How Do You Identify Races?

[praying]

The interracial marriage thread has sparked a question:

How do we identify the various races?

Genetics, cursory glance, bone structure, skin tone, all of the above how do you identify individuals from different races?


I realize for those that will state it; that race is a societal construct and not genetic but humor me folks.

 

[DailyBlessings]

By skin color, clearly. At least two of the "races" are named for their perceived skin color in the most common version of their appellation. It may not be a very good classification, but it seems to be the one people use.

 

[praying]

By skin color, clearly. At least two of the "races" are named for their perceived skin color in the most common version of their appellation. It may not be a very good classification, but it seems to be the one people use.

So you would classify Halle Berry as black?

 

[BarbB]

mhatten - I have no idea how to classify the races. I'm not even sure that there are true genetic differences (someone with more bio than I have can help me here), but it's obvious to me that the differences are societal more than anything else.

Also, I classify Halle Berry as one gorgeous woman!

 

[DailyBlessings]

Don't most people? I don't support the notion of biological races, but their existence in culture and perception is better to address than to deny. A few years ago, Faye Harrison wrote an article for American Anthropologist that might interest you: it confronts the issue from both directions, as well as examining the origins of race perceptions. It's a little bit long, but worth a read.

http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1998.100.3.609?cookieSet=1

 

[Blackguard_]

So you would classify Halle Berry as black?......Don't most people?

Halle, along with most American "blacks" is actually a mullato. I'd guess she is either more than half white or has had surgery.

By skin color, clearly.

Bad, since many races can have the same skin color. For example, a Chinese and an Indian may have very similar skintones. Also, some Oriental people have lighter skin-tones than some Medditeranean whites. Identifying race has much more to do with things like facial structure, hair texture, etc. than skin tone. facial structure being the easist. And they can be distinguised gentically.

So I would say facial structure and hair texture is the primary way to identify races. Pigmentation can help, but it is not the primary identifier. Genetics too, but most people don't have access to a biology lab.

 

[gaijin178]

I know why this thread was started.....but seriously...who cares???? I don't care. I can't tell you all the races that my be flowing through my blood because I just don't know. I can tell you that my partner is Filipina. Now, does she have Spanish blood in her? Probablly, but can she trace it? Maybe. I don't know...

 

[DailyBlessings]

"Don't most people" was in reference to Ms. Berry being gorgeous, not black!

 

[Stuco]

Personally I cllasify evryeone as humanbeings and see no reson to do otherwise. Its not like there from antother planet or another species. They where all created by one God equaly and there skin color and other fetures just changed over time.

 

[Blackguard_]

"Don't most people" was in reference to Ms. Berry being gorgeous, not black!

Oh. Well I don't consider her gorgeous. I don't think she's ugly or anything. I just don't see what the fuss about her is.

 

[Illuminatus]

I classify people as members of the hom.o sapiens species, and leave it at that.

If you want to look at race as a cultural distinction, I'd look at language groups and shared mythology.

 

[gaijin178]

Oh. Well I don't consider her gorgeous. I don't think she's ugly or anything. I just don't see what the fuss about her is.

Well, that comes down to preference. You used terms that most folks don't use anymore such as mullato and oriental but that's ok....you didn't know. I tend not to be attracted to people who look like me...nothing wrong with that.

 

[Plan 9]

The interracial marriage thread has sparked a question:

How do we identify the various races?

Genetics, cursory glance, bone structure, skin tone, all of the above how do you identify individuals from different races?

I realize for those that will state it; that race is a societal construct and not genetic but humor me folks.

There are minor genetic and physiological differences between races, but you're correct, of course, when you say that race is a social construct. Our vast commonalities far outweigh our tiny differences, and when, in the past, people demanded that they receive blood transfusions only from those of their own race, they couldn't be accommodated because no one could tell the blood of one race from another.
In terms of skin color, all are the result of our having either more or less of the same chemical in our bodies, and were differences in eye color as important to some as is skin color, the fact that one of my eyes is blue and the other brown would present them with a quandry.

Racial differences, as we commonly discern them in everyday life, are the result of three factors: skin color, slight, but perceptible physiological differences (eg. epicanthic eye fold, forearm to upperarm ratio), and an individual's family history: for instance, if others know that you have one black grandparent, they may then perceive you as black, even though, to all appearances, you're white.

 

[Plan 9]

I classify people as members of the hom.o sapiens species, and leave it at that.

If you want to look at race as a cultural distinction, I'd look at language groups and shared mythology.

This is also my practice.
It's possible, however, that I may place more emphasis on other cultural differences than you, especially if an individual with whom I'm involved finds them important himself.

 

[Seeking...]

How do we identify the various races?

Genetics, cursory glance, bone structure, skin tone, all of the above how do you identify individuals from different races?

I may have misunderstood the question, but I tend to think of people as a part of specific ethnic groups. I discern the groups through conversation.

Physical appearance is a base starting point, but highly inadequate.

As a side note, ethnicity might be a societal construct, but it is as important to some of us as an identifying characteristic as gender.

 

[419gam]

I don't mean to harp on it because the OP conceded the point of race being a social construct. But because it is a sociall construct racial classification is constantly evolving. Look at how census forms have evolved over time. I think the best way to classify race is to allow people to self identify. I have a freind who is half white and half black. However she considers herself black. She says that society sees her as a black woman not a woman who has a white father and black mother. Hence she identifies as black.

 

[sanaa]

not by skin color definitely , though most indians have varying shades of brown as their skin color , there are indians with white skin and there are indians with black skin

 

[jsw_24]

Depends on which speedway you're at and who's racing.

 

[DailyBlessings]

Well, even ethnicity isn't a perfect way of thinking about things. In many places, such as the census forms, ethnicity has just replaced the emotionally charged term race, but otherwise failed to change the way people are identified ("white/caucasian" is not an ethnicity!) Ethnicities share with race an inability to be specifically defined, and compound the issue further in that most people belong to more than one. For instance, I claim ancestry from both a Scottish clan, (on my father's side) and Navajo (on my mother's). And even the Lutheran church could be considered an ethnicity to some extent.

 

[sandman]

Depends on which speedway you're at and who's racing.

jsw_24 you have missed the point of the OP, he was not talking of auto racing at all…I am pretty sure he was referring to a track meet and the identity of the various races to which I am able to supply answers



How to identify the 100 meter race …………….….they run only 100 meters

How to identify the 200 meter race ………………..they run only 200 meters

How to identify the 400 meter race………………...they run only 400 meters

This does get trickier when you get into the relays but once you get the fundamentals down, the relays get easier to understand.