Conversation of the Week LXVIII: Is It Time for Society to Recognize that There Is Only One Race But Many Ethnic Groups?

January 21, 2014
Written by Janice S. Ellis Ph.D. in
National Collegiate Dialogue
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Do you believe there is only one race, the human race, but many ethnic groups?
Do you believe there is only one race, the human race, but many ethnic groups? Photo Credit: sfari.org

Is it time to rethink how we think of race? There is only one race, the human race, but many ethnic groups. 

Race is a construct whose precise origin still remains in dispute among scholars. However, there is a large body of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences that confirms race is a modern concept constructed under specific historical, social and economic conditions – often to create and perpetuate power, servitude and superiority.

While the continued focus of a great deal of academic scholarship, the subject of race has managed to escape sustained and informed public dialogue.  Since the election of President Barack Obama, many would like to believe a public and sustained conversation about race is no longer necessary.

In many circles, race is a taboo subject to be avoided as we go about our daily lives where an honest conversation is most needed. We somehow are fine with the subject of race being ignored or only addressed when some blatant and ugly incident makes it unavoidable and calls into question, at the moment, our own sense of decency if we choose to remain silent.

Why not abandon once and for all times the man-made concepts of race, which have done and continue to do more harm than good? We have allowed the color and shades of skin and other cosmetic differences like the texture of hair, color or eyes to shape our impressions of entire groups of people. When beyond the surface differences, often the results of geographic and environmental forces, we are all 99.99999 … percent the same. The results of the Human Genome Project have conclusively proven that.

Like beauty, the concept of race is only skin deep.

So, why do we persist in hanging on to the false notions that there are several races? There is one race the human race, which happens to have many ethnic groups.

Clearly, this will require a deliberate and new way of thinking to bring about such a revolutionary change of the definition of race on a broad scale. But major changes occur over time. Like fruit- bearing trees, the seeds are planted long before we harvest and enjoy the fruit.

The Human Genome Project unraveled the sequencing of DNA and determined, among many significant findings, that all of us as human beings are 99.9999 ... percent the same.

Like every great change movement, there will be resistance and there will be those that will never embrace the change. But we need to begin somewhere. Many people believe that the negative perceptions around race will change with the younger generations, and older generations are a lost cause. Needed changes will occur only with a concerted effort by people today and future generations.

There must be deliberate efforts by adults, older and current generations, to educate and re-educate, beginning with ourselves and passing it on to our children. Prejudices, acts of discrimination occur on a daily basis among the young people because of what we have passed on.

If we ever hope to change the view of race, as adults, and stop allowing it to be a divisive force in our daily lives, we must we willing to accept that there is one race, one humanity, we hold in common; and commit to understanding the ethnic and cultural differences that make us unique, interesting, and sometimes challenging.

One race, and many ethnic groups. Why not try it on? Wear it. Pass it on. Play it forward.

What do you have to lose, except a false sense of superiority and close-mindedness?

Note: The Human Genome Project resulted in significant findings as verified with the many sources and references available. This is just one or many articles summarizing what we learned.

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National Collegiate Dialogue

Comments

I agree

Submitted by PARKS2014-18 on

Being tolerant of something means that you don't agree with it or appreciate it but you will just live with it. Being tolerant will not fix the problem of discrimination because what happens if one day everyone decides to stop being tolerant and to do something about it? Then we will be in even more trouble. Society today needs to learn that we are all different not just because of our skin tones but because we are all a different individual. We need to appreciate and acknowledge that we all have differences.

Homo Sapian

Submitted by PARKS2014-07 on

I sincerely believe we divide ourselves when we say we are a "different race", we are all of the same species living on the same planet and we have the same genetic code. I don't see the need to call our races different. I understand that there are different cultures of people but we can't get that confused with being a different species. Music, art, dancing, and singing are apart of every culture in the world and they all link with our human species. We are more alike than we are different and we need to start promoting that.

True

Submitted by PARKS2014-11 on

There is only one "race" and i think that the misuse of this word has been passed on so many times that it had just become the dominant word for describing Ethnic Groups. This is great that this is actually being set straight and that people can now know the proper words for describing others.

We need to open our eyes

Submitted by PARKS2014-01 on

To be honest I dont believe the concept ''Is It Time for Society to Recognize that There Is Only One Race But Many Ethnic Groups?'' is going to make a change. This is just to put the same problem in other words but the main issue is still alive. It is true that the human race is one; and I also agree that there are many different ethnic groups but, what do we want to achieve with that? People can understand the concept but people will keep being racist to the one who is from another ethnic group. This huge change needs to begin saying the things how they are. However is so true that this change has to be guided ''by adults, older and current generations, to educate and re-educate, beginning with ourselves and passing it on to our children''. The way is not to re-name this entire issue (racism) for something that sounds more like a community.

we are all alike

Submitted by PARKS2014-16 on

The problem that comes with differentiating of races and ethnicity is that people tend to focus more on the differences that they see first hand like skin color, language or bodies and forget to focus on the similarities. Such is the sad truth in the world we live in and the worst part is the similarities outweigh the differences by a large number. The current and future generation need to come together and teach one another on the values that we each up hold as humans and how significant we all are to one another.

The similarities are always

Submitted by PARKS2014-34 on

The similarities are always more important than the differences, in almost every situation. When we learn and teach generations to relate to each other rather than differentiate the world will improve.

Social Construct

Submitted by PARKS2014-34 on

Race is just a social construct, and when biology stops being used as a totally false scapegoat it will be so much easier to deal with the issues in our world. There are more differences from person to person of any color than there is to groups of one color over groups to another.

personal identity

Submitted by PARKS2014-23 on

Discrimination will only continue if we believe it should and pass on the idea.
We will always be different from each other for sure because each person have their own identity and that is good to be different from others, but that doesn't mean we have to feel superior and discriminate other people, based on their skin color or ethnic group.
That is the mentality we have to avoid.
The race is only one: human race. The ethnic groups are many, and that diversity make us understand and learn with the differences and similarities, and based on that we enter in a process of building our own and particular way of living our life, our own personality, our own unique identity.

I watched the Bill Nye-Ken

Submitted by PARKS2014-06 on

I watched the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate last night and Ham, a creationist, cited the works of a naturalist in 1914 who acknowledged that their are five separate races, with whites being the supreme race. Nye, an evolutionist and atheist, noted that the ideas of evolutionists have changed since 1914, exactly 100 years ago. Nye and Ham both pointed out that the results of the human genome project shows that there is only one human race. Both creationists and evolutionists except that, and now I believe it is time for the non-scientific world to accept that too.

Honestly i feel like there is

Submitted by PARKS2014-24 on

Honestly i feel like there is no way of completely stopping the word "racism" even if we do someone will always come up with something different for the word. The generations grew up with this and just like us they don't like to stray from their "norm" so they will teach generations and generations past them what they learned and we will have a hard time getting past this issue. The way people speak to each other is awful. Like my brother and how his friends speak to one another on Xbox. Its terrible.

Honestly i feel like there is

Submitted by PARKS2014-24 on

Honestly i feel like there is no way of completely stopping the word "racism" even if we do someone will always come up with something different for the word. The generations grew up with this and just like us they don't like to stray from their "norm" so they will teach generations and generations past them what they learned and we will have a hard time getting past this issue. The way people speak to each other is awful. Like my brother and how his friends speak to one another on Xbox. Its terrible.

Honestly i feel like there is

Submitted by PARKS2014-24 on

Honestly i feel like there is no way of completely stopping the word "racism" even if we do someone will always come up with something different for the word. The generations grew up with this and just like us they don't like to stray from their "norm" so they will teach generations and generations past them what they learned and we will have a hard time getting past this issue. The way people speak to each other is awful. Like my brother and how his friends speak to one another on Xbox. Its terrible.

If everyone thought this way,

Submitted by PARKS2014-25 on

If everyone thought this way, that there is only one race- the human race, then things would be SO boring. Diversity is something we experience every day and the cultures we come across are amazing. There has to be other races, or else we would not be interesting at all. And if we all thought this way, racism would still be inevitable.

One Race

Submitted by PARKS2014-02 on

From the research is clear that there is only one human race. But it would take a revolution in thinking to change the concept in most people's minds. This should start in the schools with changing textbooks and allowing the new vocabulary to be used. But I agree with one of the posts when they say this will probably not change much about the human need to separate and judge each other. There has always been discrimination in one form or another and changing the language may help this, but I think humans will continue to focus on their differences at some level.

Exactly!!! we are all human

Submitted by PARKF2014-09 on

Exactly!!! we are all human beings! we need to stop being mean to each other and start being kind to one another because we are all family

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