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One reply for each part and critical comments to other students' postings. These replies should have a minimum of 150 words each. 

Part 1

Sociologists and anthropologists believe race is “social” and not a biological concept because race is not determined by what you look like.  They believe that race is much more defined by what is inside.  Examples like what religion they practice, the language they speak and the position they are in socially.  In their eyes, race is not identified by skin color, hair color, eye color, shape, weight and height.  I think they see much more of what the person truly is. 

 After studying the web site “Race: the power of illusion”? I learned that you shouldn’t judge people by what they look like.  Meaning just because they look a certain way, doesn’t mean you know where they came from.  I did the matching game and I only had three people in the correct category.  I thought that I would have done much better.  Just goes to show me that skin color, hair color, eye shape and color, nose shape or lip shape shouldn’t be your tell tell sign of where a person is from. 

 From the movie “The Divide” I found that everyone considered themselves as a separate race.  People are the ones that make race up.  Eric Liu talks about how the Anglo-Saxon Irish, German, French, Jews were always considered one race, even though they are four separate ones.  Man considered them one and the Blacks of America another.  This to me is racist because all those different race categorized as one race is just not right.  I believe that every different kind of people are considered a race and I think you could also be mixed race, so what would this person be “categorized” as then?  I strongly agree with Eric Liu when he says that its not God that makes the race, its the people. 

 In the video clip “Is Race Real”?  I agree with what John Wideman is saying about the problem being the hierarchy.  Thats how people in South Los Angeles thought, they were better than the others.  This is what was causing the riots and deaths.  The economy was deteriorating and each race was fighting one another to be at the top.  Race was such an issue in South Los Angeles that some people started leaving to start a life elsewhere.  This was better for the ones that left because they had better opportunities.  The economy wasn’t getting better in South Los Angeles and they couldn’t survive the way they were going.

Part 2

1. Why for sociologists and anthropologists race is a social and not a biological concept?

Race is looked at as more a social concept than a biological concept, due to the fact that research has been done and nothing has been proven through DNA that can really show a biological reason to separate a race. There is genetic diversity that can be proven through DNA that makes different people from different regions of the world have different features. Every human being that has no developmental issues all develop the same and go through the same stages in life. However what makes race a social issue from what I pulled from the readings and videos, is that mankind instill these thoughts and ideas out into the world and many people agreed with these conflicting ideas. For example African Americans are always looked at as a minority group and are usually poor, and white Caucasians are the majority group and usually are wealthy. This idea about African Americans was instilled in humans starting from the time of slavery of black people. White people consider themselves more privileged than any other race out there because that is what is told to them from their ancestors and parents. In the video “Race is an Illusion” there was a white male that expressed that he feels that being white is a privilege and he would not change his skin color. I am not saying that it’s only a white against black there are other  races that have their own thoughts and judgments towards other races,  some express racism against their own race. For example the other day at work there was a coworker that was floated to my floor and I didn’t see her face but based on her name being Pamela Murphy I assumed that the individual was black and she wasn’t she was actually white. Race is a social concept that are instilled in people through teachings starting with family members at home and then expanding to the outside world as they get older. At this time I don’t think that racism can be changed or controlled I think it is based on certain individuals and their education levels, also how they choose to treat people.

2. Regarding the idea of race, what did you learn after exploring the website “Race: The Power of Illusion”?

After exploring the website Race: The power of Illusion, I have learned that all humans are alike and we haven’t been around long enough to make evolvement into sub groups or sub races. Also you can have someone that share the same race and are just as different from someone who does not share the same racial background. With that being said two people from two different races can have more in common with each other than a person of the same race. The website also tells us that slavery was more a financial benefit and was not meant to be little anyone and make anyone look down on anyone. Many people from the same racial background where taken against their free will to fight in wars.

3. What did you learn from the movie “The Divide” and from the ideas presented by Eric Liu and by video clip “Is Race Real”?

Watching both videos I notice that they share the same ideas and kind of hit the same points on a person’s physical characteristics putting them in a certain racial however social category. A persons skin color should not determine what they are capable of doing, or putting them in a specific social category for the rest of their life. Someone from a Asian decent should not be looked at as a mathematician just because they are Asian because you have many other people from other races that are well in math as well. African Americans should not be more compared to a monkey than anyone else. Racisms is something that is derived from a individuals thoughts and feelings towards that race. People should be treated and judge accordingly based on how that person acts. Also saying that a specific race cannot be good at something but at the same time is not given the right resources to learn and get better at something is not fair.