Defining Race

In one of the most interesting discussions of this year so far, we began to talk about whether or not race is a social construct. Until this week, this is not something I had not really considered. Before, I thought of race as just a fact of nature; that everyone is a certain race and that sometimes they are discriminated against because of it. However, what I had not considered was the idea that race is not at all biological, but instead entirely defined by society.

As I have thought about this concept, it has started to make more sense to me, however, I believe that this is only true to an extent. One cannot say that society has entirely constructed race, because race is still defined by the color of your skin, not the other way around. Race is definition biological because it is genetics that turn your skin a certain color.  Since your skin color is what makes you a certain race, there is no denying that and its core, race is biological.

I believe it more accurate to say that the treatment of races is entirely a social construct because society has undoubtedly created countless stereotypes and limitations against almost every race there is. African Americans have not and will most likely never be treated the same way as Whites because of the sense of entitlement and superiority that white people created for themselves long ago. Race is shown as social construct here because there is nothing and never was anything that made any race inherently better than another. It was those races that decided this for themselves, and since they had the majority of people, and at many times, violence on their side, they were able to assert themselves as the superior race.

An extension of this idea of race being a social construct is that race is also fluid in a way. This idea is shown in pg 11 of Maus Volume II. In this page which opens the second volume, Art Spiegelman depicts himself a having a conversation with his French wife on how which animal should represent her in the comic.  She initially suggests a bunny rabbit, but then offers up the idea that she should be represented as mouse because of the fact that she converted to Judaism.  Though ethnically French, Art's wife identifies more as a Jew because of the life choices that she has made. Spiegel clearly included this passage just to make the point that since race is something that society has created and is not dependent on the color of our skin, we have the freedom to change in whatever way we choose.