Week 3: Race and Representation

Question 1

Is Race Real?

Answer 1

There is no evidence for race as a biological division for the human species

Question 2

Racism does exist

Answer 2

• Privilege
• Prejudice
• Discrimination

Question 3

Human Race Is Not Biological

Answer 3

• Skin color is an ancient response to people’s geographic environment
• Balance between getting enough Vitamin D and protecting folate
• Humans around the world share 99.9% of their DNA
• Human variation lies on a continuum and can be sorted to groups

Question 4

“Scientific” Race

Answer 4

Based on a history of exploitation

Question 5

Based on a history of exploitation

Answer 5

• European exploration and expansion.
• Colonialism and extraction of material goods.
• Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Question 6

The Enlightenment (18th Century)

Answer 6

• Knowledge acquired by observation and logic (rather than faith).
• Humans are part of nature and can be known by science (Descartes First Meditations separated body and mind) and are superior due to our capacity for rational thought.

Question 7

Biocultural Connections

Answer 7

Prejudice and Health
- Structural racism and discrimination negatively affect health
- Epigenetics: trauma can be passed from generation to generation
- Major health disparities lead to unequal outcomes for people

Question 8

Defining Ethnicity

Answer 8

The social group a person belongs to, and either identifies with or is identified with by others, as a result of a mix of cultural and other factors including language, diet, religion, ancestry and physical features traditionally associated with race

Question 9

The Privilege of Fair Skin

Answer 9

• The unearned power that society and its institutions bestow on fair-skinned people
• The “invisible knapsack” (McIntosh 1988) – ignores issues of social economic class
• Intersectional approach
  Race (ethnicity) is embedded in history and cultural experience as a member of a community