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Why is race a social construct paper
Why is race a social construct paper
Why is race a social construct paper
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Racial formation is the process by which humans classify other human beings based on what they look like and where they come from. To racialize someone is to categorize someone; however, race is not natural, and is in actuality a product of sociohistorical processes. Because racial classifications are manmade, it is pivotal to consider the context and time period of racial systems because they change with history. They are a social construction rather than a biological reality, meaning they can be created, destroyed, and transformed. These processes can be observed when we look at how the Irish, who were initially subject to intense racial discrimination, adopted “whiteness,” or how the Chinese, who were also limited to strenuous physical labor, became the model minority.
It also stated that everyone born or naturalized in the U.S citizenship no matter what race they were. In 1866 the Civil Rights Bill was passed and it stated that ex-slaves were U.S citizens and also gave them the right to make contracts, sue, be witnessed in court, and also to own land. The president vetoed this bill which also means that he violated the 14th amendment. In his veto statement the president said that the blacks were not qualified for citizenship and also that the bill operates in favour of the blacks and against the whites. The Republicans didn’t have any hope in working with the president to make progress after this and tensions increased.
This concluded that anybody born in the United States will become a citizen, no matter the race, religion, or economic background. Fast forwarding to almost 100 years, the Civil Rights Act of 1960 put an end to legal discrimination based on race, religion, or ethnicity. This also provided a monumental protection that benefited African Americans. It prohibited unequal tests
In the article, "Race as a Social Construct" Emanuel Lusca tells about his and other views on race stating how it's a social construction. Lusca fulfilled his goal to convince his spectators by giving multiple examples and facts. Lusca uses many writers work as examples to tell about their views on race. A couple of examples of the multiple writers work he uses are Ruth Frankenberg, John Searle, Franz Boas, and Takaki.
Throughout history, race has been an ongoing theme. Race was used to define a person as well as the rights that they held. People of races other than white were given little to none respect and were not treated as human beings but instead property. It was a constant battle between races, therefore forming a them versus us society. Through history there were many people who were treated based off their race, there were many different government made laws and documents that defined and laid out the rights of those certain races.
1. Visit the PBS Web site and view, Race: The Power of Illusion > Sorting People, and then select: Begin Sorting. See if you can sort the people into racial classifications just by the person's appearance. There will probably be many misclassified people. The score you get on this activity will not be counted towards your grade.
Kallen Brunson In the article, “How Race becomes Biology: Embodiment of Social Inequality” by Clarence C. Gravlee, Gravlee argues that race, and the assumption of race in everyday life, makes the difference in biology much more clear and affects the life cycles of people due to their perceived race (Gravlee, 51). The author provides, using both his research and others’, an argument against the complete notion that race is only a social construct (Gravlee, 53). Through a series of statements, Gravlee states that race shouldn’t simply be excluded from anthropological discussion, but incorporated into present views regarding healthcare and impacts on society.
In order to ensure that all racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States have the equal rights as their majority counterpart, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the Immigration and Naturalization Amendments (INA) in 1965. Both the Voting Rights Act and the Immigration and Naturalization Amendments were of civil rights origins: they were enacted in the midst of the civil rights movement. And each of them served a function in a reaction to overtly racist legal practices that marginalized communities of color for generations. On one hand, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 reflects Congress’ intention to rid of the racial discrimination in voting such as changes in elections. On the other hand, the Immigration and Naturalization Amendments shows for Congress’ intention to remove all formal racial restrictions from immigration law by changing immigration policy.
The Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to make immigration policy. Citizenship was possible only for someone who was “a free white person”. First major law on immigration wa passed in the late 1800s. Chinese Exclusion Act- No Chinese laborer could enter the United States for 10 years.
However, that veto was overridden and the legislation had officially become a law. It stated that every person born in the US is to be considered a citizen "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude. " [Sandoval, Interracial Democracy, notes]. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was an attempt to compensate for rights that were lost due to the black codes. This bill demanded citizenship without discrimination against ancestry or race.
Approved on May 6, 1882, this act was the first ever act to single out a group of racial minorities and exclude them from anything. This act showed the U.S that the government can target any minority group. “in terms of ethnicity, gender, and class—could be admitted. Immigration patterns, immigration communities, and racial identities and categories were significantly affected.” (Wu, Britannica)
According to the film race is a biological "myth" and as outdated as belief that the sun revolved around the earth. Race is a concept that was invented to categorize the perceived biological, social, and cultural differences between human groups. Based on modern genetic science that can decode the genetic puzzle of DNA there is no significant genetic or biological differences between the races. Race is an artificial construct imposed by the ruling classes to justify first slavery and then segregation. One of the main findings concerning the genetic make-up of the students in the course was that skin color really is only skin deep.
“White isn't a race, its a state of mind”, stated by Rachael Dolezal. It could be a common question people ask you in a social or private conversation. All human beings are born a certain race depending on what their birth parents ethnicity or race is. In the US, people are saying they are a different race than they actually are which ends up blowing up in their face, especially politically and socially. Because a lady named Rachael Dolezal is falsely claiming she is black when proven white, society believes she is “mentally ill” and taking it too far as a chosen performance.
One can no longer form his or her opinion of something if he or she knows nothing about it. One can no longer judge someone based on the color of their skin without knowing that person’s personal values. There are countless terrifying problems that face the world today. It is trivial that something as petty as race can get in the way of that. There is only one race: the human
Race, nationality and ethnicity Race and ethnicity are seen as form of an individual’s cultural identity. Researchers have linked the concept of “race” to the discourses of social Darwinism that in essence is a categorization of “types” of people, grouping them by biological and physical characteristics, most common one being skin pigmentation. Grouping people based on their physical traits has lead in time to the phenomenon of “racialization” (or race formation), as people began to see race as more of a social construct and not a result or a category of biology.
