Although our culture is said to be completely removed from the idea of racial discrimination, this sense of inequality can be seen occurring behind the scenes within our society. Within the subtopic of race, several areas including our current culture, social psychology and the current format of our social institutions allow for the production and often the reproduction of racial discrimination in our day and age. Throughout this course, the various readings and class lectures have been very beneficial when examining the impact that racial discrimination and inequality has on our society. In this paper, I will delve into the subtopic of race and ethnicity and expound on how it is greatly influenced by our culture, social psychology, and social institutions around us today.
The subject of race, within the field of sociology, can often be viewed as both a fluid concept and a cultural experience. Contrary to popular belief, race is not biological, but is a socially constructed category of people that share the same biological traits. Race can often change over time and is formed primarily by our personal views and the views of others. These can range from ethnicity to self-presentation and feelings of place within society. One example of the fluidity of race can be seen based upon the classification of the White or Caucasian race. In today’s culture, this race has been drastically increased to include a vast array of “white” individuals.
As seen within culture today, our
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.
Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant made me readjust my understanding of race by definition and consider it as a new phenomenon. Through, Omi and Winant fulfilled their purpose of providing an account of how concepts of race are created and transformed, how they become the focus of political conflict, and how they shape and permeate both identities and institutions. I always considered race to be physical characteristic by the complexion of ones’ skin tone and the physical attributes, such as bone structure, hair texture, and facial form. I knew race to be a segregating factor, however I never considered the meaning of race as concept or signification of identity that refers to different types of human bodies, to the perceived corporal and phenotypic makers of difference and the meanings and social practices that are ascribed to these differences, in which in turn create the oppressing dominations of racialization, racial profiling, and racism. (p.111). Again connecting themes from the previous readings, my westernized influences are in a direct correlation to how to the idea of how I see race and the template it has set for the rather automatic patterns of inequalities, marginalization, and difference. I never realized how ubiquitous and evolving race is within the United States.
Race, simple external differences linked to other complex internal differences, has historically created issues in American society. “Race and racial inequalities are one of the most vital issues confronting contemporary U.S. society,” explains Sociologist Ronald Takaki. In the past race has had both biological and social implications across the country.
This paper will explore the causes and consequences of this racial disparity and political institutions that perpetuate the racial injustice. Analyses of this kind are significantly important considering the implications in the modern day society, where issues of race and justice are becoming more pervasive and exigent.
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.
Though race is theoretically rejected as a biological category in anthropological research, differences in phenotypes have created culturally constructed categories that are largely used to racially mark “white people”, as well as other “races”, in our society (Shanklin). Ethnicity is often wrongly
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.
This essay will be delving into the roots of race and ethnicity and will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of racial and ethnic labelling and ways to overcome the negative things that are associated with racial and ethnic labelling and categorization. Race and ethnicity are two different things but yet have striking similarities. One focuses on the biological characteristics of a person the other focuses on the cultural practices of a group or
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
From a sociological stand-point, sociologist agree that race categories are commonly biased, and are used in popular discourse in social and political life. They point out that these common categories and relate imperfectly to attributes physically such as, hair or eye colour, or skin color. In sociology the phenotype is important in understanding race, but only as one of the many social symbols that serves to generate categories that regulate the haves and the havenots. “The loose use of expressions ‘black’, ‘Asian’, or ‘white’ provides a good example of how contingent and temporary are these popular racial expressions and labels.” (pg.164) Sociologist argue that the category ‘race’ is not substantial enough to consider in a sociological sense, because of the fact that race can’t be proven by blood tests. Therefore a person can identify with any race that one
Nelson and Fleras defined race as the arbitrary classification of population groups into categories on the basis of perceived physical characteristics. (2005, 214). It is vital to denote that race is a social construction without a scientific basis that proves humanity is divided (Nelson, Fleras, 2005, 214). The concept of race is utilized to create a power divide between a superior race and an inferior race based on the difference in physical attributes. Race is used to exploit, use, and marginalize an “inferior” race to the benefit of the “superior” race. The social sciences are disciplines dedicated to study the implication of race among anthropology, geography, psychology, et cetera (social science, 2014). According to Nelson and Fleras, sociologists focus on the social aspects of race and how minorities are deemed as social problems and are condemned to mistreatment (2005, 212). It is believed by sociologists that Europeans were among the first to
In the video, Race: The Floating Signifier, Stuart Hall counters the thought that race is connected with the biological aspect. Rather than considering race as due to the biological make up of an individual, it is a collection of characteristics brought together that forms one 's race. That is how Stuart Hall views race, as a floating signifier, something that is ever changing and not static. This paper will discuss the troubles of using biology/science to categorize a person, talk about a different way of thinking of race, and provide the confused case of race of Alexis Morrision, a physically white woman with the possibility of being considered black. Situational cases will also
Whether you believe it or not, racial discrimination is not a controversial matter of the past and has a profound impact on society. Nowadays we still inherit unconsciously misconceptions and prejudices that happen to be unnoticed in our day by day. Consequently, in order to raise awareness upon the connotation of this matter, we must educate people on behalf of assertiveness and comprehension. Therefore, it is remarkably important to acknowledge: the negative impact of racial discrimination on the individual and society, the necessity of derogating misconceptions and the values of cultural diversity.
Racial discrimination defines a lot of the world’s actions today, and it requires people’s attention. What racism is, why it requires attention, and what to do about it are key points that need discussion. Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race stands superior. This subject requires attention because so many decisions and actions of this day and age revolve around the subject itself. Also, people today must take action to stop this low blow against people of a different race. First, we must talk about the subject of racism.