Sorting people by color, race and culture

Our eyes tell us that people look different colors but do our eyes lie to us placing humans into invented color, race and culture categories to suite our needs.

What is race?

Sorting people

Race has no genetic basis. Race is considered by many to be a made up characteristic in order to objectify people who have the same physical characteristics or phenotype such as eye shape, hair texture or skin color. Race is not biological.

What is ethnicity?

An ethnic group is a category of people who belonging to or deriving from the cultural, religious, or linguistic traditions of a people or country. People who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, and cultural experiences. Therefore, ethnic group is a subjective category based on personal feelings, tastes, or opinions of others.

What is culture?

Culture is the learned pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior transmitting knowledge to future generations and this shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices distinguish the person. Culture is a category based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.

Color is visual 

What is color?

Color shapes our perceptions of the world around us. Color is visual, the pigmentation of the skin. Color is a strong sensory sensation that shapes our everyday life. Colors give the sensation of feeling cheerful, depressed, cautious or friendly.

To see color, you have to have light. When light shines, on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected.

The sun’s rays contain all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. All light rays contain color. Light is made of electromagnetic waves. These waves spread out from any light source, such as the sun.

Did you know?

Genotype vs phenotype

Genotype cannot be seen by the naked eye, it is the genetic makeup of an organism. Visible traits are known as phenotypes. A phenotype is an individual's observable traits, such as height, shoe size, eye color, and face shape.