Iz it coz I iz black?2

From my understanding, a social construct is a system of interpretations (and corresponding behaviour) that comes into being because people collectively choose to follow it for any number of reasons. Stereotypes based on identity are powerful social constructs and Sacha Baron Cohen plays on them with both the Ali G and  Borat characters. He satirically plays the ignorant hip hopper and foreign idiot stereotypes to a hilarious tee. Let’s think about it though…

What’s to say than any group of people should have a monopoly on behaving the way Ali G or Borat does? According to a BBC article; it’s been scientifically proven that “Only a few genes are responsible for someone’s skin colour, which is a very poor indication of ancestry. A white person could have more African genes than a black one or vice-versa, especially in a country like Brazil.“ So yeah, racial stereotypes are powerful social constructions. One (black) guy who was tested and interviewed for that story had 67% of his genes coming from European ancestry much to his own surprise. His response was that other people would think he was joking he if told them that.

Forgetting race for a minute, what about cultural stereotypes and differences? Being the fickle people that we are, our minds can’t seem to get away from stubborn applications of preconceived notions in our daily lives and the misunderstandings that they cause. In reality, most people rarely tick every stereotypical box (racialist or otherwise) with their beliefs and behaviour especially if you make an effort to socialise with them. We’re all playing characters to some extent.