What is Race?

From time immemorial, the term race has been used to denote a group of people living in a country for several generations such as the Indian race or the Chinese race.

Sometimes, race is a term used to denote a culturally homogeneous people.

In the Nazi Germany of the 1930s, the nation was divided into two races- Aryan and Non-Aryan.

Such division was intended to fulfil some political purposes.

There is certainly a misuse of the term ‘race’. Due to the bad connotations, various problems regarding the term ‘race’ have resulted. 

Anthropologists look at race in a purely biological sense, defining it as a biological phenomenon that should be characterised in biological terms. Human beings, or homo sapiens, exhibit diverse physical features across different regions of the world. Within this expansive community, smaller groups often experience limited intermarriage or mating, which contributes to variations in the frequency of certain biological traits among them. 

For instance, the African Negroes and the Mongoloids of Asia display notable differences in specific characteristics. The Negroes are typically identified by features such as black skin and woolly hair, which are largely absent among Mongoloid populations. If such Negroid traits are observed in one or two individuals of Mongoloid descent, it can be attributed to individual variation caused by a new gene arising from mutation. 

So, the Negroid characters like woolly hair are ‘uncommon’ among other human groups. Therefore, it indicates that races are distinguished from each other by the relative commonness of certain inherited characters.

Race, therefore, may be defined as a population more or less reproductively isolated from one another which differ amongst themselves in a relative commonness of certain hereditary traits.

The racial traits are subjected to change by mutation and there are various evidences in this regard. So, race is not a static group but a dynamic one. The stability of the race depends upon the following:

• Durability of various groups responsible for various inherited characters.
• Practices of marrying within the racial groups

The change in any of these factors may bring changes in the race.

Racism

The term ’racism’ is generally used to designate those popular fallacies which support the belief in the superiority of some and the inferiority of others. The idea of higher and lower groups established by earlier scholars had played a great role in the formation of racial prejudice. Greek scholars considered themselves as civilised, whereas non-Greeks as barbarians. Later on, the idea of man’s superiority developed; according to the Romans, their idea of government was superior to all others in various aspects.

In the Middle Ages, the Christians, the infidels and the Heatheans were considered as three great groups; in due course the Nordic and Aryans hypothesis came into being.

In the course of time there developed the idea of racism. 

The most dangerous manifestation of such an idea was during Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Nazis murdered six million Jews, who were considered as the inferior races.

At present, such race conflicts are experienced even in countries like America. The present race problem is due to migration and contacts of the people.

After a scientific evaluation of race, it has been shown that race prejudice is nothing but stereotypical opinions and attributes held by one group about others.

Reasons for Racial Prejudice

• Imperialism
• Efforts to dominate in power relationship
• Competition for land, job business
• Widespread ignorance and poverty

All these have jointly intensified the ethnic problem of race. The solution to racial problems is not possible without the knowledge of the laws of heredity. 

Biological evaluation of race reveals the following facts:

1. No race is superior. No race, at present, hasadvanced physical features than others.
2. Race is purely a biological concept and it is in no way related to language, culture or nationality.
3. The cultural activities of a group have no relation to the racial setup. 
4. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that the racial differences in intelligence exist.

Therefore, in reality, the idea of racism has no connection with the term which we call ‘race’ in a proper biological sense. Racism has no scientific evidence; it is a myth and sometimes, it brings calamity to human life.