Leba, Chris
September 9, 2014
PSYC 2344 – Agan
Human Diversity In “Culture, Not Race, Explains Human Diversity”, Mark Nathan Cohen states that in today’s society, many people use racial background as a way to separating individuals into different classifications. However, his belief is that racial classification actually “produces more exceptions than sound classification.” Human diversity is not based off of a few traits like skin color, nose shape, and various other physical traits but is actually conveyed through different cultural backgrounds. Throughout the article, Cohen uses analogies and facts to support his point of view on human diversity. For example, although black and white Americans tend to be considered very different from each other, geneticists believe that the 99.9% of their genes are alike. Is it reasonable that the 0.1% of genes that differ from black and white Americans is the reason why humans are so diverse or is it something else? Through Cohen’s evidence, which is portrayed in the article, the concept of human diversity is realized to be determined by cultural background and how people are raised rather than by biology.
Another very common misconception believed in society is that by being a black American, you will have lower intelligence and “receive lower scores on standardized tests.” However,
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Not only did it show me how racism still takes place, but it also showed a good insight on how people should look at other people. It really makes me think about how I viewed people in prior years. I contemplated my younger years and think how I could have said certain things differently if I read this article before and learned about cultural relativism. After reading this article, I now realize that it is not really a person’s racial background that makes them different but how they were taught and their cultural background. I learn to appreciate other cultures