How Real Is Race
Dylan Heckett
Anth 205
Assingment 3: Modern Human Diversity
2/1/15
Modern Human Diversity
As a 90's baby, I think it's harder for me to subliminally assign genetic differences to specific races in comparison to older generations because I grew up in a culture that already taught me we were all equal from the start. The cultural realization that I had to come to was different in the sense that in contrast to continuing my ingrained belief that we were all equal, my exposure that came with my maturity to the world outside my familial and educational bubble brought me to realize that in our society our minorities are treated unfairly. Our guardians and educators taught my generation that this was the problem to fix, whereas my parents grew up in the 60's and 70's; a few rungs lower on the ladder of progress. When I delved into the website, I had a hard time discerning the peoples facial features because of the low resolution of their pictures. Because of this I'm sure it skewed the accuracy of my racial identification skills, and while that was the main point of the exercise; the more important point was the message after, stating how until the 1960's census emulators classified people the same way the exercise had me classify them. Following that message it informed me of the 1970's civil rights laws allowing people to self identify their race.
Our readings re emphasized what we teach our children today; that race has no validity as a biological category. It also went on to explain how race emerged in Europe in the 17th century, along with the growth of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Establishing the culture that's more “advanced” as the one which is more biologically evolved. Creating evolutionary rank off of irrelevant indicators such as scull size, and calling other less understood groups primitive. By the 20th century, races were generally viewed as natural, long standing divisions of the human species that were evolving at
Anth 205
Assingment 3: Modern Human Diversity
2/1/15
Modern Human Diversity
As a 90's baby, I think it's harder for me to subliminally assign genetic differences to specific races in comparison to older generations because I grew up in a culture that already taught me we were all equal from the start. The cultural realization that I had to come to was different in the sense that in contrast to continuing my ingrained belief that we were all equal, my exposure that came with my maturity to the world outside my familial and educational bubble brought me to realize that in our society our minorities are treated unfairly. Our guardians and educators taught my generation that this was the problem to fix, whereas my parents grew up in the 60's and 70's; a few rungs lower on the ladder of progress. When I delved into the website, I had a hard time discerning the peoples facial features because of the low resolution of their pictures. Because of this I'm sure it skewed the accuracy of my racial identification skills, and while that was the main point of the exercise; the more important point was the message after, stating how until the 1960's census emulators classified people the same way the exercise had me classify them. Following that message it informed me of the 1970's civil rights laws allowing people to self identify their race.
Our readings re emphasized what we teach our children today; that race has no validity as a biological category. It also went on to explain how race emerged in Europe in the 17th century, along with the growth of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Establishing the culture that's more “advanced” as the one which is more biologically evolved. Creating evolutionary rank off of irrelevant indicators such as scull size, and calling other less understood groups primitive. By the 20th century, races were generally viewed as natural, long standing divisions of the human species that were evolving at