Why is race considered a social construct?

Question

I know that humans made the race classification system purely out of racist intent, which would make it a social construct, right?

But that made me think of how in some instances, different races (or ethnicities I’m not sure) smell different from other races. Wouldn’t this point make race a bit of a biological/genetic concept too?

I apologize in advance if I sound ignorant, but I really want to be educated on this topic.

In: 0

Answer 1

Ethnicity isn’t a social construct, race is. Racism is when you lump different ethnicities together based on skin colour and make generalisations about the people you’ve put into that ‘racial’ group (usually negative ones).