Jessica Moon

Anthropology
Mrs. Potter
May 1, 2014

Race: A Severely Misunderstood Word
The book Human Origins Evolution and Diversity states that most people have
traditionally combined various characteristics, such as skin color, face shape, nose
shape, hair color, hair form (curly or straight), and eye color. People who have particular
combinations of these and other traits have been placed together in categories
associated with specific geographical localities. These categories are called races
(313). While its widely believed that these physical characteristics make up a race my
studies prove that the word race was meant for different purpose.
Today, people have constructed ways to classify groups of people into smaller
groups or races to differentiate people. In doing so, we have created a broader
meaning of the word race. Human Origins Evolution and Diversity provides the
following example: the Japanese race and the Jewish race are often used by people
to describe races. When people utilize these descriptive terms they are actually
referencing Japanese nationality and Jewish religious groups rather than race. The
word race has been misconstrued in our society. Its unfortunate that race is being
defined by behavioral, physical and even religious characteristics.
Sadly, Im guilty for misunderstanding the word race, When I hear the word
race, I tend to think more along the lines of skin color, social and/or cultural
differences. I believe this is the case most of our population. This has caused the word
race to become a touchy subject/word for most. For example, racism stemmed from
the word race and racism is negatively associated with discrimination. Human Origins:
Evolution and Diversity states race is usually a term with biological connotations; it also
has enormous social significance. This is clear when we turn to the dictionary for
todays definition of racism. The Miriam Webster Dictionary defines racism as poor
treatment of or violence against people because of their race, the belief that some
races of people are better than others and also a belief that race is the primary
determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce and
inherent superiority of a particular race.
In the book The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey author Spencer Wells states
One concept of race, popular until the mid-twentieth century, was that different skin
colours of people around the world reflected deep-seated biological differences. Skin
color does not and should not rob people of the characteristics that make up their race:
H. Sapiens! We are all still bipedal, we have similar brain sizes, looks, capabilities, we
each have two hands, two feet etc.. In the article Race Is RealBut Not in the Way
Many People Think Agustn Fuentes states: There is no genetic sequence unique to
blacks or whites or Asians. In fact, these categories dont reflect biological groupings at
all. There is more genetic variation in the diverse populations from the continent of
Africa (who some would lump into a black category) than exists in ALL populations
from outside of Africa (the rest of the world) combined! The concept of race mentioned
earlier by Spencer Wells, clearly isnt factual, but our society (for centuries) has
revolved around the basis that skin color along with other meaningless characteristics
define race.
Spencer Wells also points out that Linnaeus had included obstinate, contented,
free; paints himself with red lines in his description of the American Sub Species of
Homo Sapiens. Clearly there was no biological basis to this otherwise every Native
American alive today would feel genetically compelled to paint his or her face. I think
this example given by Wells really sums it up. Although Linnaeus lived long ago, society
today is still trying to utilize ridiculous means to further classify the human species.
We need to go back to the basics in order to understand what the word race
was truly meant to define. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines race as: a group of
persons who come from the same ancestor. This means that for humans, there is only
one race. Homo Sapiens. In the book Ex-tinct Humans authors Tattersall and Schwartz
state that Blumenbach maintained that all living humans, regardless of perceived
differences, belong to the same species, H. Sapiens. I believe that humans should be
viewed on an equal level today, like Blumenbach suggested.
Todays definitions of race are unfair, and truthfully quite sad. In my own opinion
the word race needs to be widely re-explained to society, however, I understand that
the word race is arbitrary. It seems that, even if the true definition of the word race
was widely understood, people would find another word to take its place in order to
continue to further classify human population or Homo Sapiens for meaningless
purposes, such as discrimination.

Works Cited
Jurmain, Robert, Lynn Kilgore, and Wenda Tervathan. "Human Variation and
Adaption." Human Origins Evolution and Diversity. Mason: Cengage
Learning, 2013. Print.

Def. 1. 3. Merriam Webster Dictionary Online, Merriam Webster, n.d. Web.

Tattersall, Ian, and Jeffrey Schwartz. "The Path to Human Evolution: Defining Homo."
Ex-inct Humans. New York: Nevraumont Publishing Company, 2000. Print.

Wells, Spencer. "The Importance of Culture." The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. Print.

Fuentes, Agustn . "Race Is RealBut Not in the Way Many People Think." .
Psychology Today , 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.psychologytoday.com>.

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