Do you think that race exists?

Question

Is race culturally created or biologically made up? please i really need your answers

Answer 1

Scientists threw out the notion of biological race quite some time ago. Last year i watched a documentary about a study they did, as well as information about the social construction of race at my college. Some answers here are illustrating an effect social scientists call "the dumbing down [of a state, region, a country etc]" As far as skin color and bone structure differences, these are actually on a spectrum with someone filling every variation inbetween all points of colors and body structures. even "white" pple vary greatly in color and bone structure. In different cultures, the color gradiant (meaning the practices of deciding which shades are significant for racial categorizing) changes.

wikipedia says "A social construction, social construct or social concept is an institutionalised entity or artifact in a social system 'invented' or 'constructed' by participants in a particular culture or society that exists solely because people agree to behave as if it exists, or agree to follow certain conventional rules.

Obvious social constructs include such things as games, language, money, school grades, titles, governments, universities, corporations and other institutions. Less obvious, and more debatable, social constructs include class, race, gender, religion, sexuality, morality, memory and reality."

wikipedia also says:
"The term race is used by many to distinguish one population group of an animal species (including human) from another of the same species with the most widely used human racial categories being based on visible traits (especially skin color and facial features), genes, and self-identification. Many (especially geneticists) regard race as a social construct actually mixing cultural and largely superficial differences and describing it as race what is actually ethnicity. Professor Steve Jones frequently points out that snails in neighbouring valleys have more genetic differences than across the entire human population and that Blood Group has actually a far bigger genetic difference than all the "superficial" aspects of human appearance,"

Answer 2

It is a combination of both. First of all we have to aknowledge that everybody is born different from the others. In a nut shell, everyone is unique. No face, no body is the same as anyone else.

The difference is comparatively minimal between people of the same race. So white people in general look similar to each other in terms of physical appearance. Of course there are blonds, red heads, short and tall etc and there is a lot of discrimination within one's own race. Blonds have more fun, are stupid, fat people are less "sexy"etc.

The next level is race and ethnicity. Color of skin is the main dividing citeria that makes the major difference and is the most common classification method.
It is the easist way to identify a person's ethnicity and has been used since the begining of time, nothing new here.

Culture and the norms of society however change every once in a while.
In the pre1970's era for example, African Americans were considered "Blacks"or Negroes. There was a lot of discrimination and of course I dont need to go into the details.

Society however changed ever since then and african american were able to better integrate into the modern american society. The social values and norms changed. On the other hands, you will find a lot of discrimination against middle eastern people because of 9/11.

Hope the above helps answer your quesiton.

Answer 3

I believe that race is a made up quality, culturally created as a response to seeing beings that were different from oneself.
The 'races' are not separate species. They have only minor differences between them. It's something like cats -- black cats, white cats, tabby cats and alley cats are still cats. They can interbreed. Their digestive systems function the same. They hunt in the same manner.
Humans, I believe, are in the same situation. They have the same blood types. Skin grafts from one will take on another. Corneas can be transplanted from one to another. Internal organs, such as kidneys and hearts, can be transplanted from one to the other. They are not genetically separate and the most superficial of differences divide them into various groups.
The answer to your question must be that race is culturally created.

Answer 4

Outside- yes.
Inside - NO!
One people-one love.
"Race" is an adaptation to climate conditions!
Blond people have light hair and blue eyes because of genetic mutation.
New "races" are coming to life all the time-
Afro Americans are not the same race as African black people!
In the future-who knows how we're gonna look like,
considering new ways of traveling, migrations, and increasing number of multicultural marriages!

Answer 5

there is only one race HUMAN! there are different cultures,ethnic backrounds,we are the human family desended from adam&eve.we are not the same as insects or animals,if we were we would not be able to"interbreed as my family has for it's last 8 generations. nor could anyone else's.so to all the racist people out there STOP HATING!

Answer 6

I would say that it's culturally created. I've been to different places throughout the world where sterotypes don't fit what we've been "taught" in the USA....It shows that location plays a major role in behavior.

Answer 7

There are differences between people of different cultures. It is easy to tell someone of Asian decent, African decent, or European decent. Those differences are genetic.

I'm not sure those differences are large enough to be considered in the same category as "breeds". In any case, we're all the same species.

Answer 8

biologically n climate...but personally i don't believe in race cos God create human equally regardless of their background

Answer 9

A study from the U O Harvard, determined that human generated from africa, starting "black"... as different groups of "human" developed into new areas, there skin tones changed to adapt to the climate. This is just one of many theories.

Hope it helps

Answer 10

We are all one race, the Human race.