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Racism has been the cause of many conflicts and crimes in America. It is, perhaps, inevitable that such things occur since it is believed that it is built into human structure that a person would consider his “race,” his ethnic group, to be superior to others. In earlier times, this train of thought was used as a defense and survival mechanism. In order for a person to survive, she or he must be able to perceive the similarities and differences in order to judge whether she or he is in danger or not. However, the concept of race has took on its own meaning in a country where a multitude of biological races share and reside.
In that sense, a negative connotation of race is construed and ethnocentrism occurs. Contrary to the common conception of race, these concepts do not have a biological basis: “genetic analysis… reveals that overall, people are remarkably similar to their genetic makeup” and that “more variation occurs within so-called racial groups than between them” (Harris 2003, 207). For example, there are many variations in the Asian community depicted in the Cantonese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese among many more. These variations occur when each groups adapts to the differences in the environment in which they inhabit. As the physical evolution takes place, so does cultural evolution, making each group even more unique.
Another reason that the popular conception of race falters is because many individuals from different “races” choose to intermarry with other “races,” creating more and more similarities. As people of different genes have family, not only do their gene pools come together, but differences and distinctions between “races” that are supposedly visible eventually become blurred. The idea that a person’s race and his or her differences can be visibly picked out becomes a faulty one.
Another reason that the concept of race lacks a biological basis is because it “in fact [is] culturally constructed” (Harris 2003, 207) and is termed “social races”. There are as many variations in cultures as there are variations and distinctions of race. However, there is much confusion over the two concepts and people often link them together under the term “race.”
Such confusion often prohibits a person from seeing that it is fallible to “think of human beings in terms of a small number of fixed and sharply distinct races” (Harris 2003, 209). But when this happens, races are made distinct. One example occurred in the post-slavery times in America: “Whites needed some rule or principle to categorize people as either Black or White so that the discriminatory measures could be applied to Blacks who looked like Whites, but not to Whites who looked like Blacks” (Harris 2003, 209). This was achieved by creating the One Drop rule that explains that anybody who has any type of African blood in them, no matter how small the amount, is considered Black.
In the case of the Blacks and Koreans living in South Central Los Angeles, neither races were trying to assert superiority over the other, but this notion was construed over many interactions (the Koreans were storekeepers and the Blacks were customers) and ultimately led to a misunderstanding. Both Blacks and Koreans believed that the other race was rude and was being racist to the other. In reality, neither race understood the customs of the other, leading it to behave caustically to each other.
Racial expression can occur in a positive way. In Elmhurst—Corona in Queens transformed from a white community to a multi-ethnically mixed community. This did not occur without much trouble and effort to bring about an understanding between the races. The outcome was “members of different ethnic groups began to work together” and resulted from the women’s concerns over their children’s safety. However, with the mind open to change, racial expression can be expressed by coming together to gain an understanding.
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Stephanie W.
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Seeing the World: The Nature of Perception
