I know this question sounds incredibly ignorant but i have been trying to understand for some time. My main reason for asking is because if we have dna testing that can show someone’s ancestry is this much % Italian and this much % Korean, how is that a social construct if it’s in our dna?
Please understand I’m not saying race isn’t a social construct, I am just trying to understand how it is a social construct.
In: Biology
The idea of French philosophers and what was passed into French Revolution (and carried over by Napoleon Bonaparte) was there was just one human race. Differences in skin color, hair color etc. were just variations of the same race, as we are still compatible and reproduce.
Sub dividing people based on these (mostly (*)) cosmetic differences into races, is racism. This is, from the French point of view. (*) As a result we tend not to think in that way in Europe, as considering different skin color as a different race is weird for us (and even our extreme right leaders tread carefully around that).
This obviously didnt carry over anglo saxon countries so the concept of “different human races” is still very much present at least in the USA, but also in many asian countries for example (see how some Japanese think the Koreans are an inferior race, for example, or the views of some Han Chinese about other local minorities). That’s one big difference in culture between european countries (that were under napoleonic influence and inherited this concept of universalism) and the USA, China or Japan.
(*) Disclaimer yes i know that melanin protects from the sun and darker skin tones, or eye color are more adapted to very light environments, but globally these are minor variations.
(*) Disclaimer 2 since this is Reddit.. yes there are people who think otherwise and they are indeed racists.
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