The fields of sociology and anthropology have been investigating human differences in relation to their biological and cultural characteristics. Race as a concept has been tackled from various perspectives to explain the reasons for a distinctive appearance and behavioral differences between groups of people inhabiting different geographic locations. With the entrance of the English into America and the emergence of societies where racial differences had social implications, race became a reason for othering minorities. Anthropologists in the early stages of this science’s development claimed biological reasons for racial disparity. However, race is a cultural, social, and historical construct that has no genetic underpinning. Therefore, it is irrelevant to use racial differences as the basis for inequality or discrimination.
The history of the issue of the race started on the verge of the 17th and 18th centuries when wealthy landlords in colonial America imposed racial slavery emphasizing the privilege of the white population over African Americans. Similarly, the white dominance over the Native Americans was motivated by the economic and political forces in the early years of the existence of the federation. Free labor was necessary for landlords to prosper, which is why the concept of race developed into the phenomenon of racism. Anthropological and biological scientific ideas became the basis for the rise of racial ideology. The scientific ideas that used the assumption that racial differences are innate and cannot be changed were used as the basis for racial ideology. The classification of people into groups was established on the basis of skin color and pronounced features of appearance to emphasize that minorities are different and, therefore, less intelligent or capable. Therefore, the white majority could exclude racial minorities from powerful positions in social and political life, validate slavery and discrimination by invalid scientific assumptions using racial ideology.
In summation, race as a cultural construction entered the discourse in the times of English settlement in America when racial heterogeneity became an issue of political and social fields. Using biological and anthropological explanations of the differences between people’s appearances depending on race, racial ideologists validate slavery and inequality. However, there is no genetic evidence that would serve as proof of one race’s superiority over others. Therefore, race and racism are solely cultural phenomena that are manipulated to justify discrimination and prejudiced attitudes toward minorities.