Essay On Race And Ethnicity

Growing up in a predominantly white community, I had never thought of the issue of race as a child. My neighbor and I were best friends, and I never thought of myself as different. She had blonde hair; I had black. She had blue eyes; I had dark brown. We loved to play with the same things, thus we were

I feel that ethnicity is closely tied to family. My family is strongly Matriarchal with all special occasions such as birthdays (including the Queen of England’s) and Christmases celebrated at one of the Grandmother’s houses. Women play an important role in my family, they are the homemakers and the ones

Race is a hot topic in our world. We all think we know what race is. After all, we are constantly being bombarded with it whether it be from media, politics, or sports. The truth is that race does not revolve around the idea of biological traits or characteristics. It is a modern concept that we as a society have created to divide people into categories. I will argue that race is socially constructed from a biological, political history, and sociological standpoint, and how it may impact other areas of our society.

In order for me to understand my race and ethnicity I needed to understand the historical events that shaped and culturally changed Puerto Rico. Although there is a dominant influence of Hispanic culture in Puerto Rico there is also African roots that are embedded in the Puerto Rican culture. After the genocide of the Taino indians african slaves were brought to the island for plantation purposes. My brothers factual storytelling provided me with answer as to what I identified as. Not only was I able to formulate an intellectual understanding of my identity I was able to be apart of it actively as well.

Race and ethnicity are the occasionally have been used interchangeably. Race is described as a person’s physical appearance such as skin color, eye color, hair and many other biological traits and characteristics. Race mainly refers to the differences in skin color in the contemporary world. When we say that person is fair skinned or is black we are referring to the race of that person. Ethnicity is the cultural aspect of a an individual or a group such as the nationality of the person, the language they use to communicate, their descendants , the particular region they inhabit for example American, African, African Americans, etc. In a nutshell race is an overview of how you look and ethnicity is the social and cultural aspect of grouping you are born into.

In society, race clearly affects one’s life chances. These are the chances of getting opportunities and gaining experience for progression. The social construction of race is based on privileges and availability of resources. Looking at society and the formation of race in a historical context, whites have always held some sort of delusional belief of a “white-skin privilege.” This advantage grants whites an advantage in society whether one desires it or not. This notion is often commonly referred to as reality.

Respect of and understanding that other people have differing opinions, views and religious/cultural beliefs, and how these beliefs may impact on building an effective,

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.

Anthropologists have always had their discrepancies with the word culture and its background significance. There have been numerous definitions that have filtered through the field, yet not one that everyone can accept or agree with. Franz Boas, an anthropologist in the early 20th Century, and his students, had a difficult time figuring out the objective of what culture is. Culture is about learning and shared ideas about behaviour. Although Boas and his students had a slightly different idea in mind. They ultimately reached a conclusion, a definition of culture in their view that is a contradiction in terms. Boas sates that, “ culture was expressed through the medium of language but was not reducible to it;

Race is a social-constructed terminology where it categorizes people into groups that share certain distinctive physical characteristics such as skin color. However, race and racial identity is unstable, unfixed and constantly shifting, as race, typically, is a signifier of prevalent social conflict and interest. Although, many, particularly anthropologists and sociologists, argue in the aforementioned point of view, some – mainly white population -- believe that racial characteristics are biologically inherited.

Unwittingly or quite knowingly people have built systems of inequalities around race but people have also built identity, friendships, and college mates around it. Nevertheless, several people I recently interviewed never appeared to be certain when race was a good thing or when it was a bad thing to talk about, which in my mind leaves us all struggling with a particularly intimidating question: When should we talk as if race matters?

In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. Everyone knows the story of Christopher Columbus; they are taught it in grade school if not before then. When he landed in America by accident, he had no idea that he would be creating the world's largest Melting Pot. This "melting pot" provided means for a new country, made from a mixture of many cultures and beliefs, thus creating a new country with a new and ever-changing culture. One complication with a Melting Pot is that you cannot put people of different race and ethnicity together without conflict.

Ethnic patterns are changing every year. It seems that the minority groups are rising and are getting stronger as every new school year starts. There are many minority groups in the school setting now. " Nearly half (46 percent) of school-age youths in the United States will be people of color by 2020 (Pallas, Natriello, and McDill 1989)". A minority group is "a group typically numerically inferior to the rest of the population state... (A.J. Jongman and A.P. Schmid)". There used to be two major groups in the school setting, the blacks and the whites. Now there are whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, etc. And even to go along with that (they are not truly minority groups), there are the "freaks",

For many years now the people in power or “whites” have passed laws so that other racial groups are kept at the bottom of the social hierarchy. These racial group that are kept at the bottom become racialized and oppressed therefore they become unequal to the people that are at the top of this hierarchy. The racial groups that are kept at the bottom vary from the Native-Americans to the Mexican-Americans and obviously the African-Americans. In this essay I will be comparing how the racialization process has been similar and different between these racial groups. I will also define race and racialization. Furthermore, I will explain how class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship has impacted the racialization process within these groups.

Examining the ideas and beliefs within ones own cultural context is central to the study of Anthropology. Issues of Race and Ethnicity dominate the academic discourses of various disciplines including the field of Anthropology. Race and Ethnicity are controversial terms that are defined and used by people in many different ways. This essay shall explore the ways in which Anthropologists make a distinction between race and ethnicity and how these distinctions serve as frames for cross-cultural comparison and analysis. It is important to accurately define these coined terms before one is able to make accurate comparisons and distinctions between them, and their relation to the concept of