People categorize other people based on their outward features, including their eye color, skin tone, and hair type. Traditionally, there have been five major categories of these groups: the Caucasoid (white), Negroid (black), Capoid (Bushmen/Hottentots), Mongoloid (oriental/Amerindian), and Australoid (Papuan and Australian aborigines) races. These organizations’ reliance on outward appearance raises questions about the legitimacy of the established racial groupings. However, race and science are sometimes confused and many believe that race is ingrained in their blood. Nonetheless, many anthropologists do not believe in race. In an attempt to determine if race and genetics are related, anthropologists and biologists have been examining DNA in great detail. Genetics has revealed little to no racial correlation, according to anthropologists. Race does not exist because skin tone is determined by UV radiation intensity, there are no genes particular to any race, and since all of us descended from a common ancestor, and there won’t be significant genetic differences. Therefore, this paper will explain more on why the race does not exist.
There has been debate over race’s identity and relevance for many years. The Ferguson shooting in 2014 had drawn attention to this problem. Over time, the biological and social components of race were emphasized and changed. What we now refer to as ‘race’ was formed by consistently discriminatory beliefs and biased viewpoints. Skeptics would contend that because individuals from different parts of the world obviously differ from one another, race does, in fact, exist biologically. As a result, they belong to distinct subspecies and races. The subject of “Does race exist?” is one that has eluded the most brilliant minds. In certain ways, race is present, yet absent in others. To be clear, race does not originate from blood or DNA; rather, it exists only within culture. Race is not a consistent biological factor that determines an individual’s genetic makeup; rather, it is a sociocultural construct. Contrary to popular belief, races or more accurately, subspecies do exist.
On the other hand, the fact that skin color varies with UV radiation intensity is the strongest argument against the existence of race. Early hominids’ skin pigment varied according to the strength of UV radiation in their environment at the time they were evolving. For instance, a person’s skin tone would typically be darker to guard against harmful rays if their ancestors came from a branch that began close to the equator. “What we do not see, however, is the myriad other traits that are distributed in a fashion quite unrelated to the intensity of UV radiation,” according to an explanation on pbs.org.
All of the Old World’s northern populations had lighter skin tones than the long-term residents close to the equator. It appears that they are arguing that skin varies with location. Scientifically speaking, this is also true. “Albinos have less melanin, a natural pigment that helps protect the skin from the sun,” the article on nationalgeographic.com added (National Geographic, 2018). Skin tone is correlated with melanin levels in the body. Humans that live close to the equator, where the sun shines directly, therefore have darker skin because melanin is required to shield the skin from UV radiation. This demonstrates that race is a function of geography and solar radiation, not heredity.
Similarly, racial genes do not exist. Meiosis makes each person genetically distinct, although this genetic distinctiveness is independent of race or skin tone. Agustin Fuentes writes on www.psychologytoday.com, “There are no specific racial genes.” Just as there are no genes for specific cancer types that are specific to any one racial group, there is no genetic predisposition that makes black Americans more prone to hypertension (Psychology Today, 2019). No neurological pattern, nor any pattern in the growth and structure of muscles, the digestive system, hand-eye coordination, or any other similar metric, can be used to differentiate across races. This shows not just why race is not biological, but also why racial preconceptions and generalizations are incorrect on a fundamental level. Basically, since we all descended from the same ancestor, our differences won’t be too big. Evolution timelines, like the one found at: evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIE2Importantevents_texts.shtml,provide evidence that hominids, our forebears, are the common ancestors of all modern humans. It was natural to draw the conclusion that we are all alike in light of this. Since all humans are descended from the same ancestors, it follows that our genetic differences cannot be that great (Berkeley University, 2020).
The claim that there are genetic traces that can be perceived as racial differences is an alternative position to this one. It is true that traces that may be connected to race have been discovered by scientists. If race could be linked to more than 15% of genetic variance, then it would make sense to draw the conclusion that race is a genetic factor. According to an explanation of Alan Templeton’s findings on www.eurekalert.org, “Templeton evaluated genetic data from nuclear DNA, which is inherited from both sexes, Y chromosome DNA, which is inherited from the paternal side, and mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from the maternal side. His findings demonstrated that individual variation accounted for 85% of the genetic variation seen in human DNA. The percentage that might be attributed to “racial” differences was only 15 %( Brace & Gill, 2000).According to Templeton, “the 15 percent is far below the threshold that is used to recognize race in other species.” Before the lineages are even acknowledged as races, we observe rates of divergence in many other large mammalian species that are two or three times higher than in humans. One of the most genetically homogeneous species that we are aware of is the human. Humanity is a genetically diverse species, but essentially at the individual level. There is minuscule variation between the populations.” indicating that the proportion is too little to have any significance.
In conclusion, race is a social construct resulting from prejudices and discriminations towards slight distinctions within populations, notwithstanding the controversies surrounding this concept. Notably, there is scientific evidence that refutes the existence of race. Skin tone does not genetically distinguish one person from another; race is not based on genetics. Why is this crucial to know, one may wonder? It is significant because, in certain regions, persons of a particular race are not paid as much as those of other races, and in other places, it can be more difficult for people to gain scholarships or into college altogether. Persons of different races are frequently denied access to the greatest education. To evaluate someone based on how their skin evolved from their ancestors and how much melanin they have in their bodies is just pitiful. Some people aren’t even aware that they are basing their conclusions on this. If equality isn’t established, racism will never go away.
References
Brace, L., & Gill, G. (2000, February 15). Does Race Exist? Pbs.org. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/does-race-exist/
National Geographic. (2018). National Geographic: Stories of Animals, Nature, and Culture. Nationalgeographic.com. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. (2019). Psychology Today; Sussex. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl
University of California, B. (2020, June 10). Evolution 101 – Understanding Evolution. UC Museum of Paleontology. https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolution-101/
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