I know talking about racism is an awkward topic for some people; trust me, I get it. We live in a world where people are always accusing others of being racist. Our society is going through some intense changes right now, especially with our new president. These changes have brought out the best and the worst in people. A big issue that's been tagged with this past election, and the totality of Donald Trump's "reign as president," is racism and, frankly, it's not hard to understand why. We have a blunt, unfiltered, homophobic, sexist white man as our president. I'm not here to get into the whole "Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton" argument. I just want to shed some light, and some truth, on the racial injustices affecting our society, which has rapidly increased since Trump was sworn into office.

During and after the election campaign, racism has become more evident in our country. This is an issue our country has dealt with for hundreds of years and it doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. I'm not here to give you a history lesson about racism in America because if you actually clicked on this article, then you're probably a well-educated individual. However, I am going to give you a science lesson.

As an anthropology major, my studies are heavily based on biology and evolution. The majority of people that I talk to know nothing about evolution. That's not to say that they are uneducated, but evolution is a sensitive subject people tend to stay away from. People believe evolution states that humans come from monkeys, which could not be further from the truth. With this in mind, it also doesn't surprise me that people don't understand the social construct of race.

That's right, you heard me.

Race is a social construct, it is not a biological category.

You're probably scratching your head asking, "How is it not biological? It's apart of our bodies, it's our skin?" So, let me explain....

Dark skin evolved because the people living in the hottest parts of the world (Africa, South America, India, the Middle East, etc.) were being exposed to an intense amount of UV rays. In response, their bodies began to produce more melanin in their skin. Melanin acts as a natural “sunscreen” and the extra melanin protects the skin from the harmful UV rays. Melanin is also what gives skin it's darker complexion. This is why groups of people that live in the coldest parts of the world, like Russia, have very light skin because they do not need the extra melanin for protection due to their cold climate. Groups of people may appear darker than "whiter individuals" because that group was exposed to more sunlight than the latter, which is why they are darker. This is an example of natural selection, which states that organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. So the groups of people with darker skin lived longer and better lives in these tropic environments, which allowed them to reproduce more successfully than those that did not produce the adequate melanin needed for protection. Because they reproduced successfully, their darker skin was passed down from generation to generation, which is why dark skin is so widespread today.

*Mic Drop*

The only reason we have "racial categories" today is because in the past, the white Europeans wanted to justify owning slaves by saying they were "inferior to us because they have darker skin." This goes for the indigenous people they wanted to own and work to death living in Africa, South America, Asia, etc. There is no other reason why we have different racial categories today. Personally, I believe that we still have racial categories in society today because we are just now starting to become progressive as a society, and in the past racism was very dominant. So the natural action was to put African Americans and Latinos in the "inferior" category because it was the easier thing to do. Now, since we realize this is completely and utterly wrong, we can start to change that and get rid of the racial categories.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because with the events in Charlottesville, racism is beginning it's steady incline back into American culture. It's our duty as Americans to be educated enough so we can put an end to this injustice. We are all the same species, no one is superior in comparison to the other. We're all human. Why can't we put the mistakes of our past behind us and move forward towards a more progressive and understanding society? I hear people all the time saying, "Well we just need to wait for all of the old white people to die and then all of our issues will be solved." That couldn't be further from the truth. It's not just the older generation that holds these values. There are plenty of high school and college students that believe in the ideology of white supremacy, which was clearly evident during the election. We need to change as a society and become a more progressive, open-minded, and loving country of Americans.