This week I learned a lot about how others in class experienced discrimination and how race is an illusion. Many people gave their personal reports this week. I enjoyed hearing about everyone's history and how they had different experiences with discrimination. I was surprised with some of the discrimination some people still face today based on their skin color and he they look. One thing that stood out to me was when someone said that they were having trouble getting a credit card because they were black. This was surprising to me because I would have thought that discrimination against black people had been long gone. When I heard this, I thought, "Really! This still happens". Other than the really sad experiences that people shared, I found the personal reports to be fascinating.
After watching the movie "Race, The Power of an Illusion" I felt that race was indeed, an illusion. It is manmade, just like all the machines, computers and cars everyone uses. I learned in my high school biology class that everyone is genetically different. The probability that two people on Earth are 100% genetically the same is about 1 in a trillion. I do not remember if it was more or less than that, but I do remember that it was around or very close to a trillion. If people used biology as an excuse or evidence for race, then everyone would need to be placed in their own unique race category. Another reason why race is an illusion is because it said that genetically, "Humans are the most similar". Humans think that they are different from each other only because they can distinguish between each other through looks, only what they can see. However, when it comes to things like pinto beans or fruit flies, humans think they all look the same. This is because things like fruit flies are too small for humans to closely observe with the eye. Things like pinto beans have huge amounts of variation in the different spot pattern, size and shape. Humans just do not take time to examine these things.
Humans also like to categorize things. This may be another reason why there is an idea of "race". People love to group things, to put everything into a little category so that things can be organized. This was probably how the idea of "race" developed. One person decided that he/she was bored and started to make up racial categories for people, then "poof" race was developed. People thought that since they were so different from each other, they had to organize different people into different categories, this became race. Once race was established, people started to dislike on another, or judge people based on their race. From that came the stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. I think that the people who came up with "race" just wanted to hate on people.
It was very interesting to see that the Mitochondrial DNA from a white person could be exactly the same as Mitochondrial DNA from a person in Africa. Even though everyone is genetically different, the different could only be a single letter in the sequence of DNA. DNA is made up of a double helix of sugar and phosphate with the bases Guanine, Adenine, Cytosine, and Thymine. This is the G, A, C, and T of DNA. A sequence of DNA for skin color in one person could be GATTCGATGGCCCGTAT, while it could be GATTCGGTGGCCCGTAT in another person. The only thing different in the second sequence was that the seventh letter of the first sequence was replaced with a G. A simple change like that could have a significant impact of the look of a person. The first person's skin might be white, but a simple change in the sequence might turn the second person's skin brown. This is why some people from different parts of the world have very similar DNA sequences. This explains why everyone is different genetically, but also very closely related.
One thing about humans that is funny to me is how a lot of people make fun of people because of their skin color. If a white person was living near the Sahara Desert, he/she would die of skin cancer. Your skin would need to be very dark to block out the UV rays. Again, if a black person was living in Iceland he/she would either freeze to death, or die from the lack of vitamin D. People make up stereotypes and discriminate against people because they have adapted to the place they live. If they did not adapt they would be dead. People are trying to survive, what is so funny about that. This was probably how the stereotypes, black people do not like the cold and white people get sunburned easily came to be. They are probably true.
I agree with you. Race is simply an illusion. Humans are the most genetically alike species so we do not differ much. Everyone's skin color is beneficial to them based upon where they come from because they adapt to their environments to survive. People closer to the equator tend to be darker skinned to protect them from the sun. While people closer to the poles are lighter because there isnt much sun. eing racist is just flat out ignorant. No one is better than anyone else-- we just look different on the outside.
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