...The term race is an unavoidable part of life. Even though it is little bitter, we have to accept that it still exist in the society. I believe race is a social construct, because from the article named The Color Line, the Dilemma, and the Dream by LAWRENCE D BOB talked about Jim Crow racism and how America is trying to get over it for decades. Even though people say they are not racists in any terms, racial beliefs exists in every person deep in heart. Overcoming the beliefs of race is the best evidence to show that the race is a social construct. The article also talked how people see race after getting more education. The whole mentality was changed, and open mind towards equality was common in whites after they gain higher levels of education. Education is a formation of a person. The more a person is educated, the more open minded he/she would be. So according to the article, it really reinstates that racism is just a narrow minded attitude which shows lack of education....
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...Omi and Winant (1986) argue that race is a social concept. They refer to Max Weber in explaining that “racial conflict” is not a result of biological factors, but social and political reasons (as cited in Rothenberg & Mayhew, 2014, p. 14-15). Indeed, if we look at the world today, there are many conflicts among ethnic ethnic groups that seem physically indistinguishable, for example Jews and Arabs, Indians and Pakistanis, and the like. Omni and Winant further argue that racial categories and their meanings are defined by specific contexts of society and history and that they vary over time and between different societies. They point out that in the United States, there exists a rigid line between “whites” and “nonwhites”; whereas in countries such as Brazil, there exist many “intermediate” racial categories (as cited in Rothenberg & Mayhew, 2014, p. 14-15). In some societies, the categorization itself is different. For example, according to Navarro (2012), whereas the US Census categorizes people by race, Latinos identify themselves more in the context of cultural characteristics, such as language and customs. According to Omni and Winant, one of the first things we notice when we meet someone is their race. From which, we draw preconceived notions of who the person is. They further add that in modern times, film and television have played a vital role in defining and disseminating racial stereotypes of minorities (as cited in Rothenberg & Mayhew, 2014, p. 16-17). In...
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...opinions regarding the social issues of race as a whole. It is common to scroll through Facebook and find a plethora of different opinions on this subject. In addition to one’s opinions, it is common to see arguments regarding this important social issue. However, in my opinion this public disagreement leads to an abundance of additional issues within our society. It is common to disagree, but all too often these arguments are not supported by facts but instead are solely opinion based. I believe that this could be due to a lack of education regarding the social construct of race. Although the youth is taught that Biologically skin color varies due to pigmentation in our skin, they are...
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...Darby Leaf Intro to Soc 3/2/17 I will start this week’s discussion off by defining the term race. According to the book, race refers to a group of people who share a set of characteristics, usually physical ones, but not always. People among a race are said to share a common bloodline. When considering race to be a myth or that it is fake is just saying that it is a social construct. Many times people that are of different races believe that they possess different and unequal traits coupled with the power to restrict freedoms based on those differences. This of course would be a social construct. A person should not have more power over another just solely based on the way that they look. Sociologists believe that humans create...
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...Race as a Social Construct functions as a tool of management that maintains the dominance of particular group. In the United States race as a concept was used as a justification for African Slavery and displacement of American Indians. It also believed and made the white race the most dominant force. The Idea of Race was put forward so that it could allow the White race to stay in power over the other races. In the US, racism started because the lower class people were about to revolt against high-class people and so the high-class people and politicians created the idea of Race to show how Blacks were even lower than the lower class people because they are slaves. We can see this because before slavery was established there were black immigrants who were property owners. Race is not a social construct based on skin color, because people of the same race can have varying skin colors. Race refers to the physical and biological characteristics of certain groups of people. We can see race as a social construct from the Supreme Court cases “Takao Ozawa, and Bhagat Singh Thind” Where the Supreme Court denied citizenship to Takao Ozawa because of his skeletal structures. They said that even though his skin color was whiter than white people, his facial structure was of the Mongolian race. They said that scientifically he was not white. After 3 months when Bhagat Singh Thind an Indian went to the Supreme Court for citizenship, his reason was that he was scientifically white because...
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...serious conflicts across the world. Due to incredibly violent and cruel events occurring in the past and present, simply discussing the issue of racial tension in some situations can lead to offense and outrage. These reactions to race can cause extreme divisions not only in our country but also our world resulting in prejudice and discrimination. There have been multiple events throughout history in which discrimination lead to widespread death. Prominent examples include the genocides of the Armenians, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and most recently, the Darfur genocide. While it may be hard to imagine that one group of people could find themselves so...
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...communication because this ideal stems from our engagement with others through our bodies that we use as signs to communicate. Race, gender and social status were impacted as well from body politics. The text states, Social constructs or social construction, is an idea or phenomenon that has been constructed by people in a particular society or culture, through communication. Social constructs exist because people act and agree to follow certain conventions and rules. The body is used as signifiers, which represents the body and images of actions mainly when discussing race. All these concepts were covered in chapter 3 and introduced global communications’ role in body politics....
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...handouts for back up and explanation, ok na ba ito?) tnx ^_^ (kung my ilalagay ka po penge na lng ako nung copy.) :) Social interpretations of race regard the common categorizations of people into different races. Race as a social construct and populationism. * anthropologists and social scientists sometimes describe human races as a social construct, preferring instead the term population. Race and Ethnicity The term race refers to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant. Ethnicity refers to shared cultural practices, perspectives, and distinctions that set apart one group of people from another. Social interpretations of race regard the common categorizations of people into different races, * Categorizations of people into different races - is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by anatomical, cultural,ethnic, genetic, geographical, historical, linguistic, religious, or social affiliation. Race as a social construct and populationism race often describes populations better defined as ethnic groups, often leading to discrepancies between scientific views on race and popular usage of the term. For instance in many parts of the United States, categories such as Hispanic or Latino are viewed to constitute a race, though others see Hispanic as a linguistic and cultural grouping with European, African, and Amerindian ancestries...
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...many debates on whether or not race is socially or biologically constructed. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, biological realism was the dominant view. Races were assumed to be biologically objective categories (Andreasen 2000, 653). However, in the middle of the 20th century, this point of view changed and today most theorists favour the view that races are socially constructed (Andreasen 2000, 654). Throughout my paper, I will argue that race is not a biological construct, but rather a socially/ culturally constructed one. It includes an incentive inside humanity which makes each race extraordinary. As humans we are not born the person we become, throughout our life, we develop certain traits that...
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...In this reflection, I’m going to speak on my experience with attending the speaker series event and listening to Rosa Clemente speak. Before this particular event, I had no clue as who she was but I was still open to hearing her speak and what exactly she was going to speak about. After hearing her speak, the three concepts that stuck in my mind were the controversies with identify politics, race being a social construct, and the issues surrounding climate change. Generally, when I don’t know a concept, I tend to do background research in order to better understand and speak on that concept which is what occurred with my understanding of identify politics. “The laden phrase ‘identity politics’ has come to signify a wide range of political activity and theorizing founded in the shared experiences of injustice of members of certain social groups” (Heyes, 2012). To simplify it, identity politics is basically a political approach that is taken when discussing people of a certain social group. This stuck with...
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...According to biologists, there is only one race, and that is the human race. However, from the commencement of the American experience, differences in perspective have impacted how persons relate with one another. For instance, being categorized as black in the United States has led to stark disparities in legal protection status and opportunity. Currently, most people are beginning to understand the significance of public dialogue as a fundamental step in making progress on race relations issues. Due to race relations, people have a chance to socialize and get to know each other, discover common ground, explore disagreements, and share different points and views. In other societies, people have developed study circles that assist individuals...
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...writing, he first explains the role of race throughout societies. His statements are quite to the point when getting his first argument across, insinuating that race is always a role that is in play with how different societies govern. These initial statements make up the foundation for his claims pertaining to the “invisibility” of whiteness. He continues to mention that when one studies race theory, majority of the people remain uninterested in white imagery. People more often than take an interest in non-white imagery. In turn, there seems to be a separation between white imagery and the term “race”, it is almost as though race does not included white heritages. White people are simply that, just people in normal social...
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...children with each other. So, our differences biologically are superficial, hair texture, some ailments which tend to be environmental, and skin color. Those who want to dismiss the notion of the social construction of race normally do so due to their inherent bias to attribute dysfunctional behavior in minority communities due to a racial makeup instead of addressing more systemic problems that plague these communities. Countless studies reveal that lower income people of all groups tend to follow the same negative trajectory. Racism is the belief that one race or culture is superior to another, regardless of biological evidence that negates this belief. This difference – the perceived inferiority of one race over another – is commonly used and abused as basis for discrimination, whether institutionalized or individualized through social construction. The widespread societal and institutional changes in America since the 1960s have done little to eliminate discrimination faced by racial minorities even after the election of a black president. Race is not just a social construction but a historical construction that has been embedded into each of our lives through social classes and institutions since the day we were born. “Even though race is constructed through historic meanings and social interactions it is as much a part of our national character as themes of patriotism.” (Defending Whiteness, 8) Minorities historically have had less access to quality education. Less access...
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...Since the colonial era, the term ‘race’ has undergone significant evolution in its definition and significance. ‘Race’ was initially used for the sole purpose of categorizing people into a group that they had an ancestral or familial connection to. However, the concept of race later became the primary justification for slavery and has been used for centuries to argue for white superiority while diminishing the value of people of other races. Race was not always the defining characteristic of a person’s merit in the colonies. “The Story We Tell” states that in the early 1600s, the concepts of religion and wealth were used to categorize people into different hierarchical groups. As referenced in Katheryn Gin Lum’s writing, people who did not...
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...We have already, in Chapter One, defined racism and ethnicity, however, it is instructive to understand that the definition of these words have tended to change over time. A person we might define as white in 2016, may well have been seen as Black or Irish or Italian at some time in our past history. For example, around 1900, people arriving in the U.S. from Ireland or Italy were not viewed as white (Gallagher, 2012). Rather, the Irish and Italians were not classified as white by U.S. immigration officials when they debarked from ships in New York 120 years or so ago. Since people arriving as immigrants from Ireland and Italy did not fit easily into the existing racial categories, they ended up in a racial limbo – not really white, not black,...
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