Understanding Race vs Culture

A different Kind of Empowerment (2)

Calgary - December 2015 by Funeh

Race is the idea that humans can be categorized based on distinctive physical and behavioural traits. It is typically associated with biology and linked to physical characteristics such as skin colour, facial features or hair texture. According to Britannica’s article on race, ‘from the first attempts at classifying humans in the 17th century until now, scientists have yet to come to a consensus on the number of races of humankind, the features to be used in the identification, or the meaning of race itself. Race has never, in the history of its use, had a precise meaning.’

Race is often talked about as though specific characteristics could mark any individual as one race or the other. In reality, it is the one concept that is undeniably fluid and exists as a spectrum, if at all. For example, say everyone considered black or white was asked to stand shoulder-to-shoulder based on skin tone. On the one end is the darkest South Sudanese. In the middle, a thousand shades of mixed folks, all the way to the palest, most sun-deprived person. Will any group familiar with the concept of white and black be able to agree on where the racial line ends for blacks and starts for whites? Based on physical characteristics, blood group analysis and even DNA analysis, science agrees that no biological racial differences exist. Race is made up.

On the other hand, culture is a set of shared ideas, knowledge, customs, traditions, beliefs, and practices shared by a group of people. These are ideas you share with others - usually, the people you grow up with. These shared values constantly morph for the group as a unit and amongst individuals within the group due to the external influence of new knowledge and ideas. Ethnicity is related to groups of people identifying with one another based on shared culture.

So, although the idea of race is not black and white, Racial Identity, especially in present-day America, is subconsciously defined and forged by society. Society nudges individuals to join a group as early as possible. So, each person identifies with the racial group they think they fit into - that choice is then calibrated by their perceptions of how others see them. Once they make a selection, it more or less becomes their racial identity. With the increased influence of social media on young individuals today, they might tend to unquestioningly think and act based on society’s definition of their chosen race's values, beliefs, and ideas. A subtle spin on Jean S. Phinney’s Model of Ethnic Identity is the Unexamined Ethnic Identity, where individuals have no time to explore the issues by themselves and take values and others’ opinions without questioning. (referred to as identity foreclosure or commitment without exploration)(Bernal & Knight, 1993; Phinney, 1989).

That said, ethnicity may differ in groups of individuals with a shared nationality or race. Two individuals of similar racial identities can have different Ethnic Identities.

“Physical features are insufficient clues to a person’s ethnic identity. They reveal nothing about a person’s culture, language, religion, and values. Sixth-generation Chinese Americans have American ethnicity; many know little or nothing about traditional Chinese culture, just as European Americans and African Americans may know little or nothing about the cultures of their ancestors.”

Wade, Peter, Smedley, Audrey and Takezawa, Yasuko I.. "race" Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Feb. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human. Accessed 10 February 2024.

An extreme example to make the point more apparent would be a Black man adopted as a kid and brought up by an upper-class Asian family who will be culturally distinct from his brother, who was brought up in a lower-class Black neighbourhood.

Bringing it closer to home, having grown up in Nigeria, I notice that I am culturally different from the African Americans I have met. Although, on the surface, we would both be considered Black, our values, perspectives, levels of exposure, drive, and belief in what is attainable for ourselves make us distinct. I have seen economic inequality, police brutality, and educational performance disparities between citizens of different classes or ethnic groups in all-Black Nigeria. The exposure to that knowledge, for example, offers me a different perspective when I see these same issues that are quickly attributed to race here in America.

Unlike race, which is perceived as natural and unchangeable, ethnicity or culture is flexible and can be altered. It can be enhanced by opening up to other cultures and assimilating or being influenced by new knowledge or aspects of a new culture to improve one’s way of life. The American culture, for example, has impacted the cultures of millions of people worldwide through its movies, music and educational system. My family and others from hundreds of different cultures have migrated to Canada because we admired aspects of the Western culture, and we have now adopted those ingredients, altering our own culture a little. Culture, if we are open, is transient. It allows us to start over. To let go of how it has always been. To accept new ideas or beliefs that could lead us closer to new values that we desire.