Danielle Dollinger
Menlo Park, CA
People often struggle to identify themselves with a certain race. Whether it is African American, Chinese, Russian, Native American, White, Brazilian, etc. While searching for an identity within a certain race we are unable, however, to remember perhaps the most important race of all, one in which all humans belong to, the human race. The definition of the word race is: a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct groups based upon anatomical, cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical, historical, linguistic, religious, or social association. Race is a word that is used to separate humans from one another, and categorize them based on what they are. The word race is a social construct because it encourages society to define us based on a label, and restricts us from defining ourselves. Although it is very important to embrace your ancestry and culture, our race does not define who we are; it only defines where we come from, not where we are going. The definition of the word human race is: all of the living human inhabitants of the Earth. On the contrary, the human race unifies humans and categorizes them based on who they are. It identifies humans with each other based on the mere fact that they are human and unlike race, within the human race, no human can be excluded. The human race allows us to make our own paths, and live free of the constraints of a label, in which we are basically born with and have no control over. The only label we are given is human which is what each human being on this Earth has in common.
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