I took the time today to read the article titled “What is Race” by Victor M. Fernandez, RN, BSN and found myself agreeably intrigued and in admiration of his thoughts regarding race. Victor touched on an extremely insightful and significant topic; one that most people have sturdy opinions about. Race – what is it? What does this mean to you? What does it mean to our upcoming careers in the nursing field? I trust that how we characterize and assess our awareness of race is due exclusively to how we were raised. I do not mean merely what we were taught from our family or culture about race, but to a certain extent how we have lived it, and how it has lived around us. “Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language” (PBS). I found this quote to be quite appealing; why did race become such a predicament in society?
“Despite our apparent differences, which are only skin deep, all humans around the world are biologically quite similar” (Fernandez). I highlighted and starred this sentence while reading his article because this is what I believe about race. Fundamentally are we not all are anatomically created equal on the inside, so why does the color of our epidermis have to be discriminated against?
I spent the majority of my childhood in southern California surrounded by a greatly Mexican populated culture, as well as in Portland Oregon where at my school I was almost the minority compared to the number of Asian and African American students who were my peers. I was raised not to see outwardly for whom a person is – but rather to see who they are inwardly. The color of their skin doesn’t matter rather the ma...
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...at that time. Would I keep quiet every time a racial slur was made? No, probably not, it would be dependent upon the situation I was in when the action took place. If I did speak up, I would first politely ask them to keep their opinions quiet. We are entitled to our own thoughts and opinions but we do not always need to express them for others to hear. I’m generally a very non-confrontational person, so if they continued to act out – I would probably remove myself from the situation or call for help if it was causing harm to someone else.
Works Cited
Dictionary.com. (n.d.) In Dictionary Online. http://dictionary.reference.com/. Ethnicity vs. Race. (n.d.) Diffen.com. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Ethnicity_vs_Race. Fernandez, V. (n.d.) What is Race?
PBS.org. (n.d.) In What Is Race? Is Race for Real.
http://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/001_00-home.htm.
Race-thinking: what is it? Isn’t the world past the issue of race? Do races even exist and if so, what does it mean to have a racial identity? Is colorblindness possible and how important is it? These are the questions Paul Taylor addresses in the book “Race: A Philosophical Introduction”. Paul Taylor is a self-proclaimed “radical constructionist” who will maintain that race is very real in our world and in the United States as a whole (p. 80). Taylor takes care to ensure he addresses the real needs concerning racial dynamics in the U.S., referencing historical events, prevailing policy affairs, and even pop culture to explain that everyone capable of forming opinions ought to have some sort of grasp of the concept of race-thinking. As Taylor will analyze, race and race-thinking “has shaped and continues to shape private interactions as well as the largest political choices” (p. 8). In other words, race-thinking encompasses everything we do and every interaction we have. In this paper I will attempt to interpret and expound Taylor’s views and definitions of race, concepts associated with race, and input my own interpretations as they are appropriate.
Even though Black music such as blues did not end oppression, it helped rehabilitate the oppressed by creating a new identity through music such as blues. The Social construction of racial formation categorized racial groups to construct their social identity. A form of this basis is determined from skin color or skin pigment. Black music such as blues were used as a form of arts to escape the oppression that was placed upon them based on their skin color.
The Growth and Development of Ideas on Race Without examining the past, our views today would be shallow and misleading. In making comparisons it is important to look at aspects of history to provide a more in depth understanding of certain social phenomenon. As comparisons are made, ideas emerge which can raise our levels of such understanding. In this way, by examining the meaning of race two hundred years ago, we can discover that the concept of ‘race’ has evolved; it has changed over time and remains ever changing. Concepts like ‘race’ demand us to study broader social structures and their interaction with smaller social life; in order to do this, we must understand history.
In society, race clearly affects one’s life chances. These are the chances of getting opportunities and gaining experience for progression. The social construction of race is based on privileges and availability of resources. Looking at society and the formation of race in a historical context, whites have always held some sort of delusional belief of a “white-skin privilege.” This advantage grants whites an advantage in society whether one desires it or not. This notion is often commonly referred to as reality.
Social Construction Race Race has been one of the most outstanding events in the United States all the way from the 1500s up until now. The concept of race has been socially constructed in a way that is broad and difficult to understand. Social construction can be defined as the set of rules determined by society’s urges and trends. The rules created by society play a huge role in racialization, as the U.S. creates laws to separate the English or whites from the nonwhites. Europeans, Indigenous People, and Africans were all racialized and victimized for various reasons.
In the past, races were identified by the imposition of discrete boundaries upon continuous and often discordant biological variation. The concept of race is therefore a historical construct and not one that provides either valid classification or an explanatory process. Popular everyday awareness of race is transmitted from generation to generation through cultural learning. Attributing race to an individual or a population amounts to applying a social and cultural label that lacks scientific consensus and supporting data. While anthropologists continue to study how and why humans vary biologically, it is apparent that human populations differ from one another much less than do populations in other species because we use our cultural, rather than our physical differences to aid us in adapting to various environments.
Through the selected readings it becomes clear that race is not only a social construct but also a value that changes depending on the region in which one inhabits. Despite the lack of scientific support for race as a biological phenomenon, race still results in misfortune for many minorities. This present throughout everyday life in terms of job opportunities, education, and life experiences.
- If you 're at school or at a social event and someone makes an ethnic or a racial slur to you or just in general, what would you do? Do you say something; do you say nothing, would you laugh or would you just walk away?
The concept of race is an ancient construction through which a single society models all of mankind around the ideal man. This idealism evolved from prejudice and ignorance of another culture and the inability to view another human as equal. The establishment of race and racism can be seen from as early as the Middle Ages through the present. The social construction of racism and the feeling of superiority to people of other ethnicities, have been distinguishably present in European societies as well as America throughout the last several centuries.
...The most profound conclusion on the concept of race is the argument that the term is not a biologically innate fixture. Despite the discredited nature of the concept of ‘race’, the idea stills “exerts a powerful influence in everyday language and ideology”. (Jary & Jary, 2000: pp503-4) This disputes the assumption that racial divisions reflect fundamental genetic differences.
To understand our existence, we interact with other members of society and develop a set of shared notions, institutions, and structures. Sociology, the systematic study of human society, helps us understand these interactions and developments. In particular, applying the sociological imagination to the social construct of race yields insight into its fallacy and utility. This essay examines the historical origin, functions, and societal implications of race in the United States. I also connect the social construct of race with the writings of Barbara J. Fields, Kingsley Davis, Wilbert E. Moore, Marianne Bertrand, and Sendhil Mullainathan. In a larger context, the social construct of race is a system of schematic classification; race
“Black, white and brown are merely skin colors. But we attach to them meanings and assumptions, even laws that create enduring social inequality.”(Adelman and Smith 2003). When I first heard this quote in this film, I was not surprised about it. Each human is unique compared to the other; however, we are group together based on uncontrollable physical characteristics. Eyes, hair texture, and skin tone became a way to separate who belongs where. Each group was labeled as having the same traits. African Americans were physically superior, Asians were the more intellectual race, and Indians were the advanced farmers. Certain races became superior to the next and society shaped their hierarchy on what genes you inherited.
Racism is often considered a thing of the past, with its manifestation rarely being acknowledged in the United States today. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a documentary that addresses the legacy of racism through its significance in the past, and its presence in society today. To understand racism, it is vital to understand the concept of race. Race is a social invention, not a biological truth. This can be observed through the varying classifications of race in different cultures and time periods. For instance, in the United States, race has long been distinguished by skin color. In nineteenth century China, however, race was determined by the amount of body hair an individual had. Someone with a large amount of facial hair, for example,
Race is easily defined as the idea that biological differences between humans causes different skin pigmentation. Racism is the concept that a person, or people, are inferior as a result of having a certain skin color. Previously, it was speculated that biological differences that result in different skin pigmentation also cause differences in intellectual capabilities. With that being said, race is an intricate topic that can be grossly misinterpreted by humans. The idea of race derives from humankind harboring the compelling urge to objectify everything. This urge to objectify everything has created racist principles that have become ingrained in society. The concept that certain humans are inferior to others on the premise of skin color is irrefutably toxic to society, but common misinterpretations of what race is can
The last chapter of the text varies depending on which edition is read. After buying the second edition I was able to acquire a copy of the first. The last chapters were an interesting correlation to the periods in which they were published, though they are both similar. After the 2008 election, Taylor rewrote the last chapter of the text to reflect the new conversation brought about with the election of our first black president. In the first edition, chapter six undertakes how race affects the increasingly prevalent topic of immigration and globalization in the United States (among various other things). Taylor stresses the importance of defining immigration administration as a racial structure, regardless of the insistence of supporters that they are simply enforcing laws. He makes his point by explaining that the common, go-to assertions and concepts about what qualifies as American (and what makes our country what we believe it to be) come from customs that were created “in the fires of classical racialism” (p. 195). This is particularly true with the unspoken, yet routine supposition that America is a country made for, and accommodating to, the white man. This understanding dates back to the time the first European settlers came to America and has been unwavering ever since. Taylor cites examples including the United States prison system and it’s radically uneven population. It seems strikingly obvious that there are a disproportionate amount of minorities, begging a discussion about the supposedly unpartisan nature of our laws and criminal codes. There is also mention of the consistent U.S. intervention in Haiti; all but eliminating it’s capability to be self-sufficient.