In class I've been studying race and genetics. This week, I read an article called "We Are All Related." It explained how isolation and adaptation led to physical diversity and compared the terms race and ethnicity. This article helped me understand my learning by explaining more about the science that led to our idea of race in the first place.
The Diversity of Human Beings
Last week we determined that our idea of race is just that - an idea. So where did our impression that there are different races come from? Well, physical traits are inherited from your parents - half from each - through genes. These days, you're likely to get a very different mix of ancestral traits from each parent, because of how modern transportation allows us to mingle with people from every part of the world.
In history, though, this type of travel wasn't possible. In fact, many people lived in small, close-knit communities where outsiders were rare or even unheard of. Because of this isolation, an isolation that stretched across generations, the traits common in that community would be continually traded around, resulting in the people of that community eventually looking very similar to one another. This type of isolation died away when communities started to invade one another - for example, when the Vikings invaded many villages along the coast of Europe, they left a trail of their genes and traits behind them.After I learned about isolation, I made an interesting connection to something I had heard of previously. National Geographic predicted what the human race would look like in 2050 if we continue to mix at our current rate. They were basically saying that without the isolation that originally made us grow to look so different in the first place, eventually traits regulated by dominant alleles will make all of us look similar - look like we're all one "race."
Climate also affects the traits that are passed down through the generations - certain body types or skin colors are suited for particular climates (thinking back to the example from RACE: The Power of an Illusion about a walk from Africa to Norway) - but I'll elaborate more on that idea in the next section of this post, but it should be considered when trying to precisely define our idea of race.
The article took a shot at defining that idea, and I think I'd agree with their explanation: "it is a label given to a group of people that share different kinds of a temporary mix of genetic materials common to all humans."
Adaptation
Adaptation is defined as a change or process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment.
Adaptation is used to explain race because because of adaptation, certain traits were selected for people who lived in different areas, because certain body types and skin colors are better for certain geographical areas. For instance, dark skin protects against the sun better and a more compact body type is better for colder temperatures.
According to the definition, the term 'adapting' can refer to both individuals and entire species. Humans tend to be unusually good at adapting as individuals - take, for example, how people from everywhere live pretty much everywhere this days and have no trouble based on their appearance. People with extremely pale skin can and do live in equatorial areas and people with very dark skin can live in cold, cloudy areas without inhibition.This raises a question - in a cold, not particularly sunny place with a wide spectrum of skin colors (such as MN). will it all eventually lighten to a paler color that absorbs vitamin D more easily? In my opinion, it could (especially if no one entered or exited the state for an extended period of time) but most likely won't., because it depends not only on whether an individual gets a certain amount of sunlight but also on heredity and how various melanin-determining genes are passed on through the generations.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity is defined by the article as the combination of physical and cultural characteristics common to a group of people.
When comparing this definition to society's definition of race, you find many similarities - in fact, the definition we give to race really makes more sense for ethnicity, with one crucial difference - race involves the idea that the physical similarities of a group determine their cultural characteristics and capacity while ethnicity acknowledges the separation.
The message I've been trying to convey here and, in fact, a message at the heart of our learning in class, is that all humans are related and fundamentally equal. This raises yet another question. If this is true, how did we get to a world where racism is tolerated and human existence isn't equal?Well, near the beginning of the article, there is a paragraph that speculates that our idea of race originates from "our need to make sense of the great diversity of humankind," or, in my mind, our need to label the differences between ourselves and others, a need to set ourselves apart, for superiority. This, I think, is a darker side of the human nature, and is one big reason that our outdated concept of race continues to exist and be used to judge people, hence our racist world.
I think the best way to stop this injustice is by raising awareness, If everyone understood that science proves that skin color is literally only skin deep, then I believe we would be making a big step towards eliminating racism. After all, I believe every person has the capacity to understand the simple yet somehow complex idea used to conclude the article: that, in the end, we are all a member of the same race - human.
