Cultural Anthropology

Short Paper #3: Race

Race, biology and society are all very tied together in cultures all around the world. Race is considered a culturally constructed category that's based on perceived physical differences, implying hereditary differences between people and is used to justify social stratification (Nanda & Warms, 2009). This differs from biology however because race is scientifically invalid and simply just refers to groups of people who share similar physical and other characteristics transmitted by heredity. The main difference is that biology is considered the actual DNA make-up of a human being, while race is just a term made up to refer to the different types of people all around the world. A society is a group of people who depend on one another for survival or well-being as well as the relationships among such people, including their status and roles (Nanda & Warms, 2009). African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans are all examples of races who helped to build a diverse American society, showing the interconnection between the two ideas (Race: The Power of An Illusion, 2003). Unfortunately, race is often served to rationalize, even justify, social inequalities as natural. Race: The Power of an Illusion is an eye opening documentary that further proves how race resides in politics, economics and culture, providing a bias that weakens minority races in a very dominant white American culture.

The article I chose was from a couple years back written about a football player and former New England Patriots player Albert Haynesworth. Haynesworth, who had just signed one of the largest contracts in NFL history at $100 million, was unhappy with his role on the team and was starting to become insubordinate. When asked if he would eventually comply to the team's way of doing things, Haynesworth, an African-American replied "Just because somebody pay you money don't mean they'll make you do whatever they want or whatever. Yeah, I signed the contract and got paid a lot of money, but... that don't mean I'm for sale or a slave or whatever"(BlackVoices, 2010). The comments sparked a ton of controversy, as many believed any human being making that much money, regardless of race, should ever consider themselves a slave to anyone. Haynesworth was heavily criticized for the remarks, but the comments certainly proved just how integrated race is in our culture. Race was intended to be presented as biological in Haynesworth's eyes, as he compares being forced to play a role on his football team to the slavery of African-Americans many years ago. However, the comments came off as social, seeing as slavery was a more political and economic decision to begin with that took advantage of the African American race.