Race and racial identity has long been used in the USA in different ways and to achieve various results. This has led to a lot of debate as to its validity in social, political and biological classifications and especially when used to make some individuals look and feel inferior due to differences in race. The use of race in biological classifications is however being actively challenged and there is a push for its exclusion from scientific classifications but on the political side, this may take much longer to achieve.
Scientists are continually concluding that race is not biological but rather a social construct as studies show there is no gene or cluster of genes common to all blacks or all whites for instance. Were race “real” in the genetic sense, racial classifications for individuals would remain constant across boundaries yet a person who could be categorized as black in the United States might be considered colored in South Africa. The political meanings of race, or rather belonging to particular racial groups, have however been constant eg Non-European groups in the U.S continue to be viewed lesser to European groups both socially and politically with whites being the majority in political circles and high-level management positions. Such political realities seem to support the racial construction but in more of a self-preservation role than a biological angle (Jackson, 1992).
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Traditionally, biology defined race as a geographically isolated breeding population that shares certain characteristics in higher frequency than other populations of that species but has not become reproductively isolated from these other species. Early systems however focused more on phenotypic characteristics to classify populations although recent scientific advancements have shown little to no genetic variations between different populations and that most phenotypic variations were just as a result of adaptation to the geographical locations in which they were found ( Jackson, 1992).
Many scientists are continuously coming to the conclusion that race has no genetic or scientific support and is more of a social construct and I agree with them. Studies of the human genome from different races have shown no significant variations and even in some cases, two individuals of the same race find that they have more variations between each other than with an individual of a different race ( Schaefer, 2012)
A major factor in the formation of racial identities in the US was identification in the early days where there were many races that had come from other countries and needed to be grouped into different categories. For instance, during political parties used race to identify the demographic they were appealing to and know what problems to address e.g. Minorities such as blacks identified more with talk how to improve the employment rates and to reduce poverty. Another factor was also maintenance of power where the whites used race as a way of exercising and preserving authority over the natives by showing them that they were superior to them as a race yet this was only based on phenotypical characteristics such as skin color and nothing genetic (Barkan, 1992).
Assimilation seems like the approach closest to how society views racism today. Assimilation is where other races may view integrating their beliefs and values into those of the dominant race to stand a chance of enjoying the same benefits accorded to the dominant race. It is basically a system where the oppressed has to gradually change their lifestyle and beliefs to match the oppressors as the only way out of oppression. Numerous laws have been passed trying to level out benefits accorded to races but racial discrimination still exists and the only practical way to phase it out is by intermarrying between races and assimilation until a point is reached where it is hard to differentiate between the different races (Schaefer, 2012).
In conclusion, the fact that race is a social construct, defined by markers such as skin color, does not mean that racial classifications will be devoid of tangible effects on the different racial categories. Conflicts due to the negative effects of racial classification will therefore continue to be felt as the oppressed push against their oppressors until a balance is reached where all people regardless of their race or any other classification have and feel like they have equal rights privileges.
References
Barkan, E (1992). The Retreat of Scientific Racism : Changing Concepts of Race in Britain and the United States Between the World Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Jackson, F. L (1992). "Race and Ethnicity as Biological Constructs: Ethnicity & Disease 2, 120–125.
Schaefer, R (2015). Racial and Ethnicity in the United States, eighth edition. Pearson
