About the Exhibit

Humans vary. Our skin tones range from milk-white to dark brown, our hair textures from blond and fine to dark thick and curly and our eye colors from green to black. Physical characteristics such as these - along with geographical and culture differences – are often used to group people into “races.” “Races” can be a source of strength, community, and identity; but they have also been the basis for discrimination, bias, and oppression.

Most people believe race is biological when it is in fact social and cultural. Can you accurately define a person’s background or genetic makeup simply by looking at an outward physical feature?

RACE: Are We So Different?, an interactive, engaging travelling exhibition tackles these topics and helps visitors understand what race is and what it is not. Curated by the American Anthropological Association and the Science Museum of Minnesota, RACE provides both the tools to recognize racial ideas and practices in contemporary American life, and an opportunity to dialogue around one of America’s most sensitive topics - race.

Looking through the eyes of history, science and lived experience, the RACE project challenges us to rethink our understanding of race.

1. Historical Idea of Race
   Race has not always existed. Sorting people by physical differences is a recent invention, only a few hundred years old. Discover how the development of the idea of race is closely linked to the early development of the United States.
2. The Science of Human Variation
   Racial and ethnic categories, which have changed over time, are human-made. We now know that human beings are more alike genetically than any other living species. Scientifically, no one gene, or any set of genes, can support the idea of race. This section focuses on what current science knows about human variation and our species' history.
3. Lived Experience of Race
   Race is embedded in virtually all aspects of American life. Explore social and personal experiences of race in familiar settings such as home and neighborhood, health and medicine, and education and schools. Discover that race and racism is not inside our heads, but in fact is built into our laws, traditions, and institutions.

RACE: Are we so Different? will be in Kalamazoo at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum from October 2010 to January 2011. The exhibit will be free and open to the public! The project also includes an interactive website, www.understandingrace.org chock with tons of useful activities.

Locally, a community leadership board is organizing the events surrounding the exhibit. Learn more about auxiliary programming.

RACE: Are we so Different?
Kalamazoo Valley Museum
October 2010 to January 2011.
Free and Open to the Public