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Social Construction Of Race: Norms And Differences

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The social construction of race has challenged our thinking and has made us think critically on how we subconsciously inherited society’s idea of norms and differences. We live our lives day by day without realizing that we have been given a predetermined outlook on how we view people because of their race. We gain these predispositions through the media, social interactions, family values and so forth. We chose this issue because we find it interesting that many people are unaware of this social construct, and that the outlook on difference of race can affect one’s actions. Using popular videos and articles in addition to our class readings, our paper will introduce the idea of social construction of race, and how it interrelates with concepts of critical thinking and diversity. …show more content…

The need for categorization resulted to race being defined in institutional contexts such as “a group of people who perceive themselves and are perceived by others as possessing distinctive hereditary traits” (Ore, 2014, p.9). With this definition, it becomes easier to group individuals in limited categories, such as by their color. What is important to note is the attached perceptions and assumptions based on one’s racial background; this constitutes the social construct of race. As Ore (2014) explains, we do not create these assumptions due to their biological factors as individual people, but rather as social factors. Social construction of race goes all the way back to when the person is born. The assumptions one has is gained by the influences made by society while they are growing, as well as their family upbringing, education, the economy they live in, the interactions they have with people and even the media. Ideas and values we learn from these interactions shape how we interact and experience our social world (Ore,

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