Cultural Anthropology: Examining Race, Identity, and Social Constructs

This essay delves into the complexities of race as a social construct within the field of cultural anthropology. It analyzes various perspectives on race, highlighting the concept of human variation and the impact of social constructs on racial identity. The essay references the AAA Race Project and explores themes of racial discrimination, white privilege, and the importance of understanding race from an anthropological viewpoint. It emphasizes the need for continued efforts to combat racism and promote equality by recognizing the unique characteristics of every individual. Furthermore, the essay reflects on the potential of education and awareness campaigns to dismantle racial inequalities and foster a more inclusive society, suggesting specific resources and approaches for achieving this goal.

Running head: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural Anthropology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Option 3
Understanding Race
Comment 1
The particular category of race mainly depict/s about the uniqueness in human
variation that states the main concept, “Are We So Different?” The project is all about
engaging people in understanding various race, so that individuals should realize that every
human being is unique and different. It has been stated, that in the exhibition of the project,
majority black families visited with their children and there were very less number of white
individuals (Omi and Winan). In response, the white people said that they were not
comfortable or the material might have been harsh for their children.
By analyzing all the other links excluding the human quiz link, the link that
appealed me the most is the understanding of the human race. This particular link is very
important in order to understand the variation in human beings as it clearly stated the reason
behind why individuals are different. It made me realize that after the ten years of the AAA
Race Project, it is still required in the present days (Sarich). Through this link, I realized
that in order to tackle the issues related to the “white privilege” and the “white denial”, other
important strategies are needed, so that every race should be treated equally and there should
be no variation between white and the black. The important thing that I like and the reason
the link appealed me the most is that from the anthropological view point, many individuals
are interested in carrying out various research, teaching and activities that would help to teach
people about racism in the highly racialized environment. In the given link regarding
understanding of human race, it realized us that every people are unique and they should try
to look upon on themselves as a unique character.

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Yes, I would like to recommend this particular link regarding understanding of human
race to few of my friends. I believe that by going through this particular link, my friends
would realize the concept of racism and ethnicity, and beside that they would also realize that
every individual is a unique being with different characteristics. Moreover, people should
realize that the concept of white privilege and white denial should not be considered any
more in the present society.
Comment 2
Among the various links, other than this particular one, “understanding race”, the
other link which appealed me the most is what is race. Both the links appealed me very
much, as through this link I understood the concept of human race. This also helped me to
understand that race is mainly a social construct, that could be understand well through social
and cultural differences, as this discriminates the white and black people in the society. The
concept of racism in the American culture prevails the most, where the black gets dominated
by the white and looked upon as inferior by the white people (Morning). Apart from this, in
the first link, “understanding human race” it has been stated that the AAA (American
Anthropological Association), the project was published ten years, but still in the present
days we need the project, as this would help us to understand that every human being is
different and everyone is unique in their own way. The project helped us to understand and
develop current thinking regarding race, so that people should not discriminate between the
white and black people. Anthropologists also discussed that in the present days to aware
people regarding racial discrimination, people should come up with different activities,
research and various teaching procedures (Guo).
I would like to recommend both the links to other people, so that like me other people
should also get aware regarding racial discrimination. Apart from that, it is important to know

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that every individual should be aware of the fact that we are different individuals with unique
characteristics. The reason why I would like to recommend both the links to other people is
that, the link gives a brief explanation about other individual’s stories where people stated,
because of racial discrimination in the western countries they had to face many difficulties.
For example, one of the individual has stated that, she used to face racial discrimination from
most of the people, as her mother is black and father is white (Wade). All such facts would
led people understand that human should be treated equally and the concept of racism is
basically a social construct. Therefore, with awareness campaign and through various
activities we would be able to eliminate the concept of racism from the present society.
Comment 3
Links related to what is race and understanding human race are the two important
links I liked and that appealed me. I would like to mention that the first and the foremost link
that appealed me the most, other than this particular link is that what is race and race and
racial identity is basically a social construct, as it stated that no genes are similar among
the white and the black people and everyone has a unique characteristics, and this racial
discrimination is a major constant across boundaries. For example, in America the “one-drop
rule” has been implemented that consider and treat any African American as black people
(Lamphere, Ragoné and Zavella). As per the American Anthropological Association,
“Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation,
about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups. Conventional geographic "racial" groupings
differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes” (Marks). In the understanding of the
human race, it has been stated that the members of the American Anthropological
Association, are mainly focussing on closing the Race Gap, so that every individuals in the
society would get to treat every individuals equally (Bonds and Inwood). In order to be aware

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regarding the facts related to race and ethnicity, different television channels also started
focussing on the project of AAA, and it mainly trying to target all people across different
boundaries, so that people could freely discuss the issues (Wallis). Furthermore, from the
excerpt by one of the AAA members, stated his concern that raised a concern within
ourselves, that how to break the concept of inequality and social disparities. From this post, I
realized that we are different as human beings and we all have unique characteristics within
ourselves, but then there should not be any racial inequality among the individuals. The
particular link helped me to understand that we that is the black and the white are basically
the two sides of coin, and we are different by characteristics and not by colour.
The link regarding what is race and race is a social construct helped me to understand
things related to human race and characteristics and I would surely like to recommend this
particular link to other friends and relatives. As I think, like me other individuals should also
be aware of the facts regarding human race and social construct. Furthermore, by going
through this particular link, other individuals would also get aware of the concept and
accordingly, they could also able to create awareness in their society, so that large number of
people could get involved in eliminating racism and inequalities from the communities.

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References
Bonds, Anne, and Joshua Inwood. "Beyond white privilege: Geographies of white supremacy
and settler colonialism." Progress in Human Geography 40.6 (2016): 715-733.
Guo, Guang, et al. "Genetic bio-ancestry and social construction of racial classification in
social surveys in the contemporary United States." Demography 51.1 (2014): 141-172..
Lamphere, Louise, Helena Ragoné, and Patricia Zavella. Situated lives: Gender and culture
in everyday life. Routledge, 2014.
Marks, Jonathan. Human biodiversity: Genes, race, and history. Routledge, 2017.
Morning, Ann. "Does genomics challenge the social construction of race?." Sociological
Theory 32.3 (2014): 189-207.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial formation in the United States. Routledge, 2014.
Sarich, Vincent. Race: The reality of human differences. Routledge, 2018.
Wade, Peter. Race and ethnicity in Latin America. Pluto press, 2017.
Wallis, Jim. America's original sin: Racism, White privilege, and the bridge to a new
America. Brazos Press, 2016.