What+qualities+do+people+look+at+to+determine+their+own+race?



==== Scientific studies have [|proven]that there aren't any important differences between the DNA of one race compared to the DNA of another race. This suggests that all people are all biologically very similiar. But, then, what is race? If it isn't the separation of people by their DNA and genetic traits, then what is it? (Here are two pages that look further into if race is based on genetics, and how the discovery of DNA affected the way that we think about race ). Is it just a term that people made up to help themselves separate and categorize people into different groups, to make it easier for themselves to make first judgments and assumptions about people? And if race does exist, what defines what someone's race is? ====

[[image:DNA.jpg width="550" height="357" link="http://puesoccurrences.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dna_500.jpg"]]
==== ** "race: ** a recent idea created by western Europeans following exploration across the world to account for differences among people and justify colonization, conquest, enslavement, and social hierarchy among humans. The term is used to refer to groupings of people according to common origin or background and associated with perceived biological markers. Among humans there are no races except the human race. In biology, the term has limited use, usually associated with organisms or populations that are able to interbreed. Ideas about race are culturally and socially transmitted and form the basis of racism, racial classification and often complex racial identities." ====



==== This definition implies that race is a completely invented term, and that there is nothing that really technically classifies one’s race. “Race” is based on “common origin or background and associated with perceived biological markers.” But really, when people classify other humans by their “race”, they are just basing their conclusions off of what people’s physical features are. This definition also claims that the idea of “race” was invented when Europeans were exploring around the world, and they wanted to categorize the people that they saw. Personally, I think that the idea of “race” (although it most likely wasn’t known as “race”) has been around since the first time when people saw other people that looked “different” from them. As humans, we can’t help but wonder why people are different colors, or have different physical attributes, and it's a natural human tendency to draw conclusions about these physical variations, even if they actually don’t mean anything significant other than some of us spend more time in the sun or lived in a place with a different climate. The creation of the term “race” has had a lot of negative effects, such as causing “racism”. ==== ==== [|racism]: the use of race to establish and justify a social hierarchy and system of power that privileges, preferences or advances certain individuals or groups of people usually at the expense of others. Racism is perpetuated through both interpersonal and institutional practices ====

==== As soon as different “races” existed, group of people began to treat other groups that they thought were inferior with absolutely no respect. This sign was displayed in Texas, in year 1944. As can be seen by looking at [|Hammurabi’s Code], slavery existed as early as [|1800 BCE.] ====

Here’s an example that shows the differences between the penalties:


==== “ Although it may seem as though race became an integral part of society from the beginnings of human society, this term is relatively modern. Although in 400 BCE in the ancient Greek world they used a form of social classification, they mainly distinguished categories according to culture and language differences that existed rather than physical differences.” < [] >  ====

==== Race is known to be "relatively modern term", although I believe that the idea of different "races" has probably existed as long as humans have existed. If we look back on history, the idea of race was not established until very recently. A few decades ago, we began to categorize humans by their race- basically, by how they appear, and we grouped people together because they looked similar to each other- mainly based on skin tone and facial features or hair. But this was not always how humans were categorized; people used to be grouped together based on their ways of life and what language they spoke. ====



==== “ Throughout history racial mixing has been taboo.1 Fear of interracial mixing was a driving force behind the Jim Crow system in the South and the Black Codes in the North…Romano (2003) reports that children of mixed racial heritage were thought to be morally and physically inferior to “pure” blacks…” ====

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==== Not knowing what your race (or being of two different races) can be hard, and especially before and during the Civil Rights Movement in America, it was a problem for many children and adults. Children who were of two different races could not identify with either race. They didn’t fit in with the black kids, because they were white, and white kids don't want to be friends with them either, because they are part black, and they were raised to look down upon people with dark skin. A few decades ago, when Americans were more racist than they are presently, people spent time only with people that belonged to the same “racial group” as them- but if you were mixed, then who would you affiliate yourself with? Belonging to mixed races made it much harder for children and adults to make friends, and it made the social lives of these people very complicated and troubling. ====



Above is a snapshot of an [|interactive map from msnbc news] which shows the population percentages of "races" in each state
==== " Race" is basically just a term that humans have invented, most likely to help certain unified groups of people argue and support their beliefs that they are superior to other groups, and also to help them judge and evaluate people that they are not familiar with. There are no true reasons that determine what one’s “race” is, or ways to evaluate one’s race because it isn’t based on fact- it is an idea based on what people believe or have believed. The fact that all human’s have almost identical DNA shows us that humans are not different from each other in any significant way- even if some of us look different from others. ====

W here I Would Like to Go From Here
==== If I had more time to work on this "Race" website, I would do a lot more research. I would try to find many more sources that show how people identify themselves with certain groups, and why they feel that they are closer to this certain group of people compared to other groups. I was particularly interested by the book that you introduced us to, which questioned why "all the black kids sit together in the cafeteria". People tend to think that the general reason for "black" people to group together is because they have their race in common, and therefore, they have a lot more besides that in common; but from what I have learned while completing this assignment is that what people think of "race" to be (physical attributes, color of skin) actually has no significance at all. Therefore, groups of people that believe that they are all the same "race" and that therefore, they will get along better, are completely wrong- "race" means nothing. I would also like to research some cases in which people do not know what race they are, and what steps they take to evaluate their race. On many governmental documents, citizens are asked to mark down what race they are, but if race doesn't exist, or if there is no way to identify what someone's "race" actually is, then why is this a question that is commonly asked? Overall, I would like to further research my topic, and expand it. I would also like to include some personal stories, and possibly some videos- if any could be found. ====

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I wanted to learn more about how Mixed Race people identify themselves, and what struggles they face because of how they are of two different “races”, and I came upon this article at []=====

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"There were historical rules ... that if you were mixed and had a parent who wasn't white, then you checked the census box of the parent who wasn't white," said Maria P. P. Root, a Seattle clinical psychologist who has written extensively on mixed race in America.=====

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I found both of these quotes very interesting and I could relate to them because I never know if I should check Hispanic or Caucasian. Whenever I fill out those forms I think about how these terms are contradictory; someone can be Hispanic and Caucasian—my dad is a perfect example of this. Making these forms so exclusive to just having one race makes people who are “mixed race” feel very uncomfortable. Luckily, they have added an “other” choice on most forms recently.=====

 ====Also, the first quote about the “historical rule” is interesting because you always had to check the race that is “lower”, probably because “racist” white people would get mad if someone who was half black or native American claimed to be on the same “level” as them. It just shows how judgmental people really were just a few decades ago.====