Currently, there is a view that race is a social construction that is supported by the political realities. A race is not biological since there is lack of common cluster of genes to all whites or blacks. Besides, unlike racial identity and race, the political meaning of race have always not been fluid as asserting it as a ‘social construct’ supports the argument that women have breasts as a result of patriarch rather than biological maturity. Besides, the entire social natural systematic including races are just arbitrary as they are entirely based on the measurable and real criteria. With regards to politics, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 used the “one-drop rule” for defining race.
However, this view is different as compared to the biological or traditional view of the race. Biologically, race is often distinguished by genetics, anthropologists, as well as human evolutions that are responsible for the evaluation of human traits besides trying to restore the biological view of human evolution. Unlike the social construction that sees race as arbitrary, the biological taxonomy perceives race as a casual rank within the taxonomic hierarchy and is below the species level. Biologically, a race is regarded as the heritably different population segment that has managed to develop exceptional features but is also capable of breeding successfully with the primary population. Biological perception also asserts that members of distinct races make up the same species.
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Various motivating factors influenced the early Americans in constructing racial categories and race. These first Americans decided to create race as a way of classifying human beings with the intention to give more power to white people as well as legitimizing the white people dominance over other non-white people. The early Americans as well constructed race and racial categories for justifying the social and economic inequality. This was particularly achieved by attributing some characteristics and behaviors to race including work ethic, intelligence, and criminal behavior by using a genetic inheritance theory. It, therefore, implies that one was a criminal, intelligent, or poor because it was literary in his/her genes.
The approach of pluralism most closely matches to the new definition of race within contemporary America. Pluralism is considered as a system or condition in which two or even more groups of people co-exist together. Therefore, race can be viewed from the perspective of racial pluralism since it acts as a social organization whereby the racial, religious, cultural, or ethnic diversity is being tolerated. Besides, in contemporary America, the emphasis on racial differences is often more readily explained and apparent, particularly on the objective grounds. Additionally, since contemporary America is regarded as a pluralistic society, regional as well as urban-rural differences have increasingly become muted and modified. However, the variations of both race and ethnicity still stand out as the primary surviving variegation features within a complex homogenizing society.
Finally, from a personal perspective, the definition of race that I support is the one that acknowledges race as a group of people classified or even united together based on their collective history, geographic distribution or nationality. For instance, the whites in America are considered as people from the same race including the Italians, Irish, as well as Eastern European Jews who formerly left their homelands to settle for a better life in America. As a result, they can now be regarded as whites rather than inferior as it used to happen initially.
