Mona In The Promised Land

Race is not an element of human biology (like breathing oxygen or reproducing sexually); nor is it even an idea (like the speed of light or the value of π) that can be plausibly imagined to live an external life of its own. Race is not an idea but an ideology. It came into existence at a discernable historical moment for rationality understandable historical reasons and is subject to change for similar reasons (101).

Race can be categorized quite differently and can vary from country to country. When defining race, it can be complex in that every country, even an individual within a country, has different criteria and viewpoints when identifying a person’s race. For some countries and for some people, race is the color of your skin, or the background that you come from, or even biological and physical traits. Therefore, it’s crucial to thoroughly explain the topic of race and how it plays into context in today’s society.

The concept of race dates back to recent human history. Race is an integral part of life for individuals residing in the United States. However, this concept of “race”, that many Americans believe to be true, has no biological backing; it is merely a social construct. Looking at genetics, and even evolution it becomes clear that race is not real. But, even though race is not real, it can have very real consequences (such as racism). So in this sense race becomes a very real thing, as it affects millions of people living today. Race, biologically is not a real thing, but due to its impact, socially and culturally, it has become real.

Throughout my research, the one thing that I am certain of is that the term “race” is the most complex word in the world. To this day, many people are divided on whether “Race” is a real concept. “Race” has many definitions, but the way I believe most people define it in today’s society is “A group or set of people or things with a common feature or features.” Most people including myself confuse the word “Race” with Ethnicity. However, the two words are very different. The definition of Ethnicity is “the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.” The two words are distinguished from one another by their meanings. One of them represents outer appearances of populations and the other represents the cultural views of populations.

Race is a socially constructed concept. There is no biological meaning behind it. Race was constructed to give power and resources to a certain group of people, which are called the dominant group and majority group. The minority group on the other hand is a subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their own lives. Minority statues is not due to being out numbered but rather having significantly less life opportunities for success, education, wealth, and the pursuit of happiness. Each society has its own arbitrary standard for determining which characteristics are most important in defining dominant and minority groups. In the United States whites are the majority and dominant group. The minority groups include Africana Americans, Hispanics, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and

The Chinese culture and way of thinking is expertly described by characters in The Joy Luck Club. One character, Lindo Jong, scorns the stereotypical American woman of the 1950s when she states “It’s like those ladies you see on American t.v. these days, the ones who are so happy they have washed out a stain so the clothes look better than new.” (Tan, 56) The Chinese are very traditional and conservative in their values and ideas. In The Joy Luck Club, Lindo Jong describes Chinese character as “How to obey parents and listen to your mother’s mind.” (Tan, 254) “Why easy things are not worth pursuing. How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best.” (Tan, 254) She truly feels that Americans are not capable of thinking in this manner, or, rather, simply do not think in this manner as Chinese people do.

The idea of race has not existed through out human time, it was a term that was recently established by white suppress as a means to justify the enslavement of African people. The term is still being used today as a means to continue to suppress the blacks and to make whites seem superior to black individuals. The purpose of race was to explain why some people could be denied the natural rights that was promised to them; liberty. Race is a social construct, this means that the concept of “race” results from from a process of signification whereby only certain physical characteristics are attributed with meaning and are then used to organize populations into groups which are then defined as 'races '. Through social practice a persons’ perception of an individual based on specific physical attributes are used to group people that share these physical properties

Race is not biological but rather a term that has been socially constructed. Race has been socially constructed as a way to put individuals into racial classifications that are made up of groups thought to share particular distinctive physical characteristics, such as skin color and facial features. Race is not in any way connected to our genetic genes so it cannot be traced back biologically. Race is a term that has changed over time and does not have a fixed definition. However, through our readings, we know that race has been determined by social and political entities. Race has been created and made to be physically different as a way to fuel beliefs of superiority and inferiority.

Race is something man-made, and essentially, it is not related to a person’s biological make up. Race is the politicization of ethnic difference. To me, race is a stretched illusion to be used as manipulating, but today we view it as a way to tell different cultures apart most the time. The way society has categorized us is through race, but I believe that race only exists in a human cultural sense, and biological concepts of race are needed to access their reality in a non-species-specific manner and to see if cultural categories correspond to biological categories within humans (Eldredge, 1982). There is a false picture in today’s society that we all paint to subconsciously divide people by the color of their skin. It does not have much to do with culture or hierarchy; it has to do with control. Race was basically constructed for control throughout the United States and throughout the world; things such as political boundaries and pressures, the president of the United States, and racial ranking has been some of the evidence produced throughout the

With so much knowledge regarding her Chinese heritage lost to the generations spent in Vietnam, she focuses more on her knowledge base regarding the culture that she has been able to preserve through her childhood spotted with war and her decades spent in the United States. She recounts many personal anecdotes from her childhood, remembering all the times she would go outside to play with her younger siblings and hear bombs going off in the distance, never getting quite loud enough to frighten off a majority of the children. Other recountings include emphasizing how physically strong her mother was,

According to Boyd and Silk, “race means different things to different people” (388). But is race something we can base of physical traits, or is more complicated than just looks? By examining evidence from the American Anthropological Association and Boyd and Silk, we can see that race is more than skin color. “The common view of race is bad biology” (Boyd and Silk 2015: 388).

“In all the stories, whether narrated by the Chinese-born mothers or the American-born daughters, assertion of self are shaped by the cultural context surrounding them,” as stated by Patricia, traditions depict the fundamental

It is important to explore the word ‘race’. Race for some individuals is biological and there is nothing society can do about it. However, there are others that think race has been socially constructed throughout time. When taking a closer look, it might be true that society categorizes

When people say that race is a social construct, they mean that race is apart of culture. When a child is born, he/she is born into a certain race and environment. In this article, however, there is no such thing as race, biologically. Everyone from all over the world have similar genes. Because of the different groups of migration to different parts of the world, there are variations in genes due to to the diverse environments. Although there are different groups of people, We humans are more similar to each other as a group than we are to one another within any particular racial or genetic category. In this society, people are divided into different races due to groups trying to show superiority over other groups. Although we, humans, are technically one big group, society split us into a social construct like a building with different

In addition to the cultural conflicts and confusions with Chinese immigrants ethnic heritage , Amy also portrays how television shows during this era of American culture influences conflicts and confusions in the Chinese immigrant communities. In her attempt to