Mixed Blood
March 22, 2013 Everyones IQ “Mixed Blood” by Jeffrey M. Fish, is an article with demonstrates the cultural basis of race by comparing how races are defined in the North America (U. S), Africa and Brazil primarily. As defined by Fish in America, a person’s race is determined not by how he or she looks, but by his or her heritage. This paper will explore the topics that Fish talks about, in relation, to classification of races.
In this article Fish emphasizes on the fact that race is not a biologically meaningful idea and as a result it is a waste of time to look for biologically based racial differences in behavior. As Fish states, “The short answer to the question ‘What is race? ’ is: There is no such thing. Race is a myth, And out racial classification scheme is loaded with pure fantasy. ” As defined by Fish, Humans are a species, which means that people from anywhere in the world can reproduce and create a fertile offspring.
Human population over time were geographically separated from one another came to differ in physical appearance. They came through three major pathways: mutation, natural selection and genetic drift. Further, different geographical environments select for different physical traits that confer a survival advantage. Fish’s example of People in tropics of Africa and South America came to have dark skins, presumably, through natural selection as protection against the sun.
In cold areas, like northern Europe or northern North America, which are dark for long periods of time, and where people covered their bodies for warmth, people came to have light skins. Fish also talks about the body shapes and relevance they have in consideration to the climate and areas where they live, for example round bodies adapted by the Eskimos. Fish strongly feels that,“our categories for racial classification of people arbitrarily include certain dimensions (light versus dark skin) and exclude others (rounded versus elongated bodies).
Over the past 15,000 years, there has been many differences created due to the spread of people from Africa to the Americas and elsewhere. Due to this separation, not only has there been changes over time, leading to distinct traits from those areas. In Africa for example there are the Masai Tribe who naturally are lanky and tall, and in comparison to another tribe in Africa the Pygmy Tribe who are naturally short, adapted through natural selection. Fish states that Americans believe in “blood. ” Which is a term used for the quality presumed to be carried by members of these so called races.
The way offspring regardless of their physical appearance always inherit the less prestigious racial category of mixed parentage is called “hypo descent” by anthropologists. The defining of a person’s race, from mixed lineages and the hierarchy of the so called prestigious and less prestigious races, should for focus on the majority of the persons race rather than focusing on the part which is less prestigious and defining them as that. “The American system tells you about how people’s parents are classified but not what they look like.
They Brazilian system tells you what they look like but not about their parents. ” Fish focuses on the Brazilian system, to make clear how profoundly folk taxonomies of race vary from one place to another. White individuals with high IQ levels, usually tend to have offsprings with high IQ levels. Black individuals with high IQ levels, usually tend to have offsprings with high IQ levels. There is no defining factors which prove or show that race does not have an impact on IQ levels. Sources Jeffrey M. Fish “Mixed Blood” Psychology Today. Jeffrey M. Fish, 2008.
