Structural Functionalism: Race, Ethnicity, And Gender

1048 Words5 Pages

Structural Functionalism is a theory that explains the reason why we as a society act the way we do and why we choose to focus on the relationships between the various social institutions and that help make up society. Race is something we see every day of the week and month. Many people try ignore and pretend it not there in their face but the truth is something we cannot escape due to who we are. In other words, the difference that we make between each other and our races has nothing to do with our genetic obvious characteristics. Race was used socially, primarily by people who perceived ideas based on where an individual was born as well as how they spoke. Race as much as people hate to admit it race is a valuable key in keeping society …show more content…

Each of things has a positive effect on society meaning it helps keep ordinary life running smoothly which will be addressed later. However at the same time each of things also has a negative effect on society that instead of helping it tears it apart at the scene. Even though each of these things all have some things in common in order to get a little deeper into the subject on race, ethnicity, sex and gender each of these words have more in common with one word than the other. Race and ethnicity are two very important parts to our society and they influence us on a daily basis so much we don’t realize it. Race is a socially constructed category of people who state biologically transmitted traits that members of society consider important. Ethnicity is a word that represents the culture of people given a certain location on the earth, including their religion, beliefs and the language and customs. In order to be a part of a certain ethnic group you may have to conform and change some or all of your ways and who you are in order to be involved in some or all of those practices related to that group. Such as clothes, and way of thinking and even what to and not to eat. Race and ethnicity can sometimes overlap, but they are very distinct. In a personal opinion I believe these two play the biggest role in our world and is the biggest reason for inequality throughout time. Even today there are those people who still may experience racism and or sometime of hate because what ethnic group they belong to. Sex refers to a biological physical difference between males and females. For example, male and females have different chemicals within their body such as men have more testosterone then women do. Women have more estrogen then guys have in their body. While Gender refers to the social or cultural