Why ‘race’ is an outdated concept - Kiera Finnigan

We live within a multiethnic society that is rapidly diversifying by the day, due to waves of immigration and interracial mixing. When we refer to the race of a person, it’s our way of categorising people into a specific group of people by their appearance. By definition, it is “a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits.” However, as we become more racially diverse as a society, there will also be a rise in interracial couples - meaning more mixed-race and multiethnic children. With over a third of Britain’s population being mixed-race, that is a third of people who don’t fit into our pre-existing racial categories. This could mean that millions of people are excluded from a societal norm that we still give power to, leaving people potentially confused about where they fit it. However, rather than create a new category of race, perhaps it’s time to do away with the concept of ‘race’ altogether. 

The concept of race emerged in the mid-17th century as a way of justifying slavery. Today, it still plays a part in how people think about themselves and relates to one another. In our modern-day society, the amount of people who don’t fit into racial categories is promptly rising by the year and there are numerous stories where mixed-race children feel as though they do not fit into a specific racial group. Many mixed-race people argue that they were never viewed as “enough” of a certain race to fit in with one group or were “too much” of the other race to fit in with the another. As I’ve already mentioned, we currently have limited vocabulary to describe people of mixed-heritage backgrounds because when ‘race’ was formulated, “mixed” was never a part of it: in fact, many “mixed” people in America were simply classed as “black” due to the “one drop rule”. This means that we have a growing number of people who don’t fit into a concept that has taken value in our everyday lives. 

We are beginning to live within a racially conscious society that asserts the importance of people's differences and struggles or privileges as a specific race or ethnicity. What does this mean for the more racially ambiguous people? It’s not possible anymore to look at every single person and know their race. It would also be strange to look at someone in person and ask them what their race is and then precede to designate special privileges to them because they are a part of an “oppressed” ethnicity or race. It makes no sense to “oppress” or “give privilege to” anyone based on race because (aside from it not being morally illegitimate) you cannot tell a person’s race by just looking at them. Moreover, it could also cause problems if we allow people to merely self-identify their race, as it could create a perverse incentive for people to play up their minority status or heritage in ways they otherwise wouldn’t have done.

Trying to push people into specific racial categories doesn’t work because we would be ignoring the whole person and only recognising what they look like on the outside. Having “white-passing” black or Asian people when a person is mixed, or simply didn’t genetically inherit their parent’s genes, is extremely two-dimensional. It predominantly expresses that because a person doesn’t “look like” a specific ethnicity or race, even though they are, the person shouldn’t be entitled to claim relations with a culture. This is very dysmorphic for the person on the receiving end of this because they are being invalidated that their whole existence isn’t something of importance or even real. Sometimes what we see happening as a result of this is people rejecting or distancing themselves from their cultural heritage because they feel disconnected from it. If on the occasion that a person who is mixed with white does this, then they’re called “white-washed” which only further excludes a person more. Furthermore, this language is harmful as it builds animosity towards white people and breeds and “us and them” mentality between people of colour and white people with white mixed-race people stuck in the middle. This only divides people further and makes us fixate on race.

We will never reach racial equality if we continue to value a concept that has been curated to oppress all non-white people for centuries. All we will do is continue to segregate ourselves by our appearances and alienate people of multicultural backgrounds who don’t fit into any category. To recognise race, we don’t recognise individuals and can only see a black person as a part of their race instead of an individual person who exists outside of their race. If we continue to recognise race as a valid concept then in return, we are choosing not to recognise the people who aren’t of a single race or ethnicity. And, as we become more and more diverse as a society, which we undoubtedly will, this will only become a bigger problem in need of attention.

Kiera Finnigan is a Year 13 sixth form student at a London state school in Britain.