Mixed Blood

The mixed blood article was a unique account of race in the world. The author contended that race itself does not exist, its just something people create to organize us all into groups. As Americans, it seems obvious that race is a concrete thing, skin color, and how can something that clear not exist? Race is more about the perceptions of people based on their skin color than their actual skin color. And because it is all perception, the actual thing does not exist. For example, someone who may look white can very well be black, if a parent was. According to our society, the offspring of any couple where one of the parents is black is automatically black. Even if the dark skin was recessive and the baby appears white, the baby is still technically black. However, society will not treat this child as a black person, because it does not appear so. If race was truly only skin color, perceptions would not matter. 

Race is different all across the globe. In Brazil there are many different categorizations of people based on much more than skin tone. Brazillians take into account eye color, hair color, body stature as well as skin tone. So, its possible to leave America one race and arrive in Brazil a different one. Race is fabricated to make it easy for Americans to distinguish people, but really it tears us apart.