
Most racially based "social constructs" have evolved and been perpetuated by the particular racial/cultural group in question, often as a means of group solidarity.

slavery is a good example of this dynamic at work, both from outside forces and forces within.
Outside forces was slavery (duh), to which the Negro race that had been transplanted to other countries developed their own unique and very distinct culture, but they were still of the Negro race.


anywho, need to make a distinction between race (genetics) ethnicity (mix of race and culture, but not strictly confined to one racial group) and culture (the social milieu in which you were raised and learned your valuations.)

 

I think it's racist to segregate races into one "human race".
I say it all the time how animals like cow have many species of cow and we are allowed to differentiate between the species but the Negro and the Norseman have to be apart of the same "race". Pah!

 

Race is not a social construct, real differences exist between the races; the differences are subtle but measurable.


Hotwater

 

How can we draw lines between physical differences when there is so much overlap.

Any kind of categorizing of anything is a construct. When large groups of people agree on a construct, it becomes social.

If you fill a room full of shorter than average people with blonde hair, blue eyes and straight teeth, are they of a different race than people in another room full of taller than average people with brown eyes, dark hair and crooked teeth? Same goes with rooms full of the different infinite shades of skin color or hand size or webbed toes, as far as I'm concerned.

You can draw lines anywhere you want. Doesn't change the fact that we are all humans.

 

If they've got black skin, kinky thick hair, different cranium dimensions and eye colors then yeah I think they're a different race of people in that room when compared to the shorter, blonde, white, blue eyed race of people.

 

That is where your line is drawn then. It's still a construct. If I wanted to differentiate, I could draw completely different lines based on different physical features.

 

actually, you are wrong. race IS a social construct. there is NO basis for race in genetics. what that means is that there is just as much variation within one race (say two asian people) as there is between races (say an asian and a white person).

there are not "many genetic racial physiological differences" between races. i have heard things like black people are more prone to heart disease..but that could be a correlation due to lifestyle or something. and even if it does have a genetic component, it doesn't outweigh all the differences within the race of black people.

trust me here.

OR, do your research on the topic. i think you will prove yourself wrong.


it is counter-intuitive to me as well, that there are no large genetic differences between races. but it's something i've read in numerous books on evolution and genetics...something that i nearly have a PhD in.

do you have any examples?

 

you certain about that, pork?

http://time.com/91081/what-science-says-about-race-and-genetics/

http://online.wsj.com/articles/nicholas-wade-race-has-a-biological-basis-racism-does-not-1403476865

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/is-there-a-genetic-basis-to-race-after-all

http://www.city-journal.org/2014/bc0606sm.html

from a brief perusal of the topic, it became readily apparent that the stand that there is no genetic basis for racial differences comes from the field of social science, not genetics.
It also was apparent that even in supposedly academic literature concerning the topic there is confusion/mixing of culture/ancestry and race.

I think I will opt for the geneticists view rather than the social scientists.