Race vs Color
When we talk about “race” and “color,” it refers to a race of people and the color of their skin. People have preconceived notions about someone’s race and color of skin. Race and color of skin have been linked together due to observation, experience, and, in general, stereotypes. What we need to understand is that no matter what the race of a person, there are people in every race who have many different colors of skin.
Race
“Race” can be defined as a human classification in distinct and large groups or populations based on factors like geographic ancestry and heritable phenotype. It is also influenced by traits which are correlated like culture, appearance, socio-economic status, and ethnicity. The word “race,” in the early 20th century, was used mostly to differentiate people biologically. It referred to human populations which were genetically divergent and could be separated from each other on the basis of the phenotypic characteristics which were common amongst one race.
There are three to four main races that have been recognized by anthropologists today. These races are further divided into 30 subgroups. One of the classifications (Meyers Konversations Lexicon 1885-90) divides human population into three races:
Caucasian
Mongolian
Negroid
Another classification (Carleton S. Coon in 1962) divides the population into four races:
White/Caucasian
Mongoloid/Asian
Negroid/Black
Australoid
The United Nations decided to drop the use of the term “race” in 1950 in a statement and decided to use the term “ethnicity.” As per the ethnicity group classification, the world has over 5,000 different ethnic groups according to a study in 1998.
Color
The color of one’s skin shows a lot of variation amongst different races as well as people of the same race. Every race has people with different-colored skins. For example, in India, people belonging to Northern states like Jammu, Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab have very fair skin. Some people may have skin color which might be similar to any Caucasian person, but these people are Indian and belong to the same race as any other Indian. On the other hand, people belonging to the Southern states of India like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the color of their skin is very dark and could be as dark as any African-American’s, but these are all Indians, and they belong to the same race as any other Indian.
http://www.google.co.in/imgres?q=race+and+color&num=10&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=775&tbm=isch&tbnid=MZ1yWbeuKNvdsM:&imgrefurl=http://feelourworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/racecolor-discrimination-civil-rights.html&docid=0ggnwsYEddNHHM&imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_h_k_9jmRlN8/SbRKd5-CL-I/AAAAAAAAABg/NQkO2K_k8HE/s320/racial%252Bdis.jpg&w=320&h=206&ei=-v-9TvaFEI2nrAeGlrXyAQ&zoom=1
Summary:
“Race” can be defined as a human classification into distinct and large groups or populations based on factors like geographic ancestry and heritable phenotype. It is also influenced by traits which are correlated like culture, appearance, socio-economic status, and ethnicity. However, their color of skin is just the skin color which can show a lot of variation amongst people of the same race as well as people of different races.
There is a simple reason why distinguishing between “race and color,” “ethnicity and race,” and similar contrasts is so difficult. There is no medical or scientific basis for dividing humans into separate races. There is only one…human race.
Another social construct, ethnicity, also is vague. We accept it as such and do not pretend there is a scientific basis.
Reply
What if aliens attacked us? Would we fight together as one race? I hope we don’t get attacked by aliens.
Reply
When we meet someone we don’t know what mixture they have in them. They can look white and have black ancestry
Reply
There are multiple races on this planet,like it or not its the damn truth.
Reply
They are only classifications. For example, let’s say that what is real is truly divided between thing and not a thing, or existent and nonexistent. I look at something, and it is in fact some thing. That would be a fact in this scenario. Now I decide to classify this thing I looked at as a chair. That is not a fact in this scenario, that is a classification, or an organization of information. Different races, such as Negroid, Mongoloid, Caucasian, etc. in our reality are classifications. But when humans, a classification, look at themselves, there is usually an apparent connection between all of us classified as humans. It’s so apparent, in fact, to most people that we classify ourselves differently from other things, like the other things classified as plants. So there are only multiple “races” if you believe there are, but really I think we can all agree we are human, or at least resembling humans.
Reply
They can also look black and have white ancestry.
Reply
wow amazing post thansk for sharing this
Reply
people in Kashmir are ethnically, genetically and phenotypically distinct from Indian people. Please study in depth before giving examples
Reply
Color classifications are silly. Copier paper is white. I am not the color of copier paper therefore calling me white is inaccurate.
Reply