SOC 5 Lecture Notes - Jesse Owens
Document Summary
For several hundred years, we have used physical differences to classify people into groups called race. Under the impression that these are clear cut distinct categories of people. The assumption is that we don"t need to ask, we can just tell race by looking. Idea is that simple external differences are linked to other more complex internal differences (ex: athletic ability, intelligence, etc. ) No genetic markers that are in all people of the same race or that are not present in a different race. Many are under the assumption that genes set differences in ability, that you can only change your abilities so much but genes will limit you. Genetically, we are the most similar among all species. Only 1 out of every thousand nucleotides that make up our genetic codes is different (one individual from another) Because we live in a racialized society, this is not a question of science.
