Race as a Social Construct Essay

Race is not an element of human biology (like breathing oxygen or reproducing sexually); nor is it even an idea (like the speed of light or the value of π) that can be plausibly imagined to live an external life of its own. Race is not an idea but an ideology. It came into existence at a discernable historical moment for rationality understandable historical reasons and is subject to change for similar reasons (101).

Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s arguments from “Racial Formations” are about how race is socially constructed and is shown in Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Michael Omi and Howard Winant believe that race is socially constructed in society; therefore, the meaning of race varies within different cultures and societies. According to Omi and Winant, influences such as, media, school, politics, history, family and economy create society’s structure of race. In Caucasia, media, family and school are forces that create race by stating how one should conform to social norms for different racial groups.

The book has as its principal thesis the consideration of race as “a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from 16th to 19th centuries” (Smedley, 2007, pag.24). The book also specifies three characteristics that distinguish the racial ideology in America: the absence of a category for biracial people, the homogenization of the black or African American Americans, and the impossibility to change a person’s race. (Smedley, 2007, pag.7)

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

‘Whiteness’ is a socially constructed category of race, where people who are not ‘white’ are racially designated while ‘whites’ escape designation as if their racial category is not historically and ideologically based (Puzan, 2003). Race is socially constructed (Dyer, 1997) and it is important to acknowledge this in order to address its impact. Unless whiteness is labelled and confronted, being ‘white’ is usually considered the ‘norm’ which acquires certain social privileges, while all other socially-constructed categories of ‘race’ are considered different or, as Puzan (2003) terms it, the ‘racialised Other’.

At the most basic level, race is another way which humans form connections and establish divides amongst one another. Perceived similarity and difference is the basis upon which people become conscious of their sense of safety and comfort. When discussing race, it is key to note this idea of “perceived similarity and difference.” Here, perception is reflective of race as a social construct. As wielded by those who prescribe to the dominant white standard, race has been used to both lump people deemed other together, and to create separation—depending on what was useful or consolidated white power at the time. For instance, “although the Supreme Court ruling in Glum v. Rice had formally established Chinese as colored in 1927, by 1967, the Chinese were ‘card-carrying white people” (Tong, 227). This is not to say that race was invented and used solely by whites, as this understanding limits the agency of people of color. Different groups of color have unified around their racial identity, forming communities, creating safe spaces, and pushing back against white privilege and discrimination. However, this is inextricably linked on certain levels with the oppression such groups face. In Botts’ discussion of the social construction of race, she states, “The fact is that our society operates as if race were real [. . .] It is also the case that some racial identities are associated with a history of oppression” (Tong, 224). However, this

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.

I do think that some races are social construct. Some races based on society’s beliefs and their perspective on things. Some races are considered to be in a different category than it was from years ago and it makes you question society as a whole. Are they separating races based on teir belief? Are they considering the biological suspects of humans as a whole? I feel like “race” should not be a term that is used to distunguish humans into categories. However, reading over material and watching videos, it made me look at things in a different perspective. Some people of different races have a lot of similarites. I feel like they catergorize race upon their belief and political process. How can one’s race change after generations to come? I

The human race, or more specifically, the concept of ‘race’ and its meaning and validity within the human species, is an issue that has been debated by scientists for hundreds of years. Early attempts to scientifically classify and categorize people

Attention must be given to the idea that race is a social construct. For the purposes of this

The subject of race in the world is a topic that is extremely sensitive to discuss and analysis. Ever since man evolved enough to think, comprehend, speak, and portray emotions; that was when the division of race began. The brain was able to make out the differences in people and whoever looked the same began to group up. Communities started too form all over the globe and individuals become groups of people. Over time, the human species advanced with great pace eventually, leading up to the present day and what we know about life today. The human mind is a wonderful thing to understand how it works and observe its changes throughout the evolution of man. To see race in a broader spectrum, I will use the lens of psychological to see how race works at Elizabethtown College.

The world has implemented segregations amongst our societies for millennia. Simply by observing society it is evident that it is drawn to isolate and divide itself into subgroups depending on distinct factors. Some of these are more crucial than others, and some have even become taboo in our culture. Race is one of the most essential partitions ever determined due to the controversial and ambiguous nature of the word itself (Andreasen 664). The word race comes loaded with differing meanings that are debated by numerous

In society’s, there are different sort of people, each person has their own rationality; different attachments. The movie “The Illusion of Race” conveys a very powerful message, that race is a social construct, which means is a category which is created by society. What separates us humans from each other, our skin color, hair, different features we have. Society has created this idea of race, separating each human from each other based on there physical and mental characteristics, ranging from body type to athletic abilities. Humans have been enculturated to learn the race separates us.

Race and ethnicity cannot always be defined. As children, we grow up and we learn to associate different contexts with different meanings and even different cultures. My paper is based on the origin of race and how ultimately it can be used

This word race means genetic grouping––if you are reading this, chances are you're a member of the "human race." “But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming “the people” has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of scale ..Difference in hue and hair is old. But the belief in the prominence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes…” So you can see that race was not made genetically, but people took this term so they could make their own