Trying to understand the idea of race around the world is almost as exhausting as racing around the world. That's because race is a social construction so every culture or country has its own ideas about race and those ideas are changing all the time.Hopefully the Omi and Winert article that students read for homework illustrates this.
Reflect on the Omi Reading.
1.What is the “one-drop” rule?
2.How is “race” different in Brazil?
3.How is this article an example
that race is a social construction?
Building off the Omi article, read this vignette about travelling to Brazil:
It is hard to believe, but yes, the person's race changes as he/she travels to other countries. Checkout how other countries classify race on each country's census.
When I was in Japan, a teacher told me that there are only 2 races: Japanese and everyone else. But, I pressed the teacher further and found out that Japanese people have two different types of earwax among them: dry and flaky, and wet and sticky. Historically, Japan was settled by two different groups that had these 2 different types of earwax so they see each as a subracial characteristic. Americans would never think of earwax in this way, instead we are far more fixated with other characteristics.
