Question

If we believe race is something real then there are characteristics associated with race that we have to accept as real as well. If race is only a social construct then racial characteristics are also developed as social constructs. All this is basically a complicated way of pointing out the difference between nurture and nature. Is "racial behaviors" a matter of nature or nurture? What does Mark Twain say about this? What argument does he make about nature and nurture? Make sure that you have clear textual references to support your argument and, of course, most importantly, make sure you have an actual argument/thesis.

Answer 1

ANSWER

INTRODUCTION :- Racism,the act of discriminating people on the basis of their skin color,their culture etc is one of the biggest social problem that the world is facing.Race is one such real thing,which eventually makes the characteristic attach with race real as well.And if we consider race as social construct,it leads the racial characteristic to turn out as social construction.These complications mainly take place due to the fact of nature or nurture.

Racial behaviors are matter of nurture rather than nature.It is so because no child is born with the tendency of discriminating others.It is the nurturing,upbringing or the environment child grows develops the feeling of racism in the child.It has nothing to do with the nature of the child.If the child is constantly seeing the discrimination being done to others,and he is being taught to do the same,it will grow inside him,as a result he will also develop the racial behavior regarding others.

Even Mark Twain agrees to the view that the racial behavior is mainly the outcome of the nurturing of the child,rather the nature.He believes that a person showing racial behavior is due to the fact that he has learnt it from his environment,and also from the way he has been brought up.Nature has nothing to do in this regard.He further presented his argument in this regard by saying that the nature of person is due to the nurturing he has acquired in his life,that is in simple words nature of person somehow reflects his nurturing.In his argument Twain says that all the discrimination that took place against black and all the movement that were followed by the black people in order to fight against any such racial discrimination is due to the nurturing of the racial behavior shown by the people belonging to white community,as they have learned to show such behavior towards black,rather it is their nature.So,therefore we can conclude that racial behavior is mainly due to nurturing rather the nature.