Is the Concept of Race Biologically Valid - Essay Example

Is the Concept of Race Biologically Valid? Introduction The concept of race and its biological validity is a topic of hot discussion in the scientific community and the general public. In a country like the United States of America, this debate is even more heated, given the fact that it is a land in which people from different regions of the world have come together and live together. Thesis Statement There is less scientific backing and more political leanings in the claim that race is no longer a biologically valid concept.

Argument It must be accepted that in the article “Is ‘Race’ and outdated” concept C. Loring Brace does sound very convincing in his arguments that the concept of race is biologically outdated. The main props for this argument lie in color variations arising from the sun light and climates in regions, where harsher the sunlight the darker the skin in response to the human body’s response to higher doses of ultraviolet rays; sickle cell anaemia developing as a protection response against Malaria in Italy in Europe and the Middle East before being passed on to the Africans once interaction between the continents occurred and the closer blood patterns between the white Europeans and the black Africans than the yellow easy Asians; and blood factor analysis demonstrating traits transcending racial divides. (1). All these arguments get summed up into arguments that are based on the cline, which is a gradient of change. (2). These are merely observations that have no scientific basis.

Were we to validate all our concepts merely on the basis of observations, without giving credence to other possibilities, we would merely be enacting the story of the blind men and the elephant. There is more science and biological reality in the concept of race than its antagonists give it. George W. Gill in his response to this highlights this, examples from a scientific branch of study in the form of forensic anthropology and the identification of individuals from the study of the skeletal remains.

We will all agree that the skeleton of a human body is a very real part of human biology that is the last vestige of the human body that remains intact, even when the rest of the body turns to dust. Forensic anthropologists examining such skeletal remains are able to identify the race of the individual the features of the bony remains. All bones are white, yet, identifying other colors, when we talk of races demonstrates clearly that there is a biological and scientific backing to the concept of race as biological valid.

Race is not merely in the color of the skin, but bone deep, and one has to open the eyes fully to see it. The opponents to the concept of race as biological valid have restricted themselves to a very narrow perspectives that stem merely from cline observations and refuse to broaden their vision to fields of science that demonstrate the validity of concept of race. (2). Conclusion Opponents of race as a biologically valid concept try to make a strong argument in their favor based on clinal factors.

However, race is not just skin deep, but goes down to the bones. Broader vision like in the case of forensic anthropologists is required to envisage this. The blinkers of political emotions blind the opponents of race as a biologically valid concept. Thus, there is less scientific backing and more political leanings in the claim that race is no longer a biologically valid concept. Works Cited 1. Brace, C. Loring. “Does Race Exist? An Antagonist’s Perspective”. Nova Online, 2000. 2. Gill, W. George. “Does Race Exist?

A Proponent’s Perspective”. Nova Online, 2000.