Does race exist and is there a group thats 100%?

College Confidential Community
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<p>Me and my mother had this discussion on race and I said race doesnt exsist because race is a group of people with similar characteristics. Not all "whites" are blonde and blue eyed and not all "blacks" have the same texture hair. So if anything we should be classified by ethnic group or tribe but we can't since all tribes and what not mixed. And my mother then said asians and africans are 100%. But in africa there were all sorts of tribes with diffrent characteristics and they all mixed so that isn't true.As for asians I have seen Japanese people that I thought were mixed untill I saw their parents and I have seen some with wavy hair.</p>

<p>So what do you think is there a such thing as race and is there a group of people that are 100% what ever?</p>

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<p>Race has nothing to do with characteristics like hair and eyes.</p>

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<p>Well, I'm pretty sure i'm 100% white</p>

<p>And if you go to indian reservations, you'll find people, though not many, who are 100% of their tribe. I know a woman who's 100% Cree.</p>

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<p>Well, technically, we're all African... But basically race is just something to categorize different types of people, there is no model white person, etc.</p>

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<p>Actually, "race" is a cultural definition.</p>

<p>I noticed that this is almost exclusive to anglophon countries, especially USA (uni applications, surveys, etc.).</p>

<p>In all European countries, CVs, applications and stuff ask you for your "National Origin" and that's all. Identity cards state your Eye and Hair color, but I've never seen anything speaking about "race"; very rarely I find "ethnicity" but I think that was in U.K. </p>

<p>This may be a form of political correctness following European 20th century history. "Race" would imply something extremely close-minded over here.</p>

<p>Different people have different physical traits and each of them had different genetic histories. Biologically speaking, all "whites", "blacks", "asians", etc. are "creoles", too, since they evolved from former species of homo sapiens which used to have totally different physical traits.
And, as a rule of evolution, in a few centenaries of millennia or even less, there won't be anymore "whites", "blacks" and "asians" as we know them today.
There are speculations about a future homo sapiens where everyone will have the same traits, as a consequence to today's phenomena of globalization and multiculturality.</p>

<p>There are certain groups of people, societies, where genetic diversity is not so common (for a long time ashkenazi jews), and as a consequence may conserve their physical traits for a longer time.</p>

<p>In my personal opinion, the only "race" that exists is the human race, and our only "motherland" is Africa... no... the Earth :P</p>

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<p>Brazil has another way of classifying race as well. I always thought the pygmies were the only people that were 100%.</p>

<p>I was reading something about Asians (exluding india) and it said something about some have diffrent colored eyes and hair because of a mix with whites way back. Is this true because I have only seen Asians with dyed hair and contacts nothing natural.</p>

<p>Another thing my mother seems to believe that each "race" should stick to their own kind so the children will not get what ever that prevalent like blacks with sickle cell. Now I think if you mix soon those types of things would die out.</p>

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<p>That will never happen because I happen to have a thing for black/mixed/exotic women</p>

<p>And why are you all saying we're technically African...wasnt the fertile crescent in the Middle East?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
wasnt the fertile crescent in the Middle East?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yeah...</p>

<p>I'm not African. I'm 100% white. No one in my family is black, asian, etc.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
And why are you all saying we're technically African...wasnt the fertile crescent in the Middle East?

[/quote]
</p>

<p><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3814.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3814.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you believe in a single origin theory of the creation of the human race, we are all Ethiopian.</p>

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<p>"I'm not African. I'm 100% white. No one in my family is black, asian, etc."</p>

<p>your family used to be black, a long time ago. mine too.</p>

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<p>I think its impossible to say that you're 100% white or anything else. You don't know whether your great great great great grandparents was a slave or a descendant of a slave, or asian, or native american, or latino. I'm black but my hair is brown and my mother has brown hair and very light skin so obviously we aren't 100% black.
I actually saw on tv that this scientist created something that could tell where our ancestors are from and this white scientist found out that 15% (or something like this) of his ancestors were black.</p>

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<p>I look 100% I have the nappy hair,brown skin, and wide nose by the looks of me you would swear that im straight out of the jungles of Africa. Actually im mixed with indian and white that I know of.</p>

<p>The thing to find out what you are mixed with is called ancestory by dna. <a href="http://www.ancestrybydna.com/welcome/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ancestrybydna.com/welcome/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Oh well.</p>

<p>All I know is I don't look black at all.</p>

<p>I don't want to be Ethiopian. ihhhh.</p>

<p>Even all people have some Ethiopian in them, I'm probably like one millionth Ethiopian.</p>

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<p>Race is a cultural definition, yes. There was once a time in America when Germans, Italians, and Irish were not considered whites. </p>

<p>"Race" as a scientific idea did not surface until the European explorers began to explore the world and needed science to justify discrimination and subjugation. In the Classical Age, amongst the Greeks, Persians, Romans, Numidians, Ethiopians, Chinese, etc., there was no concept of separate human races.</p>

<p>Who knows who is 100% pure? How far back do you have to go?</p>

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<p>I think if you're less than 1/16 Native American, in the US, you can't count it. I don't know if that works for anything else.</p>

<p>However, I'm 99.9999999999% positive I'm 100% Chinese. =)</p>