The Difference Between Us: Race - The Power of an Illusion

Overview

• Title: The Difference Between Us: Race - The Power of an Illusion
• Produced by: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Films Media Group
• Release Date: 2003, 2012
• Format: eVideo
• Duration: 56 minutes

Summary

• Challenges common beliefs about racial differences in SAT scores, musical ability, and athletic performance as inherent racial traits.
• Demonstrates through a DNA sequencing experiment with students that genetic differences are not mapped along racial lines.
  • Students, including African-American athletes and Asian-American violin players, found their closest genetic matches were often from other races.
• Emphasizes that gene variations reflect ancestry rather than race.

Main Content

Race: Social Reality, Biological Fiction

• Race is presented as a social construct rather than a biological fact.

DNA Experiment and The Radical Truth About Race

• Students conduct DNA sequencing to test hypothesis on racial differences.
• Results showed significant genetic overlap across races.

Notions of Racial Biology and Athletic Performance

• Dissects the myth that racial biology determines athletic prowess.

Historic and Social Perspectives

• Discusses historical attempts to find biological racial differences and justify social inequalities.
• Examines the role of biology as an excuse for social inequality.
• References to "Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro" and the extinction thesis.

Eugenics and Racial Purification

• Explores the history and impact of eugenics on racial theories.
• Discusses racial supremacy ideologies at events such as the 1936 Olympics.
• Highlights Jesse Owens' achievements disproving racial science myths.

Immeasurableness of Race

• Argues the indefinability of race biologically.

Science of Skin Color

• Examines how skin color is determined by complex traits and environmental influences.

Evolution of Basketball Players: Race vs. Cultural Opportunity

• Discusses how cultural and environmental opportunities, not race, influence the development of basketball players.

Genetic Variation

• Within and Between Racial Groups: Extensive variation exists within any racial group.
• Sickle-Cell Disease: Example of geographic genetic variation rather than racial.
• Lineage and Young Age of Human Species: Humanity's genetic lineage is young and diverse.

Social Implications of Race

• Explores the social consequences of racial categorization.
• Discusses potential pathways to dismantle racial constructs.

Key Themes

• The concept of race as a social construct rather than a biological determinant.
• The fallacy of using biology to justify racial inequalities.
• The need to view genetic variations as linked to ancestry and geography, not race.

Subjects

• African Americans and Social Conditions
• Ethnicity and Racism

Genre

• Educational films
• Internet videos

Note: Digitally encoded for streaming by Films Media Group on August 30, 2012. Part of the "Race: The Power of an Illusion" series.