An Introduction To The Topic Of Race

One of the most important talking points in today's society is race. Race has governed our lives for centuries, and in many places across the globe, continues to influence society. Recently, there have been many events in our country that have brought race to the forefront of American discussion. Some of these events have been successes; others tragedies. For example, the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 was a significant milestone in the fight for racial equality. His was such a significant election that many Americans thought that, after that November day, we no longer lived in a racially divided country. Many used the phrase "post-racial" to describe this new society. Even more recent, however, was a string of African-American casualties at the hands of on-duty police officers. These tragedies garnered massive media attention, and caused many U.S. citizens to question the labeling of our country as post-racial. To this day, the debate continues over whether these killings were racially motivated or not, and what this means for our nation.

Before I begin this blog, I would like to make some clarifications as to what race actually is. First, race is a social construct that came into being relatively recently. If you do not have time to read the linked article--which I highly recommend you do, if only because it is very thought-provoking--I'll sum it up here. Essentially, race as a concept arose as recently as the 17th century as a direct result of the Atlantic slave trade. In their never-ending quest to divide and conquer the entire world, European empires took millions of Africans from their homeland and forced them to do much of the heavy lifting for the colonization effort. After many anti-slavery movements cropped up, slavers needed to come up with new justifications for the enslaving of African peoples. They started to accuse Africans of being genetically inferior, proposing that white Europeans had a "God-given right" to enslave these people. As generations were born with these ideas being forced into their heads, these assertions became the basis of racism. For the first time in human history, humans began discriminating against others based on physical characteristics, as opposed to cultural  and ethnic differences. With this, it is important to note that race is only a sociological concept--there is no such thing as "race" in biology or genetics.

I've decided to write about this topic because it is one that I am very passionate about. There are so many logical inconsistencies with statements made by every side of the argument and it truly grinds my gears. Also, although I've never personally experienced discrimination, I happen to be of mixed ancestry myself: my mom is white and my dad is hispanic. Overall, I am very excited to write about this topic, and look forward to discuss racial issues that I am passionate about.