Race And Ethnicity By Elizabeth Higginbotham And Margret Anderson

To many people across a variety of different nationalities and cultures, race has been proven to be a key factor for how society views you in the eyes of those who are prominently in charge. The term race has been brought up in recent years, to be considered a form of identification, as the word race is used to describe physical characteristics such as a person’s color of skin, hair, and eyes. When in reality, the correct term they should be using is Ethnicity. As a result, the term race is used to separate people into sub-categories based on the color of their skin. This type of classification, is a man-made creation used by society to classify certain groups of people into lower classes, while keeping the predominate group in charge at the top.

Humans define race by how they conceive and categorize different social realities. Thus, race is often referred to as a social construct. The differences in skin color and facial characteristics have led most of society to classify humans into groups instead of individuals. These constructs affect us all, and they often result in situations where majority racial groups cause undue suffering to those that are part of the minority. The understanding of race as a social construct is best illustrated by the examination of racial issues within our own culture, specifically those that have plagued the history of the United States.

In Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s essay “Racial Formation”, we see how the tendency to assign each individual a specific race as misleading. This essay suggests that race is not merely biological, but rather lays more in sociology and historical perspective. Once we look at someone and say, “They’re white”, it brings forth all the stereotype’s that go along with that “race”, and once the race is assigned, it is assumed that we can know something about the person.

Race labels have been present in society for hundreds of years. However, the concept of race has not always existed. In ancient times, while people were often divided by characteristics such as class and religion, they were never divided by the color of their skin. “Race” in the context of classifying humans was not even used in the English language until 1508 in a poem by William Dunbar (California Newsreel, 2003). Today, race defines most of the things that we do. For example, we are asked about our race when filling out most forms like standardized tests and the United States Census. But why is this important? The answer: it should not be. I believe that race divides people and allows for things such as racism and stereotyping to

Racism is an obstacle that continues to play an active role in daily lives across the global. Currently, Americans are outraged by the actions of white police officers toward black men. In Ferguson, Missouri an unarmed, black teenager was shot by a white police officer and a black man was choked to death by a white officer in New York City. Racial tensions run deep in the United States, but race is social construction that is learned. Sociologist Amanda Lewis’s book, Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities defends the notion that schools are institutions in which children learn about race and maintain racial inequality.

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.

Race-thinking: what is it? Isn’t the world past the issue of race? Do races even exist and if so, what does it mean to have a racial identity? Is colorblindness possible and how important is it? These are the questions Paul Taylor addresses in the book “Race: A Philosophical Introduction”. Paul Taylor is a self-proclaimed “radical constructionist” who will maintain that race is very real in our world and in the United States (p. 80). Taylor takes care to ensure he addresses the real needs concerning racial dynamics in the U.S., referencing historical events, prevailing policy affairs, and even pop culture to explain that everyone capable of forming opinions ought to have some sort of grasp of the concept of race thinking. As Taylor will analyze, race and race-thinking “has shaped and continues to shape private interactions as well as the largest political choices” (p. 8). In other words, race-thinking encompasses everything we do and every interaction we have. In this paper I will attempt to interpret and expound Taylor’s views and definitions of race, concepts associated with race, and input my own perspectives along the way.

What is race? In Milloy’s interview of high school teacher Julian Hipkins III, when asked, many students believed race to be default. Conjuring a definition similar to that of ethnicity or culture, most people do not understand the origins nor the purpose of “race” in America. Race is not biological nor is it cultural, it is a social construct used to divide and manipulate white Europeans and Africans. Furthermore, it was used as a platform to divide the poor White class and the slaves from uniting against the affluent land and slave owners, by telling white America that it is superior, in every way, to their Black counterparts.

Many people forget or do not realize that race is a social construct used to obtain superiority over others of different skin pigmentation. Race is defined as “a group whose inherited psychical characteristics distinguish it from another group” (Henslin, 2015, p. 263). Although the construct of race may be different in one culture to another, the idea of race is still one that has been conceived by society. There is no biological evidence that race is part of a biological makeup. Ethnicity has to do more with how someone identifies culturally, and can identify with multiple groups no matter their “racial identity.” As ethnicity is defined as “having distinctive cultural characteristics” (Henslin, 2015, p. 266). However, even though race is

The United States is becoming an increasingly diverse country in regards to race and ethnicity. However, there are many misunderstandings and stereotypes regarding different population groups and the issue of race. Race has many definitions and one description given by Rose is that race is a “biological variation including genetic differences in stature, skin color, hair color, facial shape, and other inherited characteristics that may or may not be mutually exclusive in each individual”(Rose, 2013). Race is often confused with ethnicity which involves a group or individual’s perception of their cultural identity which is inclusive of learned behaviors used by human beings in their natural

Race is the product of illusion, yet it also is the cause of social status disparity, segregation, discrimination, oppression and hatred. It has been, as an un-detachable part of our society, constructed, developed, and reformed, together with the history of America. Regarding the matter of race, in this article, I would like to find out the differences between academic and practical discourse of race, and how racial categorization affects people’s lives. To support the article, I will incorporate studies from anthropologists with information gathered from the interviews with three white males of the same generation. They are all students at the University of Minnesota age from 19 to 21, two of which are also in the Marines. While three white male can’t speak for all white people, I wish to somewhat understand how consistent or inconsistent they, the white people, are on a certain matter of race.

In today’s time, there is really only one way of classifying race, society. Race is a socially constructed category of people who share a set of biological characteristics that members of a society consider important (Yates, 2016). Race varies for each society and social order around the world and over time (Yates, 2016). Up until 1960, the census classified people by just looking at them (Alderman, 2003). During my sorting exercise, I mislabeled almost half of the individuals.

In the United States it is not uncommon to hear the question, “What are you?” This seemingly simple question stems from the American belief that individuals can be divided into different biologically defined racial groups. However, anthropologists have long argued that U.S. racial groups are a product of American cultural constructions, meaning that racial groups are not genetically determined but only represent the way cultures (in this case Americans) classify people. For example, in the U.S individuals are classified into different races based on their heritage. However in Brazil, people are classified into a series of “tipos" based on their physical appearance. In the article “Mixed Blood”, Jeffrey Fish supports the claim that race is nothing more, but a social construct by demonstrating the cultural basis of race by comparing how races are defined in the United States and Brazil.

According to Jonathan M. Marks and his dissertation, Scientific and Folk Ideas about Hereditary, Race can be classified as a. “property of [an individual’s] constitution, innate and assigned at birth” (178). On a biological basis, race is perceived as a naturally occurring characteristic which commonly groups certain individuals together and other individuals apart. Now, Marks argues this assumption by critically analyzing the cultural aspect and societal influence that impacts the way Race is perceived and systemized. From an anthropologist view-point, Race is not pre-determined or natural it is culturally constructed and is an unsolidified concept. Essentially, anthropologist see race as a cultural construct because it has the ability to change over time and has no definite meaning. Mark supports this when he

When immigrants flooded the shores of the United States in the earliest part of the twentieth century, the Immigration Commission hired an anthropologist to prepare a Dictionary of Races of Races or People. W.E.B. Du Bois observed in the late 1930s that no scientific definition of race is possible. He said Race is a dynamic and not a static conception, and that typical races are continually changing and developing, amalgamating and differentiating. What Du Bois meant in layman’s term was that it is impossible to characterize people based on measurements.