Race... Real or Fiction?

After doing some research and from real-world experience, I have come to the conclusion that race is a very narrow minded classification of human beings. The primary factors in determining race seem to be biological “surface” or “visible” traits such as skin color, hair type and facial features. However normal this may seem in our society, it is not without fault. As a culture, it seems, North Americans have a common desire to classify or compartmentalize just about everything including people. Race is a way that we identify ourselves with each other. Pride, prejudice and discrimination are common by products of this type of labeling. Albeit some pride is healthy, when it is coupled with ignorance it seems to turn to the latter, prejudice and discrimination, which are hurtful and destructive ways of thinking. An example could be “African American” pride, which is healthy being that this particular group worked very hard to gain equality in America. Then there is the “Aryan Nation” which is very negative in that this group feels that they are the only acceptable race and that all others should be eliminated. I feel that race is a warped version of ethnicity, the word as well as its usage should fade away like an old fad.

Anthropologists believe that the notion of race is a cultural construct; that it is based on the views and differences in human beings that come from culture not biology. There are studies that show genetic differences among members of the same race are far greater in number than those of different races. This creates a very unstable data pool. If we took into account other not so visible factors such as blood types or even the adult’s ability to digest lactose then there would be even more classifications. These types of data are basically considered irrelevant, but by whose standards? There’s also the fact that racial categories change over time, sometimes within the same culture. For a time, Jewish people were viewed as being