Equality by Genetics

Race plays a big role in a person’s identity.  In many cases race determines how people treat you and react to the things you do.  Race is key determinant when it comes to experiencing racism.  So, how can we ignore our physical appearance and focus in genetic similarities, when our physical appearance is what influences our actions?

The comment made by Pilar about there being more differences genetically within racial groups than there is between different groups makes me think that Pilar is trying to make an argument to support color blindness, which in my opinion is wrong.  Your race defines you and how others treat you most of the time.  You might experience more racism because of your race; you might find it easier to get a loan because of your race.  Genetics do not play a role on the reaction people have towards you,  we might all be be genetically similar due to to the short amount of time that we have been developing genetically speaking.

In the film, Pilar points out that humans are more genetically familiar than any other species.  When black athletes started conquering the sports world, it was to be believed that they were superior athletes because they were closer to primitive.  This statement is basically generalizing that all blacks would make better athletes than any other race simply because they are superior and their bodies were made to compete.  But the fact of the matter is that Jewish basketball players were dominating the basketball scene before black basketball players started playing a bigger role in the sport, disproving the belief that blacks make for better athletes,  “by 1992 most of America’s ream team was African American, but before that, Jewish dominated Basketball.”  Pilar also points out that there is no way to measure race, what’s considered black here in the U.S may not be black in Brazil, Pilar makes a strong statement by saying that American racial classification is cultural.

My racial identity is Hispanic, and that’s is how I see myself.  I might be more genetically related to someone of another racial background than to someone in my own race, but that does not change that society treats me accordingly to the way I look not according to my genetics.  Pilar points out that we are just visually different, but genetically we are all very similar, unfortunately visual differences is what makes the biggest impact in our lives.

 This evidence by Pilar does not change how I think of my own racial identity.  We don’t get opportunities based on our genetics, everything is based on the way you look not on how similar I am (as a Hispanic) to a white person or someone of a different racial background.  Being genetically similar to whites will not prevent you from being discriminated.  Race might be a social construct, but it has been embedded in society and there is no going back, therefore the best thing to do is to accept that we are different and that due to our differences we have different needs as different races. 

The idea of race persists even though scientist are unable to find a genetic basis for social ideas of racial differences because as a society we continue to enforce the idea of race, we enforce it simply because it has been rooted into the way we think.  In most cases middle age white males are the ones who have benefited in the past and still do in present day from dividing people into racial groups.  Most of the The U.S  and even the world's wealth is controlled by whites.  A lot of this wealth has accumulated through generations, some even tracing back to when slavery started.  Division of races was started by whites to enforce their superiority over blacks, today it is used to enforce superiority over every minority group.