I’m currently educating myself about racism and anti-racism, and I keep reading that “race is a social construct”. I see how much subjective social views condition our ideas of different races. And yet, people from different places have certain traits that are quite obvious, and shared in common. If I’m not mistaken, that can apply to more than just visible things – things like susceptibility or resistance to certain diseases, if I’m not mistaken. Obviously no one deserves to be mistreated for any of these traits. But what I’m reading and what I seem to experience don’t add up. Anyone able to clarify things for me?
In: Biology
People have physical differences, like skin color or tolerance for different foods. But, first of all, most genetic diversity is found within a so-called racial group, not in the differences between races. And, second of all, the *importance* that we ascribe to these differences — the conclusions we draw from a mere difference in skin tone or hair or risk factors — is a social conceit and the product of the historical interest some groups had in dominating others. We don’t create whole categories of people based on eye color. We don’t discriminate on this basis. No law has ever prohibited people with a certain eye color from voting. The social structures and set of meanings surrounding race are what make it a social construct.
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