Different Races Different Worthiness?

Is race for real? Race is real, but not in the way many people think. Race is a concept that people use to make sense of the obvious differences/variations that exist among people around the world from country to country. Although there is not a consensus of wether or not there is biological evidence that explain the differences between races, the sociological point of view is that the whole concept of race has been constructed not biologically, but socially based, to categorize and differentiate human groups. 

In the film “Race: The Power of an Illusion” Ph.D. Pilar N. Ossorio has presented the argument that “There is as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups.” The evidence that supports this such statement is based on experiments that prove the genetic diversity and/or similarity among people regardless of race. A group of people compared their genetic coding, expecting to find more similarity among people of the same racial group; surprisingly, they found that the existing similarities had nothing to do with race.They also show that there is not even one physical characteristic that all people within a race, Africans in this case, have in common; not even the skin color. 

I would have never imagined that people of the same race could be totally different genetically speaking. I consider that race should be based on geographic regions more than any other aspect, and only for purposes of self identity, not to measure how valuable each group of people is, nor what do they deserve to be or have. Unfortunately many people believe that certain races worth less than others and thus they are made to do certain activities proper of their race. A clear example of this is the vast difference between whites and Latinos as far as job ranking, regardless immigration status. Latinos are the ones who do the hard work while white people usually get better positions and better pay. 

My racial identity is Latino. I feel that I pertain to this categorization because I am from Latin America and because my first language is Spanish and not because of my appearance, skin color, facial features or any other physical characteristic. I feel identified with other Latin-Americans not because we look alike, but because we share the same culture, customs, and language. I consider that facial features, color skin, hair type and all those characteristics should not been taken into consideration when people are classified into racial groups since there are many people that look totally different from others of the same race. I did the online experiment called “Sorting People” where we are supposed to guess what race they belong to by only looking at pictures of different people. Surprisingly, I guessed only two out of twenty. It is a really good and reflecting activity. 

A number of professionals have studied the controversial topic of race, looking for some evidence that explain the obvious differences among racial groups. Even though no scientific evidence has been found, social ideas of racial differences still persist and the reality is that the consequences of racism are tangible and visible. The existence of social, economic, and political disparities among racial groups confirm that certain people benefit from dividing people into racial groups. Strategically, some people take advantage of the categorization that exist, specially politicians in the United States where we can find a huge variety of minorities. As it is stated under the section “Race Timeline,” American ideas about race have been shaped over time by shifting political priorities.  

Throughout the years, politicians and other people have manipulated the different racial groups to their convenience. To illustrate, the article “Court to use of race in drawing political lines” displays that “The Legislature’s artistry [...] solidified the ability of black voters to elect their favored candidates.” Unfortunately, the manipulation of racial groups is something that conveniently for the white, has existed since many years ago. For example, volume 2 of the film “Race: The Power of an Illusion” exhibit how whites have taken advantage of “inferior” races. Native Americans have been deceived and deprived of their lands, Africans were abused and discriminated for decades, Latinos have been oppressed as well. But how is that for many years people seem to accept all this disparities as something natural and even inevitable? People have widely accepted racial inequality because of the way popular culture depicts the issue. For years, popular magazines and television shows have spread propaganda that depicts whites as a superior race, which is seen as something normal and fun. Also because The United States is considered as a world power, and it is evident that being white is something advantageous, many people have tried to be considered as white.

Now more than ever I feel like race has nothing to do with worthiness. Inequality should be transformed to in-equality for social purposes. Regardless of the purpose, is inevitably to classify people into racial groups, even though genetically speaking race do not exist in humans. I feel like we all have the necessity of feeling identified to others and being part of a racial group is an easy way to do it. Nevertheless, in order to change racial inequality, people need to change not only how others perceive them but also how they perceive themselves.