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Laying the Sociological Foundation 267

Can a Plane Ride Change Your Race?

A t the beginning of this text (page 19), I men- tioned that common sense and sociology often differ. This is especially so when it

comes to race. According to common sense, our racial classifications represent biological differences between people. Sociologists, in contrast, stress that what we call races are social classifications, not bio- logical categories.

Sociologists point out that our “race” depends more on the society in which we live than on our biological characteristics. For example, the racial categories common in the United States are merely one of numerous ways by which people around the world classify physical appearances. Although various groups use different categories, each group assumes that its categories are natural, merely a response to visible biology.

To better understand this essential sociological point—that race is more social than it is biological— consider this: In the United States, children born to the same parents are all of the same race.“What could be more natural?” Americans assume. But in Brazil, children born to the same parents may be of different races—if their appearances differ.“What could be more natural?” assume Brazilians.

Consider how Americans usually classify a child born to a “black” mother and a “white” father. Why do they usually say that the child is “black”? Wouldn’t it be equally as logical to classify the child as “white”? Similarly, if a child has one grandmother who is “black,” but all her other ancestors are “white,” the child is often considered “black.” Yet she has much more “white blood” than “black blood.” Why, then, is she considered “black”? Cer- tainly not because of biology. Such thinking is a legacy of slavery. In an attempt to preserve the “pu- rity” of their “race” in the face of the many children whose fathers were white slave masters and whose mothers were black slaves, whites classified anyone with even a “drop of black blood” as black. They ac- tually called this the “one-drop” rule.

Even a plane trip can change a person’s race. In the city of Salvador in Brazil, people classify one another by color of skin and eyes, breadth of nose and lips, and color and curliness of hair. They use at least

seven terms for what we call white and black. Con- sider again a U.S. child who has “white” and “black” parents. If she flies to Brazil, she is no longer “black”; she now belongs to one of their several “whiter” categories (Fish 1995).

If the girl makes such a flight, would her “race” actually change? Our common sense revolts at this, I know, but it actually would. We want to argue that because her biological characteristics remain unchanged, her race remains unchanged. This is because we think of race as biological, when race is actually a label we use to describe perceived biological characteristics. Simply put, the race we “are” de- pends on our social location—on who is doing the classifying.

“Racial” classifications are also fluid, not fixed. Even now, you can see change occurring in U.S. classifica- tions.The category “multiracial,” for example, indicates changing thought and perception.

For Your Consideration How would you explain to “Joe and Suzie Six-Pack” that race is more a social classification than a biolog- ical one? Can you come up with any arguments to refute this statement? How do you think our racial- ethnic categories will change in the future?

What “race” are these two Brazilians? Is the child’s “race” different from her mother’s “race”? The text explains why “race” is such an unreliable concept that it changes even with geography.

Down -to-Earth Sociology