The Importance Of Race And Ethnicity

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)

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 plays a crucial part in our society, starting from the young ones to the society at large, it is a great part of history that exist even when twisted till this day. As a black student currently studying in North America who has traveled and lived in other part of the world, I have gained experience and days of research of how race influence our society. Some Communities still talk about the progress that has been made while others show a deep concern about what still needs to be done. Starting with the young generation of our society, parents tell their children that race is real, race does not matter but in the actual real world the opposite is the case. Race is not real but race does matter. According to Brackette Williams in his article of A class of act, he said that”over the last 20 years cultural anthropologists have become increasingly involved in an effort to define ethnicity and to disclose their meaning for the political and economic dimensions of social organization”. If race does not matter, then why is there an increasing amount of anthropologies studying how race influence our society. This is because race matters and it is one of the myth Agstin Fuentes refuted in four of his assumptions in busting the myth that race does not matter.

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.

Ethnicity and race are ways to differentiate a group of person from another; therefore, in the 21th century this terms has acquired a powerful meaning in society. A few months ago, I learned how significant this terms are.

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

In order to be able to explain the origin of race and its implications for race and crime, one must first understand that “race” as a term is something that has been created and defined by man. As stated in the opening dialogue of the class text, the idea of race originated 5,000 years ago in India … and was developed into a taxonomy of race by Johna Frederich Blumenbach in his 1795 work, “On

Although the topic of the certain short stories and poems have different themes and comprehension of what corresponding works that might have similar or different topics, will tell a person what racial background and ethnicities are represented in the short story “Country Lovers” and the poem “What It’s like to be a Black Girl”. Finding out whether the characters are the same, if the setting is different between the two, if the theme told outright or did one have to “think outside of the box” to determine its meaning will lead to what content the two have. If one literary work is a ballad or a play, if one is longer or shorter than the other one, if the tone is the same between the two works,

Race is vitally important and completely meaningless. Our society would ideally want to say that racism has decreased, and that we are more diverse and tolerant than we have ever been. Racism is less than it was fifty years ago. Both of these concepts are true, but at the same time race matters more than ever.

The first article “Myth of Race” focuses on the key points of stating why we are categorized by certain actions based on our race. Harrington explains how wrong he feels about human race today see the division of people into races as part of human personality and lifestyle (518). Harrington defines the division as a myth of assumption that people define specific traits that defer each race from the other with overlap through family member’s personality. Defines these racial groups as clusters that overlap into different ways and inbreeding wont necessary turn out negative. This barrier of thinking have been broken

When speaking about race a lot of people like to claim that we do not need to talk about it and racism is over. That we all “understand” what race is, yet as stated in “What is Race and Why Does It Matter So Much?” scholars can’t seem to agree what race is. Race should matter as it can help shape who we are and create an identity. A few experiences with stereotypes though most think they are anything wrong as it just shows how each member of the race is similar. Race shouldn’t matter when it comes to anything really, especially through school and applying for jobs as how would that be relevant. Yet race is a concept that surrounds everything and yet is supposedly not taking place in anything.

As the only sociologist that has been chosen on the North American council I would like to address my main concern, which is that having one person voice the social inequalities for approximately 580 million people is not just. In my best attempt to be as fair and voice the major concerns that I feel are prevalent throughout North America, I chose racial inequality, educational inequality, and gender inequality. Before I further discuss these inequalities I would like to define social inequality to give the reader a clearer understanding, “Social inequality is the long term existence of significant differences in access to goods and services among social groups”, as quoted from our textbook.

Does Race Truly Matter…” Respectively, race and ethnicity are related to biological and sociological factors. Ethnicity differs from race because ethnicity relates to cultural factors such as nationality, ancestry, beliefs, and languages. Race can be defined as a person’s physical appearance, such as skin or eye color. Culture is considered to be different from these two by referring to the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.

1. One of the facts that caught my attention was number 5, which basically says that as the concept of race has involved it has created problems for others. It caught my attention because as more people were identifying themselves with a “certain” race, others were trying to destroy it. As more people became aware of what “race” meant to them, in that time, it seems like they “Americans‘” became scared and started taking dramatic actions. Perhaps identifying yourself within a race is a bad and a good thing. Depending on what century/society it could mean something different for you. Race seems to create a lot of commotion, damage, and ultimately destroys race itself. Fact number 10, also caught my attention which says, we need to stop using race as an advantage. Some could use race to move up in life while bringing others down. It caught my attention because some are trying to make race and equality the same but some already have that, its more than that. Some tend to use other “races” to build their own ladder/platform, and that isn’t right.

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.