This week in sociology we talked about race. We learned that race doesn't actually exist, and is just a social construct. Race can change depending on where you go. For example, in America if a child has a black parent and a white parent they are known as mixed. They are still considered black no matter how they look. However, if that child was to go to a country like Brazil where there are many different classifications of race, depending on how that child looks he/she could be considered white. If race can change like this, it doesn't make sense that it has a genetic basis.
This was really interesting to me because my family is Indian but people have always thought my mom doesn't look it, and sometimes even me. My mom is incredibly light and peachy skinned and she also dyes her hair which wasn't ever really black, it used to be dark brown and now it's a reddish brown. Her eyes are also a light hazel. She isn't really categorized as white by people, but no one guesses she is Indian. However, as far back as we can trace, there are only Indians in my family. People always assume there was a mixed race marriage down the line but there never was. This just further proves that race doesn't have a genetic basis.
No comments:
Post a Comment