The readings from Section Three of Grewal and Kaplan about the formation of race were very eye opening for me. I thought that the divisions of race were always around and never considered them to be constructed. These essays revealed to me that races were often malicously created to promote the selfish gains of other races and to bring down those who were considered different. The creation of races even brought about scientific experiments studying "skin color, hair texture, facial angle, jaw size" and many other insignificant charecteristics to deferenciate types of people and give reason to discrimination.
Fortunately, there have been break throughs which have altered the societal norms surrounding race. For example, in 1950, the New York Times published an article called "No Scientific Basis for Race Bias by World Pannel of Experts" which described UNESCO's statement that there was "no scientific justification for race discrimination". Also, other articles such as "What Color is Black?" have had an extremely positive impact, causing people to rethink their definition of race.
Thought these publishings have made radical changes in our current intepretation of race, I feel it will be a very long time before these categories and the stereotypes that go with them will be illiminated. It is very difficult to imagine a world without defined races, but I believe it is possible.
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