Social Construction of Race and How It Affects Society Essay

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

Race is not something that is an exact thing. It is a social construct. It is a reflection of who you are and what you perceive.

Good evening, from this week reading I have learned that race is social construction. According to social conventions no one born "black" or "white" but people label each other as black and white. The most interesting thing I found in this weekly reading was racial democracy has been widely spread in Brazil than the United States of America. However, in my opinion, color of skin still affect the life chances in both Countries. For instance, in both Countries lighter skinned African descent have more advantage than darker skinned. In addition, as it mentioned in the book, In South Africa, people of African descent hold a majority of the population. So, why were white people still racially dominating in South Africa even after Apartheid

Discussions in regards to race can be fraught with extreme opinions, to examine this subject in a more dispassionate light it is helpful to first define the terms. Race is distinctly different from ethnicity or culture, but is often combined in both writing and thought. From a biological perspective, the description of race in human populations is meaningless, but examined from a cultural basis it can make an enormous difference to a population’s wellbeing, or survival, based solely on their difference in morphology.

On January 26, class begun by Dr. Mullins asking the class to spend the first few minutes answering the question what is race? The term race is difficult to define as a result of the belief that it is “racist” to talk about race. Although how do we know what race is if we do not discuss it within society. After much thought I defined race as an individual’s background that may be used to describe their ancestor’s demographics as well as their religion. However, today people tend to put more emphasis on race being the color of an individual’s skin. As discussed in class society does not understand what race is, but for some reason it is important to us. Deep down race is a social construction that we make exist through our behavior. It is important to educate people about race to help break down these boundaries society has created. If we created it we can demolish it, and education is key.

At the turn of the 20th century, much of American society was dominated by perceived ideologies embedded in the scientific studies. One of the leading fields of study at the time was eugenics. Scientists believed that by analyzing the works of Mendel and his contemporaries, researchers could effectively weed out humanity’s most undesirable traits (Norrgard, 2008). In a noble quest to alleviate genetic flaws the inadvertent perversion of ideas became the foundation for what appears to be the social construction of race. Somewhere along the lines, eugenics became more about isolating certain human characteristics, like skin color, and relegating them to a hierarchy of societal importance (Norrgard, 2008). Race is simply defined as a pattern-based concept that allows for the general public to draw conclusions based on an individual’s geographical location and thereby predetermining their inclusion into a particular social group (Yudell, et al., 2016) The philosophies embedded in social ideas about race has long been at the heart of contentious discussions throughout the last century. It has led to individualized implicit personality theories by which people tend to link certain attributes together because of an apparent frequency in a particular racial group (Greene & Heilbrun, 2015).

Money does not last forever. All the money in the world can become the reason why people change their personality and behavior. In the film The Jerk by Carl Reiner, a complete moron struggles to make it through life on his own, until a bizarre invention makes him unbelievably a wealthy man. Navin grew up in Mississippi as an adopted son of a black family, but on his birthday he decides to discover more about the outside world and sets out to St. Louis. There, everyone exploits his simplicity, but then a simple invention brings Navin a big fortune that will become his main downfall as the film continues. Like many

Charles W. Mills argues that even if there is no biological notion of race that can underwrite our social one, our social one still has some objectivity to it. He provides details for many hypothetical and real life instances in order to back up his argument. My view, along with Mills’, is that race is socially constructed, and has been socially constructed long before I even had an opinion on the topic. I will explore every avenue of what Mills offers on the topic and will formulate a further opinion based on each subject individually.

Race is a social construct that is used to put people into groups for whatever reason. This separation is based off of visible physical differences. Subgroups are created in society when the “dominant” race gives certain negative stereotypes to another group. Our textbook states this in one of my favorite sentences I have ever read, “The acceptance of race in a society as a legitimate category allow racial hierarchies to emerge to the benefit of the dominant ‘races’” (Schaefer, 2015).

This essay seeks to highlight how race is not biologically constructed but rather socially constructed.it will discuss aspects of essentialism and the role it has played in constructing race it will also discuss what race is, and highlight examples of how race is socially constructed with examples from the movie skin. Race is defined as descendants of a common ancestor; one of the distinct variations of the human species (Websters New Dictionary 1998). People are still consumed by the notion that there is a generalization that can say who belongs to which ethnic group. Race is socially constructed meaning it is an idea that humans make up through interaction, it is so dangerous that it could be life threatening (web1).

Society plays a major role in classifying people race, ethnicity, and social treatment. The definition of race can be put into two categories biological and sociological factors. Race is an ideology that people use to describe the physical and genetic makeup of an individual. A person racial construction greatly impacts an individual’s identity. This is look as the person skin color, facial bone structure, eyes, and hair color.

Fact: “Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies did not divide people according to physical differences, but according religion, status, class, even language.” (Race-The Power of an Illusion).

Race is not biological but rather a term that has been socially constructed. Race has been socially constructed as a way to put individuals into racial classifications that are made up of groups thought to share particular distinctive physical characteristics, such as skin color and facial features. Race is not in any way connected to our genetic genes so it cannot be traced back biologically. Race is a term that has changed over time and does not have a fixed definition. However, through our readings, we know that race has been determined by social and political entities. Race has been created and made to be physically different as a way to fuel beliefs of superiority and inferiority.

The concept of race is fundamentally a social construct. It is based on a notion of difference, of ‘otherness’, ‘blackness’, ‘whiteness’, identity, nationalism and multiculturalism. ‘Race’ matters, as despite being biologically disputed, its social impact is immense. Despite being an unreal social construct, it is real in its consequences. It affects life prospects and influences health, wealth, status and power. As such, a critical deconstruction of the pernicious, pervading and often all too determinative discourse of racial categorisation is crucial to social progress. We must dissect and discern what gives rise to these ideologies. How is race defined? What criteria, intellectual contexts, or psychological misconceptions lead to such discrimination? (109 words)

Race is generally defined as the categorization of individuals who are characteristically similar to one another as a result of inherent traits that are commonly associated with one geographical location or country of origin (Hall, 2010). Although there were originally only believed to be five distinct races of Homo sapiens (e.g., Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Malayan, and Ethiopian), there are now more options for classifying race – at least from a census standpoint - and individuals may select from multiple options in choosing their racial identity (Aumer, Hatfield, Swann, & Frey, 2011). However, there still is an ongoing debate as to whether race is more of a biological or social concept and if race truly exists.