The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission believes it is time to take a closer look at the concept of different races and to ask if that concept, in itself, promotes discrimination and stereotypes.

The problem is not with the word race. The problem is that many people believe in a hierarchy of races, with one race (usually their own) at the top of the heap and all the other races ranking below that. This theory is grounded in the belief that different races have different abilities, different skills, and different temperaments.

It is these kinds of social constructions of race that have justified slavery, economic exploitation, and a second-class status in society for some.

How the concept of race developed

Human beings have a natural tendency to classify and categorize and there's nothing wrong with that. Much of the way we define the world is based on classification. But when people believe that different races have different personal characteristics and some characteristics are more laudable than others, we need to take a close and critical look at what's going on.

Hand-in-hand with classification on the basis of physical characteristics came classification based on supposed superiority and inferiority. Because the classification was done by Europeans, it's not surprising that they defined themselves as the best and most civilized of the lot. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the standard of civilization was material and cultural achievement. As well, Christianity got a higher rating than "uncivilized" religions, which were lumped together under the heading of paganism.

In the 20th century, new tools of classification, such as genetics and biology, were used to study the issue of race. These scientific disciplines tell us that there is a greater range of variation within any group than the variation between groups. And that there is no such thing as a distinct race.

But science didn't put an end to people's desire to assign a superior status to some groups and an inferior status to others. In fact, science was often used in an attempt to prove their claims. Much of the work in this area, often referred to as scientific racism, has the following thesis: most of society's problems, including poverty, are caused by the inferior genes or heredity of people and races.

Those same arguments are still being put forward today. One of the most recent examples is a book that was on the New York Times best-seller list for a number of weeks, The Bell Curve. Although the authors insist they are talking about social class and not race, many commentators say it is clear that the book claims to offer scientific proof of the inferiority of black people. The author's thesis is that group differences in intelligence are, to some degree, hereditary.

Clearly, some people still believe in a concept of race that divides people into groups, that gives different personal attributes to those groups, and argues that the differences between groups of people should be reflected in social policy.

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