Race And Ethnicity Essay

Sociologist define race as a “socially defined category based on real or percived biological differnces between groups of people”. In the 19th century biologist came up with the three different categories that groups the three human races: Mongoloid, Causasoid and Negroid. They belived that different races where charaterized by biological makeup. But modern sciences have proved that theory to be wrong because there is no such thing as a “pure” race. We are 99.9% genetically idenitcal. Race is just a concept humans made up, it isn’t actually real.

Ethnicity and Race are very difficult to define. The two words are so closely related and often times used interchangeably.

Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by anatomical, cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical,

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 order to study ethnicity, one must know what it isn’t. Ethnicity is not race, nationality, locality, or religious denomination. Ethnicity is when people share the same cultural heritage. However, in society individuals are often categorized by race. Many believe that race is genetic, meaning that different races are genetically different. This idea has been in practiced since the early 18th century. With the development of technology, specifically DNA testing, scientists studied whether racial categories were actually genetically different. The scientist found that there were more differences between individuals of the same race, than individuals from two different races. (Adelman 2003). The experiment and other research show that race is not biological and unimportant factor in the human lineage. What make race important is how society defines race. Society uses race to categorize groups of people, which can often lead to social inequality.

The difference between ethnicity and race is that race is supposedly a scientific difference between groups of people. Race subdivides groups of people by a physical or genetic characteristic. Ethnicity, on the other hand, considers cultural traits. Race is a flawed term, because there is more variation within a racial group than between racial groups. Ethnicity, is a true term, because there are distinct cultural groups within groups of humans. Although there is a lot of mixing and melding of cultural groups, it is still easy to find distinct groups.

Ethnicity is groups of individuals with the same common interest and beliefs. They speak the same language and they also have shared characteristics such as their culture. Ethnic groups look at themselves differently during certain periods of time. They are often times defined by being stereotyped. Reid Mandell, B., & Schram, B. (2012).

Fredrickson says that “It can be misleading to make a sharp distinction between race and ethnicity when considering intergroup relations in American history” He means that these terms do not have clear distinctions and have evolved over time. In paragraph 2, he writes that ethnicity can become racialized “whenever distinctive group characteristics...are used as the basis for a status hierarchy of groups who are thought to differ in ancestry or descent.”

Race and ethnicity are two completely different things. In my opinion race is not even an actual thing. The only way I could see race as something such as, the “human race”. But trying to label someone by what they look like or where they come from is definitely a part of ethnic backgrounds.

Race is a category or group of people having hereditary traits that set them apart from other groups of people. Based on skin color, hair texture, eye shape, ancestry, name and even identity performance; race is known as a social construct with real consequences and effects. Ethnicity is based on a shared cultural heritage.

Throughout the article thee authors compare “African Americans” and “Whites”. However, when comparing this to Brown et al., article, they define race and ethnicity as two distinct categories.

James M. Henslin defines race as “a group of people with inherited physical characteristics that distinguish it from another group” (2014). Meanwhile, ethnicity “refers to cultural characteristics” (Henslin, 2014). The difference mostly relies in a similar argument to the classic nature versus nurture argument. Race is what a person genetically inherits. Whether it may be skin tone or anatomical features, they are dictated by something outside of a person’s personal preference. An example of race is that a person could be caucasian or latino. They do not get to choose, they are simply given the traits of that race through their bloodline.

People are usually categorized in terms of race and/or ethnicity. Race is a term typically used to classify people according to similar and specific physical characteristics. Ethnicity is a term more broadly used that connects people according to an inherited status such as: a shared ancestry, language, history, religion, cuisine, art, clothing style, and/or physical appearance, etc.

The concept of race and the meanings associated with the term have continuously changed and evolved throughout history. Many negative connotations have been associated with the word race and these are evident as one reflects on the historical origins of the term. Commonly the term race is closely connected to the notion of ‘racism.’ Racism is a specific form of prejudice which focuses on physical variations between people. It describes the ideological belief that a person, or groups of people can be classified into ‘races’ which can be ranked in terms of superiority and inferiority (Spoonley, 1988:4). Giddens defines racism as “the attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics” (1997:584). This supports the idea that racism is a manner of prejudice or animosity against people who have different physical characteristics. It is in virtue of circumstances such as these that Anthropologists find it necessary to make a distinction between the concepts of race and ethnicity.

Race is a short word with a long history in the United States of America. Think of the history of America and our ideas of race together, mixed-up, and ever-changing. Race was created. It is a powerful idea that was invented by society. Race is an enduring concept that has molded our nation's economy, laws and social institutions. It is a complex notion that has shaped each of our destinies. Many of the ides we now associate with race originated during the European era of exploration. Europeans like Christopher Columbus traveled overseas and encountered, and then colonized or conquered peoples in Africa, Asia, and the Americans who looked, talked and acted much differently from them. Naturalists and scientists then classified these differences