Something Deeper

George Cuvier who was Napoleon’s scientist studied Sarah Baartman and used her to support his claim that there was a superior race being whites and that blacks were inferior. Cuvier did this by focusing on Baartmans unusual physical characteristics to support his claim that blacks were “ oversexed and inferior.”( Davie page 1) Cuvier’s focus on Baartman’s physical difference does nothing to prove that one race is superior to another. What probably caused her physical differences were her inherited genes. In the piece social construction of race it states that “greater genetic variation exists within the populations typically labeled Black and White than between the populations.” (IWS 52) This fact shows that Cuvier’s claim that all blacks are genetically inferior to whites is completely wrong when in fact Cuvier himself could have more similarities biologically to a person of a different race than a person of his own race. The fact is that our race is socially constructed not a result of biological similarities or differences. This story along with this quote reminded me of what we studied in one of my criminal justice classes “ Along the way various minds tried to fashion practical human typologies along the following physical axis skin color, hair texture, facial angle, jaw size …” (IWS 52-53) In one of my criminal justice classes we learned that early criminologists believe that they could take measurements of a person’s head and decide whether or not they would be susceptible to committing crime. I thought that this was another good example of how scientists sometimes try to use biology to explain things that are socially constructed such as crime or as in the case of Baartman race.
Often we see scientists looking for a magic gene or a certain cause of something with the case of Baartman it was race. Race is something more complex than biological differences. It is something that we as humans construct and cannot be contained into a scientific laboratory to be studied. I think that race was first tried to be explained by the use of biology or genetics because it allowed for a simpler way of thinking it is easy to see and explain differences when they are concrete and can be laid out in front of you and studied. Race is one of those things that simply is not that way. Many more factors than just one biological difference comes into play when determining race. The idea of social construct was one that was difficult for me to grasp when I was first introduced to it but now that I have a good understanding I see how it relates to many things that cannot be studied down to an exact science such as race, gender, or crime.