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Race And Culture Essay

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‘Race’ is defined as people who are connected by a common origin (American Heritage Dictionary: Race, 2014). As such, ‘race’ is an artificial construct based on attributions like skin colour, hair colour, eye colour etc. Ethnicity is a more accurate term for ‘race’ as it encompasses culture rather than biological attributions. It takes into consideration common practices and is based on situations and historical circumstances. Hence, we define culture as something that is practised and adhered to and binds a group of people together (American Heritage Dictionary: Culture, 2014). It is the totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and all other products of human work and thought (American Heritage Dictionary: …show more content…

Geoffrey Benjamin’s claim that Singaporeans are especially concerned with ethnicity identity amongst other criteria such as class, age, educational attainment etc when interacting with visitors from other countries (GB) is evident in the excerpt when the taxi driver probed whether Charlene is an Indian or a Malay when she identified herself as a Malaysian. Perhaps, in the Singaporean society, it is a convenient way to identify and associate people by ethnicity. The taxi driver also mentioned that in Singapore, everyone is Chinese, Malay or Indian and everyone should follow such a model or risk getting lost (Rajendran, 2009). It can be implied that Singaporeans conform to an identity which follows closely to the Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others (CMIO) model which acts as a guide for social action. This may be attributed to pragmatism since it is a norm for reports of government departments, which deal with social policies, require us to identify our ‘race’. Such constant reiteration in birth report forms, job application forms, school enrollment forms, housing application forms etc has resulted in us conforming and subscribing to a ‘race’ which we think we fit best in. An individual must be able to claim membership in one of the four races or life could pose a problem in Singapore (GB). It is true to a large extent that ‘race’ is a macro-divisive cleavage in Singapore

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In the reading this week by Smedley and Smedley, the differences between ethnicity and race are discussed and the terms defined. Ethnicity is described as a group of people who have a common cultural trait, share a common language, area of origin, religion, and history (Smedley & Smedley 2005). The culture is learned, and is transferable to other people within the group (Smedley & Smedley 2005). Race is defined as physical features such as skin color or hair texture (Smedley & Smedley 2005). “Ethnicity was recognized as plastic, and transmissible, but race conveyed the notion of differences that could not be transcended” (Smedley & Smedley, 2005, p. 19).

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A further issue to consider when exploring the experiences of black women academics is the academic subject they specialise in and the curriculum of higher education institutions. For example, higher education institutions are often guilty of eurocentrism, the idea or practice of placing Europe at the centre of one’s world view and assuming supremacy of Europe and Europeans over other world cultures (Hall, 1992). This has a damaging effect of the curriculum because it perpetuates social inequity, as students and academics do not see themselves reflected in the curriculum. Critical Race Theory explains the view that race is not biologically grounded and natural but is socially constructed. One tenet of this is counter-storytelling (McCoy, 2006).

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