When
David Freund states that race is a “biological fiction” in his work, Colonial Property, he means that race is
simply not real in respect to the genetic makeup of an individual. Rather, he
argues that race is instead a man-made belief, created in order to excuse the
history of “discrimination, brutality, and enslavement.” [1]
It is a concept made for the purpose of assembling humans into specific groups
based off of one’s skin complexion, with the assumption that they carry certain
characteristics about themselves and pass them down to their children as if
those “traits” are inherent. The ideal of racism is used as a societal tool to
create a social hierarchy.
Ian F. Haney-López’s would agree
with Freund in his assertion that race is an invention, not a biological trait,
based off of skin color for the purpose of human differentiation. He states in
his essay that, “Aspects of human variation like dark skin or African ancestry
are chance, not denotations of distinct branches of humankind.”[2]
Therefore, Haney-López’s belief in race as a social construction parallels with
Freund’s thoughts on race as a human invention. Haney López shows this history
of embedded falsehood with how views and assumptions about people from Mexico.
Men were shown to slothful and lazy while women are shown as the beautiful
damsels in distress; these things were portrayed in works of literature as
propaganda to racialize Mexicans.[3]
The study done in “Race, Disadvantage and Faculty Experiences in Academic
Medicine” illustrates how these issues Freund and Haney-López discuss impact
the experience for people of color in health professions. Minorities who work
in this field are more likely to suffer from “harassment, bias, and
racial-fatigue” due to these stigmas attached to their “race” despite the
positive implications of their presence in such a profession, causing them to be more likely to leave the medical profession or never attempt it in the first place.
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