Class Video: "The myth of race | BBC Ideas"

 Video link: The myth of race | BBC Ideas


Before watching this video, I didn't understand what people meant when they said that race is a social construct. I always thought that since people have physical characteristics that can indicate their race, that must mean that race is ingrained into our DNA in some way. I was blown away by the idea that I could have a closer relation of genomes with some random person of some random other race than I could with someone of my same race, but that makes the argument that race is a social construct make so much more sense to me. Since there's really nothing in our DNA that indicates our race then that must mean that race is something assigned to us by society.

To be honest, race is something I've always been confused by in the sense that I'm not really sure what my race even is. I know I'm Hispanic on my dad's side and White on my mom's side. I've always identified more with my Hispanic side but am I Hispanic enough to say that that's my race? Does the fact that I have a White parent make me 100% White by default? Am I enough of a mixture to call myself "mixed-race"? I think that the idea that race is a social construct helps me to better understand my confusion toward my own race.

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