Racism The Artificial Category of Race Essay - 1796 Words

Racism: The Artificial Category of Race THESIS: Scientists and other intellectuals recognize the modern concept of race as an artificial category that developed over the past five centuries due to encounters with non-European people. Even though people still attempt to organize humans into categories according to their race, these categories have been shown to have no scientific basis. The term race is a modern concept. Its definition has adopted radically new meaning over the past few centuries. Currently, the term is used to characterize differences among human groups. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the term race in 1512 is a group or class of persons, animals, or things, having some common feature or†¦show more content†¦Classification resulted in the word race being an indication of human species, kind, variety, and type. Thousands of other systems were developed, designed to classify humans to a race according to their skin, brain size, violent behaviors, and intelligence (Holli 132). Physical characteristics, such as hair textures and color, nose, lips, and muscles, sexual habits, morals, and religion were also considered as criteria to assign a race to a human being. Fundamental systems based mainly on physical characteristics allowed scientists to justify racial group placement. Scientists and other intellectuals recognize the modern concept of race as an artificial category that developed over the past five centuries due to encounters with non-European, even though scientists attempted to organize humans into categories according to their race, they have been demonstrated to be unscientific in this century. The definition of race, is a group of people who have certain well-marked characters in common, evolved from terms including races of horses over the past five-hundred years. The word race was first used by the European Americans to describe people they were unaccustomed with. The definition has had numerous meanings including such as, a race of horses, a strong or rapid current of water flowing through a narrow channel, a set course or duration of time, and a track or channel inShow MoreRelatedRace Is An Artificial Category Created By Mankind1067 Words   |  5 PagesRacism is something that everyone has witnessed. People all over the world have been affected by discrimination. Many individuals believe that race is strictly biological however, it can be so much more. Racism deals with not only biology and ancestry, but also social and ethical practices. This discrimination is an artificial category created by mankind. The majority group creates and enforces the beliefs of that grou p onto others of society. 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