Social Construction Of Race Essay

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.

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 “human-constructed categories that assume great social importance. Those categories are typically based on observable physical traits (for example, skin shade, hair texture, and eye shape) and geographic origin believed to distinguish one race from another” (Ferrante 2014). Based on the definition, the reading I made, and the video of “A Class Divided”, I believe race is a social construction idea made by society to distinguish between different races, and then passed that view of race from generation to generation because that is what they have been told from an authoritative person to believe since childhood. Once people have knowledge of what is the meaning of race, then society creates racism, prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination against other races.

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

Race construction in the United States has been socially constructed since the founding of the republic. Racial differences and the development of various ethnic identities have been affected by the rigidity of racial categories in the United States, these include American Indian or Alaskan Native, black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Asian Pacific Islander, and white. The racial divide in the United States is predominantly between whites and blacks but many Americans fall into the “racial middle”, a term coined by Eileen O’Brien to bring attention to the population of Americans that do not identify as either white

What I learned is that the social construction of race is the way society sees race. For example, stereotyping people of different races, or what people consider a race is. Is your race the color of your skin, your physical features, your heritage? Or something else entirely? Because this question has no definitive answer, society constructs their own definition of "race".

There are two different dimensions of our identities: ethnicity and race. Ethnicity refers to one’s belonging to a specific cultural, or racial group that makes up culture, race language, and/or place of origin. For example, one can be African-American but have different ethnicities, one African-American and the other African-Caribbean decent. Race is a social construct that can be changed over time. Historically, referring to its specific characteristics one possesses based on: ethnicity, religion, or language; today's its classified solely based upon the color of one’s skin. Nevertheless, ethnic and racial identities are important and instill a sense of belonging and identifying with that specific group through attitude, behaviors. Moreover,

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.

Think about how much race affects a person every day. Maybe today you disclosed your race on the SATs or were passed over for a job opportunity because your name is too “black”. Race exists in our culture, but racism should not. Everyone tries to get rid of it, but humans ultimately created it, because it is a construct of cultural. Every day we form judgements and fall into stereotypes. Our children watch this discrimination and let it carry into their own futures. Strangely, these judgements and stereotypes are not technically race, merely the creations of an ignorant culture. To begin avoiding this, people need to learn that technical race and our world view of race are very different, and that humans may be too unique for concrete groupings.

Race and ethnicity are terms that are commonly mistaken for one another every day. According to sociologists and authors, Markus and Moya, race is a “dynamic set of historically derived and institutionalized ideas and practices that group certain people according to physical and behavioral human characteristics that are negative and shared.” Race was developed on a social context due to the fact that the dominant cultures labeled people with darker skin tones as different and inferior. Ethnicity is a “group of ideas and practices that allows people to identify with groups of people on the basis of presumed, and usually claimed commonalities” (Markus and Moya 2010: p.22) Country of origin, language, and physical characteristics are some

One of the social reforms that are argued to have been achieved by the contemporary society is acknowledged that all people within the society are equal irrespective of some socio-cultural differences such as race. The view that all persons are equal is ingrained in the society and supported by an array of a legal framework. One of the supporting legal frameworks is the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which asserts that all persons must be treated with equality, disregarding other differences based on elements such as gender and color. The constitution of the United States also stipulates that every citizen should be accorded equal treatments disregarding socio-cultural elements such as gender and race. Although such constitutional affirmations paint how the society is dedicated to addressing problems various types of human discrimination, racism continues to be one of the outstanding challenges. Racial problems continue to affect the nature of relationship within the society. The cause of racism has often been associated with social construction of differences, and that addressing racism would need to begin by addressing the socially constructed differences. This paper examines the history of social construction of race.

Race and Ethnicity both relate to biological and sociological factors respectively, and even though they can overlap, they are distinct. The term race refers to the concept of dividing people into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics (which usually result from genetic ancestry). Race presumes shared biological or genetic traits, whether actual or asserted and the category to which others assign individuals on the basis of physical characteristics. Races are assumed to be distinguished by skin color, eye color or hair type. However, the scientific studies based on racial distinctions show that racial genetic differences are very weak except in skin color (National Association of Social Workers, 2015).

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.

In society, race clearly affects one’s life chances. These are the chances of getting opportunities and gaining experience for progression. The social construction of race is based on privileges and availability of resources. Looking at society and the formation of race in a historical context, whites have always held some sort of delusional belief of a “white-skin privilege.” This advantage grants whites an advantage in society whether one desires it or not. This notion is often commonly referred to as reality.

In retrospect, I had always thought of race as the color and culture of a person. If some had brick colored skin and loved tacos or spoke Spanish, he or she was Mexican. Dark skin instinctively made someone black. As a child, I had these ideas of what race was and it all seemed innocuous. Today, I am stricken with the true meaning of race and its affects. Omi and Winant describes race as “a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies” (55). This definition describes race as a social construct that uses the relation of physical appearances and color to group individuals. “There is a continuous temptation to think of race as an essence, as something fixed, concrete and objective” (Omi and Winant 54). This specific sentence caught my attention because it was how I defined race. Growing up as child, I spent my life in several different homes. Realizing how race had a huge influence in those homes, ultimately made me think of race as an essence. I was told that my mother’s family would