Race is a term for the classification of human beings into physically, biologically, and genetically distinct groups. The term also implies that the mental and moral behavior of human beings, as well as individual personality, ideas and capacities, can be related to racial origin. However, this idea of race as a meaningful biological category has long been recognized to be a fiction. Race pretends to be an objective term of classification, when in fact it is a dangerous metaphor or trope. Race or racism is a form of representation (see keyword below) that produces irreducible difference between cultures, linguistic groups, and communities with differing belief systems. To put it another way, racism is a way of thinking that considers a group's physical characteristics to determine psychological and intellectual characteristics and that distinguishes between "superior" and "inferior" racial groups. At the same time, many writers use race as representation to describe their experience of living in such a socially constructed category. The effect of racial representations on people's lived experience is profound and complex.  

In Beyond Borders:  See John Hartigan, "The Baseball Game"; Frantz Fanon, "The Fact of Blackness"; Wen Shu Lee, "One Whiteness Veils Three Ugliness"; and Image 13, Hulleah Tsinhahjinnie, "Damn, There Goes the Neighborhood."

In Beyond Borders Online: See Web Research Activities, "Identity in Cyberspace," "The Web and a Sense of Place and Community."

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