Teacher Guide THE HUMAN RACE: Description One Species, Many Opinions A 50-‐Minute Distance Learning Lesson Grades: 8-‐12 Throughout history, variation within the human species has been a source of community strength and personal identity. It has also been the basis for discrimination and oppression. Today, geneticists and anthropologists have shown that all humans share ancestry in Africa. In the light of these scientific breakthroughs, discuss with our Education team the idea that "[Racism] is not about how you look, it is about how people assign meaning to how you look" (Robin G.D. Kelley, Historian). Students will be asked to participate in activities and discuss ideas that may challenge how they think about race and human variation. Celebrate the amazing diversity of the human species! Before Your Visit/How to Set Up Your Room • • We will be sorting your students into various “Tribes” during our program, so please arrange the desks so they have room to move around and stand in distinct areas with others in their “Tribe”. If time allows, have your students take a look at this website: http://understandingrace.com This site is maintained by the American Anthropological Association, and shows images of their travelling exhibit “RACE: Are We So Different?” CMNH hosted this exhibit in 2008 and received permission to continue the discussion with this IVC program. Objectives Students will: • Relate how science cannot support the reality of race as a valid biological concept. • Describe the scientific basis for the statement: “We are all Africans” • Describe how differences in skin color are biological adaptations to life under the sun. • Relate how the social concept of “race” has historically affected African-‐Americans and other groups. • Relate how the social concept of “race” continues to affect our treatment of others. Revised Ohio Academic Content Standards Grade 8 Science: Life Science -‐ Species and Reproduction • Diversity of species occurs through gradual processes over many generations. Fossil records provide evidence that changes have occurred in number and types of species. • The characteristics of an organism are a result of inherited traits received from parent(s). Grade Eight Social Studies: History -‐ Colonization to Independence 4. The practice of race-‐based slavery led to the forced migration of Africans to the American colonies. Their knowledge and traditions contributed to the development of those colonies and the United States. Grade Eight Social Studies: History -‐ Civil War and Reconstruction 11. Disputes over the nature of federalism, complicated by economic developments in the United States, resulted in sectional issues, including slavery, which led to the American Civil War. 12. The Reconstruction period resulted in changes to the U.S. Constitution, an affirmation of federal authority and lingering social and political differences. Grade Eight Social Studies: Geography – Human Systems 16. Cultural biases, stereotypes and prejudices had social, political and economic consequences for minority groups and the population as a whole. 17. Americans began to develop a common national identity among its diverse regional and cultural populations based on democratic ideals. HS Science: Biology -‐ Heredity • Genetic mechanisms and inheritance HS Science: Biology – Evolution • Variation of organisms within a species due to population genetics and gene frequency High School Social Studies: Social Transformations in the United States (1945-‐1994) 28. Following World War II, the United States experienced a struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil rights. High School Social Studies: American Government -‐ Basic Principles of the U.S. Constitution 9. The Reconstruction Era prompted Amendments 13 through 15 to address the aftermath of slavery and the Civil War. High School Social Studies: Contemporary World Issues – Global Connections 2. Advances in communications technology have profound effects on the ability of governments, interest groups, individuals and the media to share information across national and cultural borders. High School Social Studies: Contemporary World Issues -‐Civil and Human Rights 8. Beliefs about civil and human rights vary among social and governmental systems. 10. Modern instances of genocide and ethnic cleansing present individual, organizational and national issues related to the responsibilities of participants and non-‐participants. Vocabulary adaptation: Special genetically-‐based physical or behavioral characteristics that allows the possessor to survive and successfully reproduce. anthropology: The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans. Civil Rights Act: Passed by the United States Government in 1964, this act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees in Employee Benefit Plans regarding contributions or benefits based on race or gender. The law also encouraged the desegregation of public schools and authorized the withdrawal of federal funds from programs practicing discrimination. deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) – the material found primarily in a cell’s nucleus that carries the instructions for making all the structures and functions of an organism. genotype: The genetic makeup, of an organism or a group of organisms. More specifically, the combination of alleles located on homologous chromosomes that determines a specific characteristic or trait. “Jim Crow” Laws: Enforced racial segregation in the U.S. South between 1877 and the 1950s. The term, taken from a minstrel-‐show routine, became a derogatory term for African Americans. Used in Southern states of the United States to preserve segregated schools, transport facilities, and housing, until the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ was declared unconstitutional in 1954. phenotype: The observable physical characteristics of an organism, as determined by both genetic makeup and environmental influences. The expression of a specific trait is based on genetic and environmental influences. race: as a biological concept: A population whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans. race: as a social/historical concept: an arbitrary classification of modern humans based on one or more physical characteristics such as skin color, facial form or eye shape. As a social concept, these characteristics are understood to have a positive or negative link to other characteristics such as intelligence, physical prowess and moral character. Scala Naturae: (Latin for “The Great Chain of Being”) The belief that all things and creatures in nature are organized in a hierarchy from inanimate objects at the bottom to God at the top. This system of belief was popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. segregation: to separate or set apart from others or from the general mass species: a basic biological classification of organisms that resemble one another and may interbreed, producing fertile offspring trait – a distinguishing characteristic or feature. Suggested Activities • • 1. 2. The American Anthropological Association provides detailed Teacher’s Guides with their exhibit & website, found here: http://understandingrace.org/resources/for_teachers.html Discuss the following list, as created by California Newsreel’s documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion. TEN THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ‘RACE’ Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical differences, but according to religion, status, class or even language. The English word "race" turns up for the first time in a 1508 poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of kings. Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-‐called race from all the members of another so-‐called race. 3. 4. Human subspecies don’t exist. Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven’t been around long enough, nor have populations been isolated enough, to evolve into separate subspecies or races. On average, only one of every thousand of the nucleotides that make up our DNA differ one human from another. We are one of the most genetically similar of all species. Skin color really is only skin deep. The genes for skin color have nothing to do with genes for hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone’s skin color doesn’t necessarily tell you anything else about them. 5. Most variation is within, not between, “races.” Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists within any local population. About 94% can be found within any continent. That means, for example, that two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian. 6. Slavery predates race. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest or debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, North America has the first slave system where all slaves shared a common appearance and ancestry. 7. Race and freedom were born together. The U.S. was founded on the principle that "All men are created equal," but the country’s early economy was based largely on slavery. The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted. 8. Race justified social inequalities as natural. The “common sense” belief in white superiority justified anti-‐ democratic action and policies like slavery, the extermination of American Indians, the exclusion of Asian immigrants, the taking of Mexican lands, and the institutionalization of racial practices within American government, laws, and society. 9. Race isn’t biological, but racism is still real. Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. The government and social institutions of the United States have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power and resources to white people. 10. Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. References To Continue the Discussion www.pbs.org/race Based on and supporting the 3-‐part video: Race – The Power of an Illusion. Excellent preview of concepts before viewing the exhibit or participating in this program. Contains a wealth of resources and interactives. http://understandingrace.com This is the website supporting the RACE exhibit. It will allow you to review the exhibit, including some of the videos and the interactives. It includes separate activity guides for families, for middle school, and for high school with numerous activities to choose from. www.facinghistory.org A source of teacher development and other resources from Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. with a regional office in Cleveland: Heights Rockefeller Building 2475 Lee Blvd., suite 1C Cleveland, OH 44118 216-‐321-‐9220 www.nrchr.org The National Center for the Healing of Racism. Their Resource tab leads to a great variety of sites for books, on-‐line documents and other websites. Science Resource Center (SRC) The Science Resource Center has books, kits, animal dioramas and more for loan to area teachers. Contact the Science Resource Center at 216-‐231-‐4600 ext. 3211 between 3 and 5 PM Monday through Friday and 9 AM to 1 PM on Saturdays. Visit our website to view resources. ___________________________________________________________________ Produced and published by the Education Division, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Dr., University Circle, Cleveland, OH 44106 September 2013