Race Social Construct
Whether race is derived from nature and our biology or as a complex “social construct” has been a topic of controversy. While there is scientific evidence through our studies of genetics, the discrimination of race is constructed from our own and the people of the law’s influence as a society’s culture. Race can be considered a social construct as it will always change as society changes.
There were times when certain civilizations had no discrimination of race. In Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s Racial Formations in the United States, they mention a similar idea, “Race consciousness, and its articulation in theories of race, is largely a modern phenomenon” (Omi & Winant 1). This speaks to how our awareness of different races is something that …show more content…
It is as simple as the way someone talks or what they eat. The accent they develop is what they receive from the society around them not always the one that is associated with their face. The food they eat is not to be limited to that of which is associated with their race. Essentially, this means that someone whose ancestry comes from a different country than the one they are raised in is not to be put into a closed “box” of traits. Even so, our society does not work this way. Associating certain characteristics with races is something that many attain from the influence society has. Placing stereotypes can create a dominant narrative can cause people to internalise these stereotypes and prevent us from seeing otherwise upon initial exposure to someone. The complexity of race as a social construct can be furthered with how the identity of a person should not be seen as a reflection of the stereotypes the dominant society creates.
Our awareness of race is not the result of biology, but the product of a society. If in the past, the consciousness of different races had only just begun within the last few hundred years, it shows how the idea of race was only recently. Since our views on race changes as society changes, race cannot be a fixed within nature and is therefore unstable. And the complexity of race means that someone’s identity is not set by the stereotypes created for their race. So if all these points hold validity, we can erase the idea of nature’s role in race and identify the other ways society influences the way race is
There were times when certain civilizations had no discrimination of race. In Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s Racial Formations in the United States, they mention a similar idea, “Race consciousness, and its articulation in theories of race, is largely a modern phenomenon” (Omi & Winant 1). This speaks to how our awareness of different races is something that …show more content…
It is as simple as the way someone talks or what they eat. The accent they develop is what they receive from the society around them not always the one that is associated with their face. The food they eat is not to be limited to that of which is associated with their race. Essentially, this means that someone whose ancestry comes from a different country than the one they are raised in is not to be put into a closed “box” of traits. Even so, our society does not work this way. Associating certain characteristics with races is something that many attain from the influence society has. Placing stereotypes can create a dominant narrative can cause people to internalise these stereotypes and prevent us from seeing otherwise upon initial exposure to someone. The complexity of race as a social construct can be furthered with how the identity of a person should not be seen as a reflection of the stereotypes the dominant society creates.
Our awareness of race is not the result of biology, but the product of a society. If in the past, the consciousness of different races had only just begun within the last few hundred years, it shows how the idea of race was only recently. Since our views on race changes as society changes, race cannot be a fixed within nature and is therefore unstable. And the complexity of race means that someone’s identity is not set by the stereotypes created for their race. So if all these points hold validity, we can erase the idea of nature’s role in race and identify the other ways society influences the way race is