- Published: September 29, 2022
- Updated: September 29, 2022
- Level: Secondary School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 20
Race Race is known as the ification system used to categorize human beings into large and distinct groups either by cultural, ethnical, genetics, anatomical, religious, social, or historical affiliations. This classification is differently understood and explained in the world today because of the historical affiliations and use of the word. Charles Dwain brought about this notion in the time of Hitler’s Germany in relation to the scientific evolution story.
Before the popularization of Darwinian evolution, most people talked about “ race” as reference to languages groups. This was like English race, Irish race and so on. The publishing of Charles Darwin’s book known as “ On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” in 1859 brought the change of this ideology.
Darwin’s theory is inherently a philosophical teaching that different group of people evolved in different times and at different rates. He explains that some groups are more like the apes. They have apelike ancestors those other groups. This brought an increase in the common argument for racism following the acceptance of this theory. The adoption of this theory resulted to terrible prejudices and injustices towards the Australian Aborigines who were considered the missing link between the apelike ancestors and the rest of humankind. It also resulted to the atrocities during Hitler’s regime.
However much this may be the norm, scientific findings reveal that all human beings are classified as Homo sapiens. Today scientist admits that biologically, there is only one human race. This gives evidence to the common features that all human beings have including the same blood components. Therefore, “ Race is a social construct derived mainly from perceptions conditioned by events of recorded history and it has no biological reality.” (Arber)
Works Cited
Arber, Ruth. Race, Ethnicity and Education in Globalised Times. Melbourne: Springer, 2008.
