SOC 019 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Eye Color

• School: University of Vermont
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 019
• Professor: Matsumoto

Document Summary

Race: the power of an illusion, the difference between us. We use physical attributions to categories people into races. > people began to believe that these differences are genetic and can impact intelligence, strength, etc. Race is not biological but rather an idea we attribute to biology. Genetically we are the most similar of all species. We search for racial differences and attribute skills or disabilities to those differences. Being black has essentially become having dark enough skin that people think you are black based on your physical attributes. However, the difference in skin color is largely correlated with geography and not genetics. Eye color, hair color & texture, and skin color can be passed down through dna but there are not significant (or sometimes any) genetic differences between people. The most (85%) differences (genetically) actually occur within the so called races we have identified as being so different.