Race: The Power of an Illusion

The video Race: The Power of an Illusion: Difference Between Us main objective was to bring awareness that race is nothing more than the physical traits or characteristics people have. There is no way to prove a person is of a certain race through science. Race was something human beings decided to create to help them define who they are.

This video showed how people of one race do not share genetic traits with someone their same race. Within the video, they showed the students in the biology class stating whom they felt their genes would closely resemble with in the class. The students picked others that were the same race as themselves. But after many tests they came to realize that they were very different from each other genetically. Race is nothing more than the shape of a person’s eye, the color of their skin, and the texture of their hair. This video also showcased how people used to believe that because a person was of a certain race than they were going to be better than others in certain things. For example, it was said that African Americans were the better race at sports and this conclusion came about because they were winning at the Olympics. People tried to run many tests to see if there was some reason that African Americans were superior in this area. But all the tests came back to show that it had nothing to do with the race of the people it was simply the individual.

Based on this video, I have come to wonder since a race of people is not the same genetically then how can we really be classified as being a certain race? This video showed that people of different races could have some of the same genes as those of another race and none of those from their same race. With all of this having being said, why do we use race still to this day to identify a person? I believe it has more to do with people feeling comfortable with having something to identify with.

Race has caused many problems in this world in the past. It is sad that we use science to provide us with an explanation for everything and then draw a conclusion from there. But it seems as though this is something we choose to ignore because without race, I believe, people would become lost. I think people need race to determine who they are and how they should be. Because of all of this I do not think race will go away but I do hope that racism will disappear based on these facts.