“Mixed Blood” by Fish

Jeffrey Fish's dissertation of race and ehtnic identity as it relates to familial lineage is radical-seeming given my American upbringing, but I can understand how race in America could be considered a social construct engineered by the melting-pot nature of our country.  Dictionary.com defines race as "a group of persons related by common descent or heredity," but also recognizes the anthropological definition of an arbitrary classifaction of humankind based on phenotypes and common conceptions that may influence behavior or culturally induced standards within these self-formed subsections of our human race. Fish's assertion that race is a nonexistent myth is definitly a topic of discourse that can be considered controversial, but the premises of his argument are definitly possible and while they may seem unconventional to Americans I believe it's important to examine our personal beliefs and remove our ingrained preconceptions to carefully consider Fish's analysis.  I give Fish credit partly because he looks at more than just the "ethnicity" or origins or the multiple different "sects" of humans that have simply adapted to their respective geographical locations, which in today's modernized world of travel and industry have become almost seemingly obsolete as people traverse the world and spread their culture.  The American ideals are representative of this, as our country was founded on immigration and the mulitculturalism that allowed the rapid expansion of our country from colony to superpower in a few generations.  Compared to the Brazilian ideal of race as the way people look, Americans look at the lineage and history of individuals and are interested in geneology moreso than appearance.  I think the difference is notable and Fish hit the nail on the head with his assumption of our understanding of race.  The idea of someone changing their race by a flight in a plane is brought up, and interestingly enough presents the question of how race has become such a social determinism in the way culture is shared and viewed from different perspectives based upon location.