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Race And Ethnicity As A Social Construct Essay

482 Words2 Pages

Race and ethnicity are both extensive and intensive issues in the society globally. While both race and ethnicity are social constructs with positive and negative implications for the society, it should be noted that individual identities both for races and ethnicities are characteristically different for different societies. Perhaps more importantly, it is clear that what an individual considers to be their race or ethnicity in one part of the world could be different in another part. According to Conley (2017 p. 326), race is defined as a group of individuals with a shared set of values and characteristics and are believed to share a distinct bloodline. Cornell and Hartmann 2007 p 19), defines ethnicity as a society sharing a common ancestry with a distinctively similar historical past that defines their culture. Even though we identify ourselves as White, Black, or Asian, I have learned that this notions are the problems …show more content…

By taking this course, this fact has resulted to more questions than answers. The very fact that racism is a social construct that has devolved from the concepts of race and ethnicity does not perhaps signify the reality of the world. For people who have grown up in the same neighborhoods, attending the same schools, and partaking in the same activities, where does the hatred come from? Benedict (1945) defined racism as a natural selection of determining the superior race and subsequently the inferior race. However, biologically, human beings are characteristically the similar. The exposure to issues regarding racism, has become an eye opener towards the realities of the world. However, I believe the issue surrounding races has nothing to do with the individual races and ethnicities but the hate depicted by a few individuals in the

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502 Words | 3 Pages

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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133 Words | 1 Pages

In the article, “What We Mean When We Say ‘Race Is a Social Construct’,” Ta-Nehisi Coates asserts that the idea of race is that “puts hundreds pf millions under domination” (Coates, p. 3). The definition of race is “the classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, ancestry, genetics or social relations, or the relations between them.” Liberals often say “truly stupid things like race has to biological element” (Coates, p. 6). William Z. Ripley wrote a story which desired to “delineate racial difference through head type” (Coates, p. 4). Coates states that “race does not need biology.

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287 Words | 2 Pages

Fall 2015-Soc 100-35W 10/15 Week Seven Discussion Samantha Henry Sociologist argue that race is a social construct and not a part of our innate natural behavior. Then why is racial identification so prevalent in modern day society? That’s because at young ages we are taught by television, movies, books, newspapers, parents, teachers, friends and other sources what race is.

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1214 Words | 5 Pages

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119 Words | 1 Pages

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559 Words | 3 Pages

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933 Words | 4 Pages

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1428 Words | 6 Pages

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908 Words | 4 Pages

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