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Social construction of race and how it affects society
Why is race a social problem essay
Social construction of race and how it affects society
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The Robber's Cave experiment was conducted by Muzafer Sherif a famous Social Psychologist. He came up with this experiment in 1954, where he picked twenty-two boys from Caucasian middle class homes with two parents. The boys didn't know each other before the study and had no relations to any gangs. When arriving to the campsite, they were divided into two groups, where they were asked to make up names for their groups, they develop their own culture. The group did the normal activities you would do if you were attending an away camp for the summer, things started to shift to competing to aggressive behavior toward each other to the point the researcher had to separate them for a cool off period. During the cooling off period the researchers asked the two groups to write a list of features of the two groups. The boys characterize their own in-group in very favorable terms and the other out-group in very unfavorable terms. The experiment showed the same kinds of conflict that plague all over the world. Putting strangers to groups, throw the groups into competition, stir the pot and soon there is conflict. The evidence shows that when you force people to compete for something, there will be aggression between the groups. (McLeod, S. A. (2008).Robbers Cave.) It’s like a small town gang that divided into two groups …show more content…
because of differences and they come from the same background, they could fight over who claims what streets and who they want to initiate in their groups. At the end of the day, even if one group respects the other after a while, they will become enemies. They will be ready to kill each other off, needless to say they fight for the same things, stand for the same things, they both have the same common goals, but yet they still fight until they kill the other gang. But let something happen that forces them to come together, like the murder of both leaders. If someone from an outside town comes to take over or kills both leaders for whatever reason, it forces both sides to come to the same side to find the person. Both sides may fight to keep their territory, fight for their respect on the streets. It’s kind of like someone taking a bunch of pit-bull puppy’s and they are cute and cuddly, all of a sudden it get extremely hot, the water and food start to run out and they start to get aggressive and fight each other or come at humans. Sounds like the process of how idiotic people do to prepare a dog to fight each other, I would compare his experiment to this example. "Prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination often go hand-in-hand, but it is also possible to have one without the others. When an ethnic group is stereotyped with a neutral or positive attribute such as "family-oriented," prejudice and discrimination may not be involved. Similarly, a generalized prejudice against "foreigners" or "amputees" may not include specific stereotypes or acts of discrimination. There are even times when discrimination takes place without prejudice or stereotyping, either intentionally or unintentionally" (UnderstandingPrejudice.org: The Psychology of Prejudice. (n.d.)) . I ran across this article about a famous African American actress by the name Danielle Watts from the DJango Unchained and her husband Brian James Lucas. Danielle describes a normal day for an actress, attending a meeting with TV executives to land deals, well she was at a big name television company for a meeting and it must of went well. She went outside to her husband waiting and was showing PDA, as they describe in the article with her Caucasian husband, the policed claims that someone called the police and stated they seen Danielle fully clothed make out with her husband in their car in the parking lot of the company. At the time the police pulled up, she had called her dad to tell him the good news and not paying any mind to the police because she didn't think they were for her. After a while more cops followed and as she turned around a cop approach her and as her husband and Danielle describes asked for her ID and she declined because the police didn't give her probable cause. We know how that ended up, she describes her arrest as the police forced her down and handcuffed her. The reason, well the couple says the police assumed or used the excuse of Danielle exposes herself in the car or providing some sort of sexual favor for some type of gain. Later on after her release she went to tweeter and her husband expressing their feelings about the entire thing. Now nowhere in the story did they detain the husband if indeed they thought she was a prostitute or exposing herself, meaning he would have been handcuffed for the same crime. Nope, he wasn’t, he was able to get pictures. Prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination play heavy with this article, let’s define all three words. Our textbook states “Prejudice as a negative emotional response or dislike based on a group membership. Now with Discrimination is defined as a person showing differential treatment based on group membership. Lastly stereotyping is beliefs about what members of social groups are like and consider how it is related to discrimination" (Baron, R., & Branscombe, N. (2012) 13th Edition, p.179). Now reading these definitions one would say the police showed prejudice because she was an African American woman with a man that was Caucasian in a parking lot in an upper class part of California. Discrimination plays a part in this story because as you can see Danielle was handcuffed and hauled to jail, nor her husband (hate to point this out again) but he's Caucasian, she was African American. Lastly Stereotyping plays a part because the police says "someone" called about her in the parking lot making out in her car. Which I doubt seriously the police would come out for that if you said you seen them kissing. I would imagine someone with a watchful eye would look and see Danielle fully clothed in the car supposedly and assume she's a prostitute because of her clothing, her body structure (meaning she may be shapely), her skin color and look at the man she shows affection to and saying she's up to no good in our upper California town. It's so sad that during this time, meaning 2014, we have the Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman case, you have the latest case of Mike Brown shooting that police would step back and look at themselves and know that any little things could possibly throw them into the spotlight, especially during this time when it's still fresh in everyone's mind and is happening every day with no change or repercussions for their behavior. I could point out another African American producer arrested because he fits the description of an armed robber in another high class neighborhood, because he was black and as if all blacks look alike. Later on, people find out that he never even fit the description of the robber, go figure and if he never said anything about social media the police department would never apologize. But still they justified the arrest in the back end and still stand firm on the arrest, funny. I remember as a little girl hearing stories from my great grandfather and my own grandmother about how, “back in the day was like" visiting family in South Carolina. How police pulled African Americans over for no reason, blacks couldn't drink from the white's water fountain, how the kids use to throw rocks at my grandmother and her siblings going to school because they were a minority. It always made my skin crawl hearing such horrible things. Fast forwarding to this day in age when right now so many police are profiling people, it's sad because it reminds me of the stories I use to hear. When I was a very young I remember going to my Uncles house and he was watching "Roots" if you ever seen the movie you would know, it’s heartbreaking. I recall him telling me I have to know about the history, I told him that I couldn't watch it because it would make me mad. Sometimes it reminds me of those days of injustice, discrimination and stereotyping. As far as the United State of America has come from those days, it just seems it really hasn't. It feels like it's just more advance and covered by political backing, I can't imagine having to live in a world as it was "back in the day". I would honestly pack up my children and leave the U.S. and drop my citizenship off at the front door and never come back. I couldn't imagine having to go through such horrible things. I can always remember growing up and my two other sisters moved around a lot, new schools every other month almost.
When it was time to make new friends, it would be hard for me because I was lighter than my siblings. If we lived in a mostly African American community I was teased, made front of and never accepted were as my two other siblings were. I was called a "Cracker" and "See-through". Kids ask my sister do we have the same father or parents. When we lived in a mostly White neighborhood and went to school, I was treated better than my sisters and I could see with my every own eyes, how both sides would discriminate and it made us mad growing
up. I can recall times when my grandmother (father's mother) use to call me, my cousins and her own children "white loaf's of bread", crackers, white and I never got why until I relieved she hated my grandfather, she had a self-esteem problem. She use to buy my sisters stuff on Christmas and other children that wasn’t a reminder of my grandfather (which was a lighter skin tone) toys and clothes, the entire tree was theirs and the rest nothing and I mean nothing. It wasn't about not doing for her other grand kids because they were bad that year, it was because of our skin. What’s sad about it is discrimination can even come from your own family. In my essay I summarize The Robber’s Cave experiment, as well as discussed stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. I show examples and definitions, I include my personal experience with discrimination.
Living in Puerto Rico, I remember when I, being less than 10 years old, used to provoke my brother (9 years older than me) to get him mad for childish enjoyment. He would get so mad that we would engage in physical fist fights. My mom would furiously snap at my older brother, even calling him abusive. I knew I started, but I could not say that I did to avoid the punishment. Enraged, he would stare at me and call me out without succeeding in convincing my mother. It was then, when he would conclusively yell either “Of course, because I’m the black one,” or “Yeah, he’s the whiter one. That’s why!” Even though, I am, indeed, of a lighter skin tone than he is, that was not the reason why he was blamed. For my mother, the reason was the age difference
How to research or ideas fit in with the assigned reading. The study was able to illustrate the dynamics of Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory and Aker’s Social Learning Theory through the simple fact that the study focuses on social behaviors, particularly deviant behaviors that can be the result of society or interactions. These deviant behaviors are typically learned actions as a survival mechanism due to a deteriorating community. Allen and Lo constructed their study from Anderson’s (1999) study of black male behavior within poor neig...
The study discussed in the text clearly shows that crime in Hamilton Park is much lower than in either Projectville or La Barriada. The reasons for this are clearly explained by Sutherland’s two learning theories, his differential social organization theory and his differential association theory. The other theories, Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization and Hirschi’s social control theory, do have some merits, but do not apply as clearly to the neighborhoods in the study. Clearly, Sutherland’s theories of learned behavior and favorable and unfavorable definitions offer clear explanations for the crime in Projectville, La Barriada and Hamilton Park.
My parents were proud of being African American Guyanese immigrants, and they often speak about their grandparents who were Portuguese, British, and from St. Vincent. My parent’s sibling didn’t all look alike and their ancestors didn’t either and I never once heard them speak badly about them being lighter or darker. In fact, my father would boast about having ancestors that are White, Spanish and Indian. Gaining a sense of ethnic and racialized self both worked in my favor and against me. I live in a neighborhood surrounded by many different ethnicity, nationalities, and race. Along the years it changed, less and less Caucasian people lived in the neighborhood. I was raised around people of many different racial identity and ethnicities, this allowed me to accept them because I was exposed as an adolescent. My parents shared friends of various races in which they spoke highly about and they never instilled in me that I shouldn’t accept a certain race. However, I wish they taught me how to deal with those that are not so accepting of African
I wanted to wear brand clothes/shoes they did, I wanted to do my hair like them, and make good grades like them. I wanted to fit in. My cultural identify took a back seat. But it was not long before I felt black and white did not mix. I must have heard too many comments asking to speak Haitian or I do not look Haitian, but more than that, I am black, so I always had to answer question about my hair or why my nose is big, and that I talked white. This feeling carried on to high school because the questions never went away and the distance between me and them grew larger. There was not much action my family could take for those moments in my life, but shared their encounters or conversations to show me I was not alone in dealing with people of other background. I surrounded myself with less white people and more people of color and today, not much has
In-group relationships were built through activities that will promote group identification. Stereotypes were assumed, such as believing that in-group members are brave and friendly (described in favourable terms) and members of the other group – sneaky (unfavourable terms). Hostility developed rapidly, followed by bitter conflict. The experiment focused heavily on the concept of a 'group ' and what a perception of belonging to a group can actually do to the relationships of members within it and their relationships with people outside their group. Sherif remarked that anyone who came in at this point would have concluded that these youngsters were wicked and vicious. However, it was group processes rather than the personality that had produced the conflict. However, in one of Sherif’s studies, which, unfortunately, was never published, they refused to be divided and, together, they resisted attempts by the experimenters to set them against each other.
For this process to take flight Akers outlines the necessary components. Firstly “the group/gang must have normative definitions of what they perceive is right or wrong which will eventually turn into discriminative stimuli” (Bartol, Curt, & Bartol, 2010, 97) which are signals transmitted by subcultural or peer groups to indicate whether certain actions should be rewarded or punished. In this regards, “the strength and likelihood of one adopting these values are indicative of the amount of reinforcement and the frequency of it” (Burgess & Akers, 1966,
In conclusion growing up with an ethnic background was pretty hard; I did not get ridiculed for looking different or doing things differently. There was when I had to assimilate to be accepted in a new town because I did not want to be known as a nerd if I played with the Asian kids instead when I was at school I adapted and changed my beliefs and played with the White kids to feel accepted. But, the hardest part was not in the social atmosphere it comes when it came to my parents. My parents put up these social barriers to not allow me to expand out of my own race. Growing up I broke out of their chain and started to explore different friends and started to date people of other races.
When I was younger, and didn’t realize that being biracial was something different, friends made me feel like I didn’t really belong. I know now that that is not the case, and that being different is a good thing. I’ve learned that I am not half a person, and this has taught me not to “judge a book by it’s cover”, because the way people look doesn’t define who they are. I’ve also learned to be more open-minded to new cultures because that is what I’ve been exposed to. Even though two races make me unique in some ways, I am not any different from anyone else and shouldn’t be viewed that way. I may not look the same as someone who is entirely black or white, but being biracial does not make me less than one
This is because after elementary, I moved into an Asian dominated junior high and high school. In this environment, Asian stereotypes were not taken seriously and were more often told as jokes. For example, what do you call a Vietnamese person walking a dog? A vegetarian! (my favorite joke). However, though I got over the stereotypes, my elementary years still haunt me as of today. I am now more socially awkward and uncomfortable when I am the minority or I am around white individuals. It frightens me that when I am around people who aren’t the same color as me because I feel like the judgments and incomplete stories will start to erupt, and that the incomplete stories will lead to the development of stereotypes and thus once again reenact my elementary years. This environment and atmosphere is reenacted every Monday and Wednesday’s in the WMST dialogue, where I am the minority and feelings of anxiety start to come
For example Ben Chaney was nine years old at the time and played with the white kids. But as soon as he turned ten the parents came straight out to Ben and told him he was not allowed to play with their kids to his face. This was solely based on the complexion of his skin. Another example was Gwendolyn Patton. She grew up in Detroit but spent summers in Montgomery. She used to ride the bus on sundays after church. She would only ride the bus once a week. She got off the bus to get a treat and went to the stad. She bought a cone of water and she sat down to drink. The lady at the stand said she could not sit there (the women did not say why but it was because she was black but it was heavily implied) so Gwen proceeded to pour her water on the counter of the stand and walk
... effect social circles and other groups have on individuals. It will also show the difference between males and females in these groups. There are also many other testable hypotheses that have been and should be made for deindividuation. For example Zimbardo’s two studies on the Ku Klux Klan and the prison study are great examples of studies done to help find out more about deindividuation. There are many holes left in the research on deindividuation, and this experiment presents a possible way of filling part of this gap and giving more data to help lead new and different studies in this area.
A hostile environment would create a hostile society This idea of stereotyping and racial discrimination will ultimately be the catalyst which holds paramount value to change the personality of an individual in a given
The initial study of this theory was conducted in a three-step experiment. In the 1950’s Muzafer Sherif conducted a study at Robber’s Cave State Park in Oklahoma (Sheriff & Sherif, 1953 p. 5). Baumeister & Bushman (2011) explained, “…22 white, middle class, 11-year old boys were thought they were going on a summer camp experience…Sherif divided the group into two groups of eleven…During the first stage, the two groups had no contact with each other. The boys in each camp became good friends… During the second stage, the boys met each other and competed in contests such as baseball and tug of war… The stakes were high, because the winners took home valuable prizes… The contests produced strong feelings of prejudice toward the other group… In the third stage, researchers tried to reduce the hostility between groups. They soon found that creating hostility was much easier than reducing it” (p. 403-404).” By the end of the program, opposing attitudes began to dwindle, but only after bringing the groups together by using subordinate goals, or a goal that con only be completed with the assistance of others. Because the boys only had a limited number of prizes they could win, and competition for those pri...
With the world expanding and explorers setting out to discover new lands, the ability to reach out to other civilizations is becoming a reality. The discovery of new drugs or rare items in other lands, led to criminal groups expanding their reach to take advantage of the new market. Many new communities that were built lacked adequate protection or law enforcement which led to small groups of marauders that would terrorize the settlers and take their food and supplies. This also developed relationships with people in two different nations that had a common goal. A crime g...