The Construction of an Institution For hundreds of years, it has been "truth" that the races were biologically different. The differences that separated society were based on scientifically based genetic differences that gave reason for the separation of races. However based on recent findings, it is known that this is not the case. In 1974 Richard Lewontin dispelled this myth with a study he did that proved that there are no genetic differences between races. In fact he discovered if anything, there were more differences within the "races" then between the different races. Why then, do we still have use for different races? Why is racism still rampant in American society? The reason is that although race is not founded through science, this institution of American society is merely an obsolete combination of historical, social, and cultural construction .Historically our physical differences supplied reason to separate into races. This is similar to the method of domination author Erika Apfelbaum describes as "grouping" in "Relations of Domination and Movements for Liberation: An Analysis of Power Between Groups." The dominant group marks an individual because of his difference from the dominator. "The first step is marking the individual" (Apfelbaum 197) In doing this we see the emergence of races. Europeans marked individuals that looked different from them and used this difference as a justification for their reasoning that these individuals were inferior to them. To support their claims, there was "scientific research" done to explain our differences. These differences were said to be biological. As early as the 1800s scientists purported these ideas to be true. One doctor, Benjamin Rush, as discussed in Ronald Takaki's Iron Cages believed that blacks suffered from a form of leprosy. Because science is said to be so exact and indisputable, Americans held these theories to be truth and used them to construct t...
