Race As A Social Construct

To begin with, the aim of this paper is to respond to the article written by Ian F. Haney Lopez. The main idea of this article was to discuss the question of belonging of a person to this or that racial group. According to Lopez the construction of race is mostly based on the choice of the society, but not on the genetic or other information. My response to this article will be rather neutral because it is fifty percent agreed with her point of view and half a hundred percent disagreed.

When we hear the word "race" we're more than likely inclined to automatically think of the color of someone's skin. Though this isn't entirely inappropriate, there is so much more to race than that. Sociologists say that race is a social construction created in society, meaning it's basically a set of "stories" we tell ourselves and hear overtime to make sense of the world. Since we hear these stories over and over again, we act on them, ultimately making them true. This can be said of many aspects of culture and society, however, it seems to happen with race without our realization.

In The Social Construction of Race, Ian F. Haney Lopez defines race as a social construct that is constantly changing its meaning due to the fickle nature of society. Lopez believes that this fickleness stems from a social climate formed by a variety of factors such as human economic interest, current events, and ideology. There are certain racial definitions however, that have remained mostly the same despite efforts to bring attention to the offensiveness and immorality of such discriminatory thinking. These stereotypes are oftentimes negative and apply to members of minority races, which end up perpetuating themselves into various cultural outlets of society including the media and film. Through the use of such popular forms of entertainment, the definitions of a race remain largely unchanged as future generations remain exposed to these racial classifications.

The topic this week is to explain what sociologists mean when they argue that race is a social construction, and we were also asked to give a specific real life example in order for us to be able to relate and understand it.

Throughout history and across the different cultures, people socially construct ideas of race. All races of people are not biologically different because there is no genes or gene clusters similar to all people of one race, but because people have similar visual traits humans have categorized people as being different. Due to these differences, societies have been known to show tendencies based on the socially constructed races and people develop personal views about the various races from past experiences. In large cities in the United States there are areas where the African American population is more dense, which shows that people draw imaginary boundaries due to race. An example of how the social construction of race is that in the United

Whether or not we claim that race is a socially constructed or a legitimate area of scientific inquiry, it all comes down to the primary idea that we all belong to the human race, regardless of skin color, facial features, height, weight, or any other specific physical characteristics. It is truly unforgiving that many individuals all across the United States have evolved with the mentality of this social and political category of race which has been deeply rooted in our brains, surprisingly, without in actuality realizing that everybody in the entire world is closely related to one another. Nonetheless, sociologists and gender scholars, such as Dr. Dorothy Roberts and W.E.B Du Bois, argue that race is a social and political concept and does

Today, Race remains a controversial topic in the world. Sociologists believe that the significance of race in contemporary affairs originates from the social beliefs which are associated with race, rather than the actual biological differences between groups of people. This notion is commonly referred to as the social construction of race. Studying this topic becomes even more crucial as the communities become more diverse. However, a sociologist might ask, what factors (micro or macro) influence and reinforce such believes? What could be the most significant factor that shapes such beliefs? This paper aims to investigate specific factors, such as the role of state policy, which may reinforce or create the beliefs about race. This paper, initially introduces several sociological terms, and then provides several examples to discuss the role of state policy and media in construction of racial identities. At the end, the paper analyses this question using sociology theories, mainly Symbolic Interactionism, Structural Functionalism and Social Conflict Theory.

Race. No, not that kind of race in which you compete with others. The word used in this context is referring to each major divisions of humankind. However, these divisions are much more complicated than understood. Ironically, “throughout the 20th century, race had no standard definition in medical, epidemiological, or health services research” (Rondini et al. 2007: pg. 1423). Does this mean that the concept of race came with the development of science and is intrinsically connected to it? Or is race entirely a social construction? These are the kind of questions to be asked when studying medicine. On one side, the argument is that racial categories should be eliminated from health care and research. This claim is supported by the following

There were many factors that led to the construction of the “white race”, many of these were cultural and structural. As we know, race is not a biological term, it is a social construct that the population gives meaning to. In the begging, when English colonists arrived to what is now the United States, they saw that they had no physical resemblance to the Native Americans and therefore they characterized the indigenous population as “savage” while they characterized themselves as “civilized” (which is kind of ironic taking into account that they are responsible for the genocide of an entire population). When they came across this new country, one of their main concerns was to preserve it and to have it reach its full potential, in their eyes,

I have to say this was the first time I looked at race and ethnicity as being “socially constructed”. I had to really look at what the definition was and what it really meant. After reading the article you provided and chapter 2 in the book, and also doing a little surfing to find other articles on the subject. I agree with Mr. Johnson that race is “socially constructed”.

As an Asian-American woman, I want to see better representation for the Asian community; if media is supposed to reflect the real world, then there is no excuse for leaving Asians out in American films. I want to dissect why Asians are still marginalized and stereotyped today when there is a demand for more diversity in media. In addition, I want to cover the history behind the stereotyping and whitewashing of Asians in Hollywood and how that still has a negative impact today. In fact, recent movies have white-washed Asian roles in favor of white actors. In May 2015, Sony released “Aloha,” where Emma Stone portrayed Allison Ng, a part Chinese-Hawaiian fighter pilot. This blatant erasure is also evident in Dreamworks’ casting of Scarlett Johansson

Social construct may be defined as the social mechanism or a category which has been created by the society. It may either be a perception which is created by an individual or an idea which is constructed as a result of the culture. The present society has created a large number of constructs which are not good. In this paper, the discussion will be done on the social construction of race and gender and the problems associated with the same. In addition to this, how can social construct forms to be the basis for discrimination and prejudice will be discussed? Further, racism and sexism will be discussed with examples. Further discussion will be done on patriarchy and its role in racism and sexism will be added.

The English term ‘race’ is believed to originate from the Spanish word raza, which means ‘breed’ or ‘stock’ (Race). People use race to define other groups, this separation of groups is based largely on physical features. Features like skin color and hair don’t affect the fundamental biology of human variation (Hotz). Race is truly only skin deep, there are no true biological separations between two ‘racial’ groups. Scientifically speaking, there is more variation between single local groups than there is between two large, global groups; the human variation is constantly altering (Lewontin). The majority of today’s anthropologists agree that race is a form of social categorization, not the separation of groups based on biological

Scholars and others argue that the term “race” should not be used because there is no biological basis for the concept of race. Geneticists have determined that code for physical traits (the key distinguishing characteristic for “race”) are inherited independently of one another. Any attempts there have been to define race based on genes are futile, because there is no set of genes that everyone within the “race” has. Scholars argue that race is a social construction. Divisions have been constructed by society. Society tries to put people into different groups, it makes it easier to define people as “other”

Although race does not exist in the world in an objective way, it still is relevant in today’s society. It is obvious that race is real in society and it affects the way we view others as well as ourselves. Race is a social construct that is produced by the superior race and their power to regulate. “The category of ‘white’ was subject to challenges brought about by the influx of diverse groups who were not of the same Anglo-Saxonstock as the founding immigrants” (Omi and Winant 24). Frankly, ‘white’ was the norm, the others were considered an outcast.