Lena McKnight                                                                                     9/21/2016                                                       Racial Identity

Photo By: Sarah Leen

Race has been used for years to place people into different social constructs in society. Scientist studied the idea of race, to attempt to show how a particular group of people can achieve more than another set of people based on elements that are influenced by racial identity. Census has shown that people are identifying themselves beyond the four categories originally set in place by scientist. When one considers race from a sociological standpoint we can see evidence that shows that the original concept of race is wrong. It is impossible to classify all people into four simple categories because DNA shows us that its much more complex than what meets the eye. For example, people may identify themselves to be African American however they could possess the same mitochondrial DNA as people who identifies themselves as Asian. 

Ossorio shows how complex race is as he offers suggestions that scientist is wrong to use it to determine personal external and internal differences. The idea of race according to Ossoriso came from scientist who believed that you can define race into four classifications, but according to the relationship of what race means to a person can change on an individual base. The film “Race: The Power of Illusion, Episode 1”, Pillar Ossorio, students were asked to give a sample of their DNA, to test with other with other students to see which modern genetics match. Students believed the fallacies that they would have more similarity with the same person from the racial back ground based on physical features. The study showed that many of their mitochondrial DNA was similar to students who were different racial categories thus proving that physical features alone cannot determine a person’s racial identity.

            The idea of a person identifying themselves according to one of the four races classifications that scientist thought a person could identify with has changed. Grieco, showed how individuals labels themselves as more than one classification according to the census. Grieco gave an example from the census 2000 on how the categories were split giving more people options to choose their racial background. From the 1990 census they showed that standard outline in the OMB has changed for the 2000 census. The categories have changed by splitting Asian and Pacific Islander thus creating five categories and giving people the option of choosing more than one racial identification. This alone shows that a person identification may change over time.

When considering race, I think, how can I label myself to one particular group? Although when applying for a job I put African American, my parents’ ancestors are a collection of different origins and racial classifications. I like to consider myself as a person raised in New York with southern roots. Thus when asked about my race I tend to consider myself as southern. My mother’s parents are southern German, Blackfoot Indian, and Creole and my father’s parents are of African descent from the south. Once a year to stay connected we all come together for family gatherings. This helps to keep us stay connected to our roots and to understand our family background.

                                                            References                                         

Glasgow, M. J. (2003).  On The New Biology of Race. Journal of Philosophy, Inc., 456-474.

Grieco, M. E. (2002).  An Evaluation of Bridging Methods Using Race Data from Census 2000. Springer in cooperation with the Southern Demographic Association, 91-107.