Aaron Ellis

07/24/2015
Anthropology 1020
Dr. Teresa Potter
The Concept of Race
The concept of race has long been disputed and a touchy subject. The
common social definition is: a group of people who perceive themselves and
are perceived by others as possessing distinctive hereditary traits (Ore, Tracy
E. The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality.
4th ed. Boston [Mass.: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.). Biologically speaking

race is based off of the region of the world where you are from; certain traits
are prominent to certain races depending on where they live in the world. It
can go from skin color to hair and eye color. For example, people from Africa
have dark brown skin while people from northern countries (i.e. Ireland or
Norway) will have very light skin.
Historically race has been long disputed. It has been the root of many
wars and disputes. While not the only issue, the Civil War was deeply rooted
in race disputes. People had thought themselves higher than others because
of skin color and other biological traits that made them look different. Back
then the definition of race was used to classify people almost into social
classes. If you were not a certain race or looked a certain way you were

automatically lower than everyone else and sometime not even considered
to really be human: you were more of an animal. Racism springs from the lie
that certain human beings are less than fully human. It's a self-centered
falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others
as we would not want to be treated, Alveda King. Later the definition was
perceived in a different way in the sense that different people were human
but were not allowed certain rights as humans (the Civil Rights movement
era).
On a biological standpoint, different races have many different merits
that can actually be beneficial. On the side of skin, depending on where you
live, lighter or darker skin is a trait for sunlight. Darker skinned people
(usually near the equator and in savannas) are created by the melanin in the
cells and can help reduce the impacts of ultraviolet radiation. On the other
hand, light skinned people (usually in northern and/or cold countries) need
more sun light absorbed to get the vitamins they need from the sun. What
we look like and subsequently our race depends on where we live in the
world. ("Modern Human Diversity - Skin Color." Human Skin Color Variation.
Web. 24 July 2015.)
Ethically race is nonconsequential to any standing in society. We are
categorizing ourselves because of favorable traits due to where we happen
to live. Race might be important to categorize due to some races are more
inclined to illnesses than others. In the big picture we are all just one large
race: the human race. In the Brown vs. Board of Education case it was all

about the ethics of separating people due to what they looked like. This
segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of
the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. (Brown, Oliver. In the Supreme
Court of the United States, October Term, 1952: No. 8, Oliver Brown, Et Al.,
Appellants, vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, Et Al.
: No. 101, Harry Briggs, Jr., Et. Al., Appellants, vs. R.W. Elliott, Et Al. : No.
191,. New York: [Supreme Print.], 1952. Print.)

Race should not be as important as it has been and continues to be.

We are a human race genetically. The only differences are some physical
attributes that vary depending where in the world you are from. Genetically
it is important for natural selection for where you live but socially there are
no good merits. Personally, being fair-skinned helps me health wise but has
little to no bearing socially. Someone else who happens to have darker skin is
the same way. Race boils down to genetics. Simply put, we are the way we
are because of natural selection and the benefits of the traits we possess in
the environment we live in.

Bibliography
1. Ore, Tracy E. The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class,
Gender, and Sexuality. 4th ed. Boston [Mass.: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009.
Print

2. "Modern Human Diversity - Skin Color." Human Skin Color Variation.

Web. 24 July 2015.
3. Brown, Oliver. In the Supreme Court of the United States, October
Term, 1952: No. 8, Oliver Brown, Et Al., Appellants, vs. Board of
Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, Et Al. : No. 101, Harry
Briggs, Jr., Et. Al., Appellants, vs. R.W. Elliott, Et Al. : No. 191,. New
York: [Supreme Print.], 1952. Print.)