Race Social Construction

Marianna Notaro Race is a social construction since it was developed as a way to view different culture and ideologies. It is a construction used to place people in categories based on placement in society and definitions. Conley does a great job of comparing race and ethnicity. He explains that race is a categorization placed on to a person by outside forces, and it is not voluntary (Conley, 2015). A person’s ethnicity, on the other hand, is someone’s self-definition and self-image (Conley, 2015). It can be argued that race is more of a social construction than ethnicity because race is something that a person has no choice over, and it is created solely from societal circumstances. Nature versus nurture is a good concept to apply

For example, the media presents negative images of black crime, which contributes to the social construction of the black race. In an earlier chapter, Conley writes about the O.J. Simpson trial and how it was portrayed in the media. The Times article darkened the image of O.J. on the front cover in order to portray him as guiltier and violent (Conley, 2015). In that same section in chapter 3, Conley sets up a comparison between how the media reported a black person taking food during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how a white couple was portrayed also taking food. The black man was viewed as stealing the food and taking advantage of the disaster whereas the white couple was portrayed as just trying to survive the disaster (Conley, 2015). This comparison creates stratification because it shows Whites as nonviolent and innocent whereas the black man, in this portrayal, does not have good intentions, even though both are taking food during the same disaster. This negative portrayal of Blacks is a consistent theme in the media. It illustrates how it is so easy to twist a perspective or story to fit a social construction. As a result, this influences the way people perceive black people, whether consciously or