David Freund writes in Colored Property that race is "a biological fiction," implying that society basing race on visual, physical traits, cannot create a legitimate division amongst humanity because race is not real. He supports the argument that the idea of race has been introduced by individuals of our history, and is now supported by these submissive thoughts today. Freund states that although race is biologically fictional, the meaning of race has taken is own definition by society, and is now merely a concept of superiority and inferiority. These ideas of race being strictly mindset, rather than biologically relevant, coincide with Haney-Lopez's thoughts on race being fictional.
In The Social Construction of Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and Choice, Haney-Lopez believes race is a dividend of people based on historical and social elements of their ancestry that we continue to mediate in our lives. He rejects the term "biological race," or dividing humans based on their physical genetics such as skin tone or hair color. Haney- Lopez conforms to the idea that biological race does not exist. He writes that the idea of race is society-based on the grounds that it will help with decisions involving politics, economics, and social groupings. Both writers argue that the definition of race that most individuals have come to understand, that race is based on our appearances and biology, is inaccurate because race itself is non-existant.
Freund states that "to this day, historically construed ideas about race continue to carry tremendous political, economic, and cultural power," implying that although race is fictional, it is not an illusion, and is impacting the lives of individuals to this day. In terms of healthcare and medicine, this holds especially true. In African American Southerners and White Physicians: Medical Care at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, it states that white physicians had used racial slurs towards some of their African American patients, to vent frustration or even just to address them. In many ways, African patients were treated unequal to that of white patients during the nineteenth century. They were limited through obtaining medical care, had to bargain for medical services, and often slaves did not have a say in if they would receive medical attention. Often Slave owners had the decision of whether or not an African would receive the care they needed. Even if a slave was able to receive the needed attentive care from a physician, the costs were worrisome in that many did not have the economic means for healthcare. Nevertheless, at the start of the twentieth century, beliefs and understanding of race started advancing, though the idea of race is argued as fictional by many individuals included David Freund and Haney-Lopez. According to Freund and Haney-Lopez, race is not an illusion, but through biological terms it is entirely fictional.
These readings address many topics, however they also introduce new ideas. For example, the question arises; can race even be defined if their is so much controversy over the overall meaning of the terminology?
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