"The Difference Between Us" (Extra Credit)

The main thesis of Episode 1 “The Difference Between Us” in The Power of An Illusion is that race in not biologically real, but is rather a socially constructed concept. Also, humans are much more alike than different.

The film gives much scientific evidence to support the fact that we as humans are much more alike than different as a species. If fact, the movie pointed out that penguins are twice as different from each other than humans are different from one another, and that fruit flies differed 10 times more from one another than humans. Genetically we are among the most similar species on the planet. In the movie, Alan Goodman asserts that “race is a biological myth.” One's race is judged solely on physical characteristics such as skin color and hair type. There is absolutely no biological evidence that supports the idea of race. People of the same so called race can actually be much more different than one another, genetically, than from a person of a different race. A class experiment conducted during the film supports this fact. Students tested their mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA and compared it to the mtDNA of other students in the class. The experiment showed that those who appeared to be alike were actually much different genetically from one another. People, in some cases, were actually much more genetically similar to those who didn’t resemble them at all.

Why do many members of our society believe that race is genetic? I think our society believes this for many reasons. For one, most have never been told that race isn’t real or defined in biological terms. I know that I’ve never been told that race isn’t real, but rather socially constructed and a biological myth. People think that if people appear to be different then they must be biologically different, and that just isn’t the case.

I became very interested in the film while watching it in class. I never knew that there were no biological differences among different races whatsoever. I thought that there had to be something genetic that caused on person to be white and another black. The film taught me, however, that there is nothing genetically distinct to one specific race. As class ended I began to wonder just why it is that so many people feel like race is genetic in the first place. I was also never aware that we as humans are so much alike in comparison to other species.