Compare And Contrast The Historical And Comparative Approach To Race And Ethnicity

Bartlett’s idea of race in reference to the medieval period is much closer to that of “ethnicity,” a classification that emphasizes on linguistic, legal, political, and cultural affinities more than biological features as indicators of racial difference. Bartlett’s understanding of the Middle Ages on race and ethnicity are synonymous which all, etymologically, derive from the Latin convention of “gens” and

Like other encyclopedias the Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies offers reference work and summaries of information from various contributors. However, this encyclopedia focuses only on race and ethnic. Barry Troyna the provider Race Relations: As Activity. Troyna defines race relation as behavior, which arise from the contacts and resulting interaction of people with varied physical and cultural characteristics. Moreover, Troyna asserted that race relation has become increasingly important because of

In the essay “Color Lines” by Ralph Eubanks, the author explores the flawed logic of race from a scientific perspective. In the article, Eubanks explains the fact that a person cannot know the ancestry of another person or the nature of that person by looking at their race alone. Heritage is a much more complex concept than a simple racial categorization. In writing the article, the author sought to demonstrate that when looking at a person, you could not confirm their identity based on what percentage of a certain race they may have and that social construction meant to depict one group as being superior or inferior to another. This rhetorical analysis will therefore explore the importance of the rhetorical devices and strategies used by Eubanks to communicate with the audience.

However, the video Race: The Power of Illusion presents significant evidence refuting the biological theories of race. Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory instructor Scott Bronson and several high school students from different ethnicities conducted personal genetic research exploring biological race theory. Students’ typed their blood, compared skin tones and took DNA samples. After sending the samples to a genetics lab, Bronson asked students whom they might expect to be more genetically similar to in the workshop. The consensus of the students was that they would each be genetically comparable to others in the group with similar physical attributes.

Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant made me readjust my understanding of race by definition and consider it as a new phenomenon. Through, Omi and Winant fulfilled their purpose of providing an account of how concepts of race are created and transformed, how they become the focus of political conflict, and how they shape and permeate both identities and institutions. I always considered race to be physical characteristic by the complexion of ones’ skin tone and the physical attributes, such as bone structure, hair texture, and facial form. I knew race to be a segregating factor, however I never considered the meaning of race as concept or signification of identity that refers to different types of human bodies, to the perceived corporal and phenotypic makers of difference and the meanings and social practices that are ascribed to these differences, in which in turn create the oppressing dominations of racialization, racial profiling, and racism. (p.111). Again connecting themes from the previous readings, my westernized influences are in a direct correlation to how to the idea of how I see race and the template it has set for the rather automatic patterns of inequalities, marginalization, and difference. I never realized how ubiquitous and evolving race is within the United States.

THESIS: Scientists and other intellectuals recognize the modern concept of "race" as an artificial category that developed over the past five centuries due to encounters with non-European people. Even though people still attempt to organize humans into categories according to their race, these categories have been shown to have no scientific basis.

Furthermore, there have been further studies regarding identified small changes in DNA that account for the pale skin of Europeans, the tendency of Asians to sweat less and West Africans' resistance to certain diseases. Consequently, genetic information is slipping out of the laboratory and into everyday life, carrying with it the inescapable message that people of different races have different DNA. This has only worsen the way the predominant communities see other societies and therefore has made the biological view of race one of the strongest in the creation of race. Other various ways, in which the biological view of race has affected society’s construction of race is by the creation of drugs that can only be taken by specific communities,

However there is no discernible difference in genotype between perceived ‘races’, as the variation observed in the morphologies and cultural patterns of geographically distinct groups are physical markers that are interpreted through social practice.1 Renowned geneticists, Francis Collins and Craig Venter after initially mapping the human genome, announced in June 2000 that 99.9% of humans are genetically identical despite perceived race.2 Subsequently, evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin, then further substantiated that within that 0.1% of difference, 85% of phenotypical variation was prominent inside geographically distinct groups, while only 15% occurs between them.3 It has been proposed by academics such as Naomi Zack, that to continue to refer to race as a purely biological notion is detrimental to social understanding as it reinforces a false notion.4 Although observable difference between groups does exist as variation caused by the evolutionary process of random drift and adaption5, these differences are phenotypical and only become salient to racial philosophy when interpreted socially. DeSalle and Tattersall explain that variation is driven by environmental influence on genotype, highlighting that insights into cultural practice are more productive in discussions about difference. A case study provided by DeSalle and Tattersall uses the example of lactose intolerance, explaining that, “Among norther European populations, only about 1 to 15 percent

The book has as its principal thesis the consideration of race as “a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from 16th to 19th centuries” (Smedley, 2007, pag.24). The book also specifies three characteristics that distinguish the racial ideology in America: the absence of a category for biracial people, the homogenization of the black or African American Americans, and the impossibility to change a person’s race. (Smedley, 2007, pag.7)

Summarize Stuart Hall’s alternative to reductionist and pluralist (i.e. “economic” and “sociological”) theories of race: Hall suggests race is not only cultural or ideological and developed over a historical epoch. Therefore, in his work “Race, articulation and societies structured dominance” Hall suggest alternatively one must start, then, from the historical 'framework of how racism came about by investigating the historical, political ideological, economic conditions and social practices, that concretely articulate, and ascribe racial positioning of different social groups in relation to one another with respect to structures in society, and how those practices became fixed and ascribed as on-going social practices; that legitimates peoples

The title of the paper intends to raise awareness about the large number of historians and activists still struggling to clearly define their understanding of racial identities. Given the complex use of the term “race” in biology, in everyday life, and in the social sciences, this does not come as a surprise. However, without properly addressing issues of historical and present understandings of race, both scholars and activists run the risk of reinforcing rather than challenging racial misconceptions.

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

J. Rushton argues that the stereotypical racial divisions are not only an accurate taxonomy of society but also serves as a key divider of human species into a hierarchical community (Rushton, 41). It was mostly during the 19th through 20th centuries that race was widely known as a biological construct, and this was often referred to as biological realism (Andreasen, 653). In today’s time theorists, such as Franz Boas (Boasianism) and Stuart Hall, argue to abolish racial segregation due to biological standards, rather they see race as a discursive and social construct. Templeton said during a panel discussion on National Public Television’s “Race: The Power of an Allusion“ that there are not enough genetic differences between groups of people to say that there are sub lineages (races) of humans…There is more and more hard generic evidence that all of humanity has evolved as a single unit…”(Fitzpatrick) This idea of race being a social construct has gained great notoriety among prestige theorists of our modern time. Brown writes that genetic elasticity proves that there are no specific traits distinct to one group (race), that throughout history the different traits have been embedded into our genetics through generations and have been far too intermixed to define specific races (Brown,

Understanding race and racism can be very difficult for American citizens. This also leads to confusion when discussing current events around racial disparities and inequalities. Mainstream American general society views racism and race differently than sociologist who study these disparities and inequalities. The idea of double consciousness and ethnicity directly relate to the different ways in which different individuals understand and experience race and racism. In our current society where media is widely used, individual’s understandings of these topics becomes confusing and difficult to understand and/or comprehend. Discussing the blurry ideas of race and racism is so

Any discussion of ethnicity as seen from a late nineteenth century perspective must include a discussion of racism. The catch is knowing what each of the terms means in respect to the topic under discussion. John Belshaw, Adele Perry,