By the end of the 18th century, Linnaeus' pupil and renowned protege' Blumenbach, took up the project of classifying the human species and developed his mentor's four-race classification scheme based on geographical location to a five-race classification scheme based on beauty. .
Now we need not investigate further to recognize the blatant fallacy manifest in Linnaeus and Blumenbach's theories " the failure to "divorce the processes of culture and biological evolution from each other " (Marks, 1995, p.68). This failure to distinguish cultural and biological factors still dictates much of our social behavior today. Without any scientific pretense whatsoever, the concept of race was constructed to classify people by arbitrary physical or geographical characteristics. Yet today, the fallacious origin of the term race has been forgotten, and now the term holds purportedly scientific sway over all. The idea that race is not skin deep, but something biologically determinate and inherently particular to certain groups of people still remains very much with us today. This is somewhat of a tragedy given the reality of our overcoming of such evils during the antebellum and civil rights periods.
The Interplay Between Ignorance and Evidence.
Apart from the dubious and dangerous origins of the term race, we also have the problem of misunderstanding concepts which apply themselves to our practical reason " of chameleon-like terms which confuse the understanding of identity issues. Within the American lexicon, it is imperative to recognize the differing meanings of the terms race, ethnicity, and culture " terms which are so often used interchangeably. Race is a groundless classification system which distinguishes types of people based on physical features such as bone structure, skin color, and hair texture (Zuckerman, 1990). Culture on the other hand is a concept that signifies those external or ideological factors which reign over the current sociopolitical milieu, and which influence its citizens (Triandis et al.