Rethinking The Color Line Summary

One of the most prevalent themes throughout the world’s history is the dispute over race and racial differences. But, there is a problem: the majority of the population doesn’t have a clear understanding of what race is. Race is a socially constructed grouping of people that was created in order for people to differentiate themselves from one another and has many sources of influence. While most people believe race is determined by biological characteristics (hair type, skin color, eye shape, etc.), this is not true. To make things more complicated, there is no cut and dry definition to race. Authors of Race and Ethnicity in Society, Elizabeth Higginbotham and Margret Anderson, claim that there are seven different distinct ways to define race. They begin with the popular belief of biological characteristics, and, as mentioned before, through social construction. They go on to note that race can be formed from an ethnic group, from social class rank, from racial formation by institutions, and also can form from one’s self-definition (Higginbotham & Anderson, 2012, p. 13). All of these ways to define race have been seen throughout our history, and many of them have caused problems for minorities, especially in the United States.

Ultimately, the paper states that once we designate someone as a certain race, we then have a basis to differentiate ourselves. This serves a people in power the most, as when the Irish-Americans, though viewed as somewhat unruly, were still able to enter and run for public office because of naturalization laws of the late nineteenth century. Once it was established in the United States that there were competing groups out there in the labor force, namely African, Asian, Latin, and Mexican-Americans, it became advantageous to draw a color line to create a large group, those of lighter skin color, to raise and continue to hold the power through numbers and mass alone.

Society is often faced with a dilemma in its persistent attempt to properly classify people: mixed-race identities. This structure of identity is the focus in Drew Hayden Taylor's "Pretty Like A White Boy," where he effectively portrays mixed-race experiences of having Ojibway and European heritage and the impact of societal pressure to fit into preconceived ideas. In “Pretty Like A White Boy” Drew Hayden Taylor discusses how society forces people into a single race, background and identity, even if a person comes from mixed races and cultures. Drew Hayden Taylor discusses the widely accepted belief in society that one needs to "look" for a specific way to classify as a member of a racial or cultural group. Taylor explains throughout the article

I learned early on not to judge a Jelly Bean by its color, and that it was an unrewarding practice to group together these individual candies because when not every bean fit into a color category, I forced it to. The same can be said for people. Each and every one of us are unique individuals, and it is virtually impossible to effectively ‘sort’ us into groups - even more so as our society progresses. Identifiers such as race, religion, sexual orientation - even gender - which we once used to group people together, now make up the many cracks in modern American society. It is this action of separating the Red Jelly Bellies from the rest that creates an almost immobile American mindset: you are a Red… you must be a cherry.

“Think about race in its universality. Where is your measurement device? There is no way to measure race. We sometimes do it by skin color, other people may do it by hair texture - other people may have the dividing lines different in terms of skin color. What is black in the United States is not what 's black in Brazil or what 's black in South Africa.”-Dr.Goodman, Race: The Power of an Illusion

Socio-cultural definitions of race are created by society as a tool to further economic goals. The development of

THESIS: Scientists and other intellectuals recognize the modern concept of "race" as an artificial category that developed over the past five centuries due to encounters with non-European people. Even though people still attempt to organize humans into categories according to their race, these categories have been shown to have no scientific basis.

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.

"Events in the nineteenth century made it abundantly and irrefutably clear that race as a concept sui generis superseded social class as the dominant mechanism of social division and stratification in North America." (Smedley 219) For many decades people have been using race as a way to classify humans into different social categories. Lower, Middle, and Upper classes were created to divide humans into appropriate categories using their individual lifestyles, financial income, residence, and occupation. People decided to ignore this classifying system and classify one another,

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply

I agree with the psychologists Tannen, because many people divide citizens by what they wear, do, or act like. Not as a tendency, but as a way of understanding and seeing things. The benefit that comes from labeling people or setting them off into different categories is that by doing so we are able to understand what the person is like. In addition, we are able to make sense of what they might also like and give us a clue on who we would connect to most. However, when we categorize other people we lose the chance to communicate to one another, notice there personality,or their culture. Furthermore, is that by doing so we end up creating stories by our past experiences such as “Asians are bad drivers” when in reality that is not a hundred percent

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.

Race is a social construct that was created by the Europeans in order to minoritize different racial groups. In the reading by Bonilla-Silva, he defines race to be manmade, “This means that notions of racial difference are human creations rather than eternal, essential categories… racial categories have a history and are subject to change.” For example in a lecture by Dr. Aguilar-Hernandez, he stated that the Irish, Italians and Jews were called black before but are now considered white, Mexican-Americans were also considered white up until the 1980s. These ideas lead to the racialization of racial groups.

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.

They not only get used as descriptors, but also as markers of broader concepts and relationships. Race and ethnicity can classify you as belonging to a group or as an outsider, as different. These classifications not only designate one’s skin color or cultural background, but also function in a larger system and in relation to other racial and ethnic identities. In this system, certain groups have more power and privileges than others. In order to understand the cultural meanings attributed to specific races and ethnicities, we must examine the historical origins of these systems and ideologies. Many of our Western or American ideas about race and ethnicity come from specific moments in history marked by colonialism, immigration and other tides that shifted populations and demographics. With such changes and the intermixing of different races and ethnicities, dominant groups rose to power and exerted influence over others by occupying and controlling the landscape, language, culture, and rituals. The act of Racism is still active to this day. This is one if the big problems that lead people astray as to why they cannot fathom the central point of ethnicity and diversity in general. In the United States, a long history of segregation impacted access to public services including education, transportation, even drinking fountains as well as private sector businesses such as hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues. These discriminatory views also have impacted the voting rights, employment opportunities, and wages of other people of color. I don’t think that race or cultural background should have a play in describing a person or a group of people, rather, I think that who the person on the inside is what really matters. People today can be really quick to accuse and judge people before they personally get the chance to get to know them