Preview

Explain What It Means To Say That Race Is A Social Construction

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
548 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Explain What It Means To Say That Race Is A Social Construction
When sociologist say that race is a social construction they mean most racial issues are a result of how society perceives a certain race. Since humans are 99.9% percent identical when it comes to genes, you can say that we are all similar. However, a lot of people focus on the differences between other races. All over America lately, you have seen people being discriminated against and feel that they are treated unfairly just because of their race. A person's race does not define who they are as a person. Of course a person's race may have something to do with how a person is raised but it definitely doesn't define who they are. If you have been watching the news in the last couple of years you will have seen many incidents where a person's race has led to a …show more content…
Since I went to catholic school I always considered myself a nice person and assumed nothing bad would happen to me until the first time I got pulled over. One summer day I was driving to the gym after picking up my friend Justin. We just so happened to be talking about how one day I was going to be pulled over for no reason besides being black. Almost immediately after we stopped talking about it I saw police lights in my rear view. In the moment we were both scared but looking back on it we both laugh about the irony of the situation. The police officer came up to my car and asked for my license as my friend and I stayed as still as possible to not provoke the officer. In the back of my head I could hear my mother coaching me to say the right things to avoid trouble. The thing that made me know this was a racial problem was that he said I was pulled over for speeding in a school zone while all the cars ahead of me were going way faster than me. Plus I was going maybe 7 mph over the speed limit. I could tell the officer thought he made a mistake when he heard how properly my friend and I

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    SOC 308 Entire Course

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As we see in the readings and in this website, race is socially constructed, a system of thought and human behavior not directly based on nature, instead resulting from social ideas and practices. In other words, race exists because people believe it is real and important.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is it a group of people that look alike? A racial group is solely reliant on physical characteristics, it defies to be a social construct of people with similar distinct physical characteristics. This theory contradicts the war between the Germans and Jewish as there is no significant difference in race. A famous writer who goes by the name of H.G Wells quotes "Our true nationality is mankind". Are we all born the equal? Yes, we are born equal but not all the same, not by a long chalk. Being born of equal respect and in most cases, capability, but this does not classify the human race as all equal. Many characteristics set us apart from each other, such as face, hair, height etc. We could be considered same if we inherit similar characteristics, but no 2 individuals are both with a xerox copy of the exact same body parts, personality, nationality…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How does the social concept of race relate to each group? What prejudice has each group faced?…

    • 1998 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Race is a social construct based off of systematic oppression and status of power. White people only exist as white in relation to what they own in America such as political and economical power, as well as privilege. They have the ability to get a pass to not work as hard as other races as well as get less harsh punishments for their wrongdoings. Racism also causes those that fall under the category of white to believe that they are not racist, but in reality are taught to behave in that manner. They consistently have subconscious racist thoughts because of…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    February 15, 13 Socio-biological Theory of Race: Race as a Biological Construct What is race (according to this perspective)? * Racial classifications are based on physical differences * These physical differences are seen to represent underlying genetic differences. *…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There is a difference between race as socially constructed and race as biologically constructed. Understanding race as a social construct is critical to understanding the capacity of a given race to affect and intersect other domains and aspect of life and the society (Omi & Winant, 2014). A social construct is ontologically subjective in that the continued existence and construction of social constructs depends on social groups as well as their imposition, collective agreement, and acceptance of such constructions (Rutherford, 2017). Race is that regarded as socially constructed since it is ontologically subjective in that it is real in the society and shapes the way individuals see themselves and…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Michael P. Jeffries (http://genius.com/Michael-p-jeffries-paint-the-white-house-black-excerpt-annotated) ‘’Race” is rooted into a false beliefs with regards to the validity of observed physical differences as indicators of human capacity or behaviors. In order words, it is observed that human beings build categories and make their own naturally distinctions. He argued that, there is no biological classifications in racial categories and no relationship either, because it’s only based on observing of physical characteristics and behavior. However, humans do not have subspecies or races the way some animals do or any form of genetic traits, such as skin color, which is inherited separately from other physical and mental traits, hair features, blood type, eyes and so on. Therefore, with this said, one can say that race is socially constructed, which means that it is an ideal that is produced by human thoughts with an interaction rather than something that exist as material fact of life on earth.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today’s social construction has been highly influenced by the ideology of race. Race has created this process of racialization, which is when a group becomes labeled as physiologically different and inferior. Racialization involves oppression, violence, and discrimination. The term race has created a social construction and ranking system.…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many sociologists believe that race is a social construction. Social construction is defined in plain English as something that we the human race created on our own. When sociologists say that race is a social construction they obviously do not mean that we created the variance in physical features of many humans. What they mean is that we coined the term “race” and use it as a separator and an identifier of a large group of people. For example, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic these are race classes our society has created and defined. I believe the European explorers were the first constructors race. As explorers travel across the seas to new lands they became in contact with different humans whom had built a society much different than European society. These new societies…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Race isn’t biological. It is in fact a social construct. People are categorized into race based on their appearance. Race has nothing to do with genetics and everything to do with society. The article states how race is a social construct, which is true. Race is so powerful, that it possess life or death consequences. The idea of race today was not existent in ancient times, centuries ago. Many of the ancestors would use race to tell one person from the next, not discriminate in the way that we understand today. As Europeans began colonizing new land, race proved a good way in control and overthrow. The dominant group in society would define race in terms of biology. If you were a black person then you were biologically inferior to a white…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The social construction of race is a perspective that in which society creates racial categories. This goes past the biological aspects because we are all the same in terms of biologically. Each different kinds of culture and society characterizes each race differently. It could be skin color, the way a certain type of race talks, eye color, hair color, etc. A symbolic interactionist would view at the different synergies between individuals of different races. They would try to see how these individuals would act according to skin color, language, etc. The concept of social construction of race can be applied in terms of multiple identities. Americans, such as Tiger Woods and Barack Obama, come from multiple racial backgrounds and are breaking barriers and creating new racial categories. This shows that races are becoming very…

    • 136 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    By watching the film I have a deep understanding, I know racial distinction is not just by appearance, we don't really know what is race, actually the race is not important, but the race is still bringing great influence on people's lives. This film is about race, not about attitude and behavior of the individual, and in the past in the history of the institutional and policy in the United States is still on the basis of race, through sacrifice others bring interests for groups. The biggest benefit is the white, white we see at the time of life is so happy, but not because of their hard work, but because of their laws, courts, customs, even if the housing is a race.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many ways race can be shown, but I have learned that there is no biological definition of race. Most people categorize people through physical appearance and where a person is from. Just because people have a different name or a different way of doing things does not mean they are going to hurt anyone, give them a chance because they are human too.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial Formation

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Race is a social concept. Because a group of people called hypo-descent which is the "affiliation with the subordinate rather than the superordinate group in order to avoid the ambiguity of intermediate identity..."(page 3). Hypo-descent can be classify different in different society. For example, hypo-descent are define as black in the United States because the law in United States stated that anyone with at…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Race is essentially a “social construct” and has little relations to biological distinctions among humans. Race was a multicolored pyramid created to put whites on top and blacks on the bottom. It was a device created by Anglo Saxons who felt empowered and race was a tool they molded in order to stay in power.…

    • 2679 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays