Since we live in a racialized society, there is a long history of searching for racial differences. Certainly, the science that is used to distinguish race is undoubtedly part of the ‘social’ context. The ideas about ‘What race is?’ are not scientifically or factually based, instead, it is highly informed by the surroundings of a society. The social differences then become naturalized in biology. The author of “The Mismeasure of Man” Stephen Jay Gould states that “Racial prejudice may be as old as recorded human history, but its biological justification imposed the additional burden of intrinsic inferiority upon despised groups and precluded redemption by conversion or assimilation. The “scientific” argument has formed a primary line of attack for more than a century.”
The idea that race is biologically innate consists of many divisions among people, which have been proposed that race is very clear-cut and has discrete features that are unchanging. Though scientists have attempted to find particular genetic markers in every body of a specific race, the scientific argument about race is based on the idea that race is a biological product; however this is not the case. Race is in fact not based on biology, but race is an idea that we ascribe to biology. However, the misinterpretation of racism implying biological construct is understandable, as George Fredrickson distinguishes “the term ‘racism’ is often used in a loose and unreflective way to describe the hostile or negative feelings of one ethnic group or ‘people’ toward another and the actions resulting from such attitudes. But sometimes the antipathy of one group toward another is expressed and acted upon with a single-mindedness and brutality that go far beyond the group-centered prejudice and snobbery that seem to constitute an almost universal human failing.” The assumptions of this school of thought is that the external differences are related to biology, and are associated towards more difficult internal biological differences; for example, intelligence, athletic ability, sexual behavior, musical aptitude or physical prowess.
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