Race And Ethnicity : An Eye Opening Educational Experience

Time period covered in report: First session – January 7, 2015 (2 hours). Next session: Follow Up in 3 weeks

Due to the complexity related to both individual and group racial identity, the subject is inherently interesting. Even more complex is the subject of race relations, which are the interaction and relationships between different racial groups. This interaction can be examined from infinite angles and on many levels. For instance, on an economic level, do members of different races have equal access to jobs? Do members of different races control a vastly different percentage of the country’s wealth? On a political level, do different races exert greater control over the political process? Does this control result in legislative and/or legal bias? Is this bias racism?

of life. However, a major issue which arises with this increasing diversity is race, a topic which

Also race, as a social construct, is a group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics. Such as bigger/smaller noses, head, lips or other varies body parts. The social construction of human beings can be made out on a human taxonomy that define essential types of individuals based on certain traits that they have in that region.

Racism and discrimination directly and indirectly affect me because I come from a poor, uneducated Muslim family, all of which puts me into the minority category. As a minority upward mobility seems like an impossible dream. My mother was never able to attend school, and my father only studied up to the 10th grade. After moving to the United States in 2006, my parents' relied on my siblings and me to take care of many tasks that required understanding English, which forced my siblings and me to maneuver the adult world on our own. We are obliged to help with tasks such as paying bills, completing legal paperwork, and even taking my parents to the doctor and grocery stores. My family responsibility requires me to be mindful of my parents’ income, how we live, and our health. My father, who works as a cook in a restaurant, earns scarcely enough income to make ends meet. Many times these worries pressure me and I feel it is necessary for me to work and help out my family. If I do choose to take that route, I wouldn’t get my education and therefore would have a low paying job and be back in the same position as my parents and still remain poor. This is how upward mobility becomes impossible for many minority groups like me. Luckily, coming to America gave my siblings and me the opportunity to attend college. I am even more

It is evident that no matter how hard we try to avoid it race plays a major role in today’s society. Your race and/or nationality and skin color plays a lot in how you are seen and perceived by the world. The first thing you see when you look at a person is their skin color, which just

As an American born and raised, I have surprisingly, never given much thought on how my race impacts my life and the people around me. It seems as if society today is obsessed with knowing what we are racially and where we come from, rather than our character and how we think or how we carry ourselves culturally.

Upon entering the class I was anxious, curious, and also oblivious to the ideas I would be encountering. Like other students who had not previously spent time discussing topics of race and ethnicity, I myself had nervous tendencies in assuming that such a class may not strengthen my understanding of ethnic and race relations. I realized I knew little about race or ethnicity, and even the possible similarities or differences. However, I welcomed the opportunity to further discover the possibilities of the class. My understanding of race was concentrated in a definition that could be understood as different skin colors. My limited conception of ethnicity applied to people’s origin or where they lived. It seemed as though my lack of

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.

Omi and Winant’s discussion from “Racial Formations” are generally about race being a social construct and is also demonstrated in the viewing of Race - The power of an illusion. Omi and Winant have both agreed that race is socially constructed in society. Ultimately this means that race is seen differently in different societies and different cultures. Media, politics, school, economy and family helps alter society’s structure of race. In the viewing , also media as well as history seemed to create race by showing how social norms have evolved in different racial groups.

Issues of race and ethnicity can be seen through three noteworthy sociological viewpoints: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Every point of view offers its own particular key to comprehension, and nobody viewpoint is accepted completely adequate all alone; rather, every one gives a vital method for seeing part of the social procedure. Together they give capable knowledge and various methodologies for comprehension social marvels.

Racial injustices are what have made America the powerful nation it is today. America was founded on the genocide of Native Americans and built on the backs of African slaves. In modern day America, strides have been made to provide all Americans equal opportunities to ensure assimilation and success in society however there is still significant work to be to ensure equality. In this paper I have researched the anthropological perspectives on race and ethnicity globally. I have also compared and contrasted varying researcher’s works to ensure I have a thorough understanding of this topic

I took the time today to read the article titled “What is Race” by Victor M. Fernandez, RN, BSN and found myself agreeably intrigued and in admiration of his thoughts regarding race. Victor touched on an extremely insightful and significant topic; one that most people have sturdy opinions about. Race – what is it? What does this mean to you? What does it mean to our upcoming careers in the nursing field? I trust that how we characterize and assess our awareness of race is due exclusively to how we were raised. I do not mean merely what we were taught from our family or culture about race, but to a certain extent how we have lived it, and how it has lived around us. “Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide

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

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",