Is Race an Illusion or a (Very) Basic Reality?

What Is Race? ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 111-149
Author(s):  
Joshua Glasgow
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Ordinary Sense ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
Large Groups

Joshua Glasgow argues in this chapter that ‘race’ in the ordinary sense is defined such that races are supposed to be large groups of humans organized according to certain visible traits, like skin color. Biology cannot validate the existence of such groups, even if it can identify other human populations. So Glasgow argues that race is not biologically real. And because the relevant traits do not change when social facts change, race is not a social construction. This suggests that race is not socially real, either. Consequently, it seems that race is not real. However, Glasgow also considers another possibility: that race is real, neither biologically nor socially, but in a more basic sense. According to this view, races are real by virtue of facts that find no home in any of the sciences, biological or social. Their only significance is that which people choose to give them. In the course of making his arguments, Glasgow explores how we should identify the meanings of our terms and how to proceed when scientific and ordinary meanings diverge. He concludes by leaving it open whether race is simply not real, or whether it is real in that basic sense.

The Social Construction of Social Facts

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Townsley
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Minority Populations ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Introductory Sociology ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
The Social

This article describes an exercise that explores how race categories and classifications are socially constructed scientifically. In an introductory sociology setting, students compare their perceptions of the size of minority populations with counts from the U.S. Census. In a series of debriefing sessions, students analyze both their perceptions and Census counts as social constructions of the moral phenomena we call race. In the process, students are introduced to Census data and the Census web site as well as to historical and theoretical literature on the social construction of race. Students are then asked to reflect critically about the scientific practices in which race is constructed as a social fact, and in particular, to consider their own roles in these practices as users and subjects of race categories. The larger goal is to help students to develop a critical sociological imagination that productively engages the analysis of race in contemporary society.

Burthened Bodies: the image and cultural work of “White Negroes” in the eighteenth century Atlantic world

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-53
Author(s):  
Temi Odumosu
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Atlantic World ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Skin Diseases ◽  
Skin Pigmentation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Cultural Work ◽  
Human Populations

Under the shadow of slavery, skin color played a vital role in determining social relations within cities, ports and colonies around the Atlantic world. Eighteenth century literature propagated the idea that visual differences between the major known human populations were not simply a matter of climate, but also of discreet characteristics and biological composition. When focused on comparisons between Africans and Europeans, these discussions were often speculative and subjective, drawing heavily on traditional symbolic meanings of whiteness and blackness in a positive/negative dichotomy, and using them to explain contemporary inequalities encapsulated in the relationship between master and slave. Thus varying representations of race (in image and text) distinguished the bodies of Africans as inherently ‘other’ and as property used in labor for manufacture. But what happened to these meanings and social dynamics when Africans could be born or become white? How were the people referred to as “White Negroes”, negotiating rare skin diseases such as Vitiligo and albinism, understood? This essay explores the stories and representation of individuals with skin pigmentation disease whose bodies were used as public performers in America and Europe to prove the normative position of whiteness and forewarn the potential outcomes of race mixing. These people, who were no longer considered fit for plantation labor, were appropriated and enslaved into another form of cultural work that included the medical and philosophical examination of their bodies, public exhibitions for profitable popular entertainment, and the reproduction and sale of their physical likeness.

scholarly journals Distinctive distribution of AIM1 polymorphism among major human populations with different skin color

2002 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Nakayama ◽  
S. Fukamachi ◽  
H. Kimura ◽  
Y. Koda ◽  
A. Soemantri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skin Color ◽  
Human Populations

Glasgow’s Reply to Haslanger, Jeffers, and Spencer

What Is Race? ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 245-274
Author(s):  
Joshua Glasgow ◽  
Sally Haslanger ◽  
Chike Jeffers ◽  
Quayshawn Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Ordinary Sense ◽  
Biological Reality ◽  
Methodological Ground

In Chapter 4, Joshua Glasgow argued that race in the ordinary sense is defined in such a way that race cannot be a social construction and is not a biological reality. That chapter concluded with the claim that either race is not real, or if it is, it is real in a very basic way that is not captured by social or biological facts. In this chapter, Glasgow develops his view by responding to Haslanger, Jeffers, and Spencer. After first clearing up some misconceptions about racial anti-realism, Glasgow explains how his argument against constructionism applies to Haslanger’s and Jeffers’s specific constructionist theories. He then explores how Spencer’s view is exposed to a mismatch objection and further argues that it faces additional problems of accounting for some central kinds of communication. This chapter also includes an Appendix that explores how a wide methodological ground is shared among the theories presented in this book.

scholarly journals Mental Disorder and the Indirect Construction of Social Facts

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48
Author(s):  
Raphael van Riel
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Order Property ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn this paper, I argue for two claims, (i) that on a common conception of the second order property of being a mental disorder, some facts about mental disorders are the result of social constructions, and (ii) that the way facts about mental disorders are constructed differs from the received view on social construction. The difference is examined, a novel type of social construction is identified, and it is suggested that there are numerous other types of social facts that are constructed in a similar way.

scholarly journals Race, Skin Color and Genetic Ancestry

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (SI) ◽  
pp. 9-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick A. Kittles ◽  
Eunice R. Santos ◽  
Nefertiti S. Oji-Njideka ◽  
Carolina Bonilla
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Hispanic Americans ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
The Public ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Human Genetic Research ◽  
The U.S

Defining race continues to be a nemesis. Knowledge from human genetic research continuously challenges the notion that race and biology are inextricably linked, with implications across biomedical and public health disciplines. While it has become fashionable for scientists to declare that race is merely a social construction, there is little practical value to this belief since few in the public believe and act on it. In the U.S., race has largely been based on skin color and ancestry, both of which exhibit large variances within communities of color. Yet biomedical studies continue to examine black / white group differences in health. Here we discuss why using race in biomedical studies is problematic using examples from two U.S. groups (African and Hispanic Americans) which transcend ‘racial’ boundaries and bear the burden of health disparities.

The sense of obligation is culturally modulated

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bender
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Cultural Group ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Sense Of Obligation ◽  
Cross Cultural Studies

Abstract Tomasello argues in the target article that, in generalizing the concrete obligations originating from interdependent collaboration to one's entire cultural group, humans become “ultra-cooperators.” But are all human populations cooperative in similar ways? Based on cross-cultural studies and my own fieldwork in Polynesia, I argue that cooperation varies along several dimensions, and that the underlying sense of obligation is culturally modulated.

Self-Injurious Behavior vs. Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

Crisis ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Bloom ◽  
Shareen Holly ◽  
Adam M. P. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Positive Reinforcement ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Animal Research ◽  
Stress Conditions ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Pharmacological Interventions ◽  
Self Injury ◽  
Cns Stimulant ◽  
Nonsuicidal Self Injury

Background: Historically, the field of self-injury has distinguished between the behaviors exhibited among individuals with a developmental disability (self-injurious behaviors; SIB) and those present within a normative population (nonsuicidal self-injury; NSSI),which typically result as a response to perceived stress. More recently, however, conclusions about NSSI have been drawn from lines of animal research aimed at examining the neurobiological mechanisms of SIB. Despite some functional similarity between SIB and NSSI, no empirical investigation has provided precedent for the application of SIB-targeted animal research as justification for pharmacological interventions in populations demonstrating NSSI. Aims: The present study examined this question directly, by simulating an animal model of SIB in rodents injected with pemoline and systematically manipulating stress conditions in order to monitor rates of self-injury. Methods: Sham controls and experimental animals injected with pemoline (200 mg/kg) were assigned to either a low stress (discriminated positive reinforcement) or high stress (discriminated avoidance) group and compared on the dependent measures of self-inflicted injury prevalence and severity. Results: The manipulation of stress conditions did not impact the rate of self-injury demonstrated by the rats. The results do not support a model of stress-induced SIB in rodents. Conclusions: Current findings provide evidence for caution in the development of pharmacotherapies of NSSI in human populations based on CNS stimulant models. Theoretical implications are discussed with respect to antecedent factors such as preinjury arousal level and environmental stress.

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