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. *…
1) Using two racial groups [of color], demonstrate how oppositional dichotomies of race define racial stereotypes. Oppositional dichotomies of race is like the idea of polar opposites. It is a unit made up of two parts that compliment each other and are essential to one another. To think about it simply and without race, it is like left and right or light and dark. Left and right depend on each other because without one of them, the other can’t exist; this same idea can be applied to racial stereotypes.…
The sayings ‘crack is wack’ and ‘crack babies’ has came for this period of 8 years. During the Reagan presidency life for colored people were terrible. If you were caught with crack cocaine you got a way longer sentence than anyone caught with powdered cocaine. Angela Davis, counterculture activist and from the 13th, explains, “ ...War on drugs was a war on communities of color.. Nearly genocidal in poor communities”. According to Debbie Howlett, “Reagan cut budget of Department of wife, Hillary Clinton called black children “super-predators”. Clinton’s 1994 crime bill changed everything about the judicial system. Prisons expanded police force expanded. In the documentary the 13th, the showing of the prison population is shown. From 1980 there was 513,900…
Beginning around the 1700s, under the development of technology in many aspects, the Europeans started their expedition to explore the world. After the discover of many unknown lands, they soon developed a policy to extend their power and influence through colonies, with violence and blood. The policy was known as “imperialism”. In Africa, European imperialists ruled, killed, enslaved, and traded millions of native Africans like merchandise while also robbing all the approachable natural resources. Imperialists apparently brought a catastrophe into Africa while they even caused a lot of leftover problems to the modern Africa. However, back to the 1800s, imperialists did not think imperialism was a fault. With better-developed technology, Europeans started to believe that they enjoyed superiority in all aspects, including economics, culture and race. They made up many justifications to defend their crimes that related to these three aspects. Most of the justification could be categorized into two camps: the “internal camp” and the “external camp”. In the “internal camp”, imperialists justified themselves by connecting “nationalism” and “imperialism”, which they believed ruling an “inferior race” was an efficient way to enrich their home countries. One of the related theories was “Social Darwinism”. The “external camp” believed the intention of imperialism was to help and benefit the “barbaric” natives. One of the popular theories was the “duty theory”. However, activist Roger Casement heavily criticized imperialism by using the same concepts. He disproved both camps by pointing that imperialism neither necessarily enriched nations nor brought any benefit to the natives. With his documentary report on the Congo Free State, which was privately controlled by King Leopold II of Belgium, we could observe the…
Race is known to be the biological difference between groups. It is culturally constructed and was created by countries conducting imperialism and colonization.…
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…
Advocates of Realism theory contend race and ethnicity are truths that contribute to an over arching make-up that equals an innate social identity. The rudimentary proponents of an individual’s identity must then suffice as pragmatic and permanent from birth. Subsequently, when humans build relations perceivable features allow us to understand similarities and disparities. According to Realists, no two individuals are the same and therefore the ensuing natural propensity creates categories for placing individuals; people can then identify as “us” versus “them”. By maintaining groups based on both ancestral background and perceived phenotypic attributes, Realists conclude humans should foster collective sentiments of multiculturalism and diversity.…
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…
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…
“Race dominates our personal lives” (192 López). Race is constantly a part of people’s lives and throughout the film Rabbit Proof Fence directed by Phillip Noyce and the Critical Race Theory written by Ian Lopez, we are able to see in what ways it affects people. The film depicts a group of three half caste Aborigine girls, who are taken from their family by a white man, Mr. Neville. The girls are taken to be trained as servants and also so they can assimilate to the “White” culture. The article explains how race can be mistaken to be a biological difference, but how it actually is a social construct created by society. Throughout their works, Lopez and Noyce portray that race is not determined by biological factors, but rather by society creating social constructs.…
When it comes to Alan Goodman’s quote “to understand why the idea of race is a biological myth requires a major paradigm shift”, I do highly agree because we have been taught to classify and relate to each other through race. By stating it is a biological myth is going to cause a huge controversy for example in the video ‘Race: The Power of an Illusion (2003) – Ep1, “The Difference Between Us” shows proof that though we can physically and culturally connect through race we are genetically still very different. When the students did the experiment with their DNA they were told to guess who would most likely have very similar marks and most picked their classmates who physically looked physically similar. Once the results were given they realized…
The factor that has the greatest effect on life outcomes for people is race. In America, society has made race a very important characteristic, to survive in their country. Many authors believe that race should be an irrelevant category that nobody cares about. For example, nobody in American culture cares about eye color. If citizens in the United states looked at race like they looked at eye color there would be no racism. Richard A. Wasserstrom says that, “Race does not function in our culture as does eye color. Eye color is an irrelevant category; nobody cares what color people eyes are; it is not an important cultural fact; nothing turns on what eye color you have. It is important to see that race is not like that at all. And this truth affects what will and will not count ass cases of racism. In our culture to be non-white especially to be black is to be treated and seen to be a member of a group that is different from and inferior to the group of standard fully developed person, the adult white males. To be black is to be a member of what was a despised minority and what is still a disliked and oppressed one. That is simply part of the awful truth of our cultural and social history, and a significant feature of the…
Race. Definition: A term used to define people by their pigmentation or location of origin, reaching into facets of society such as mass prejudice or the suppression of other said races. Slavery is the first human construct to develop from racism, and by far the cruelest, systematically breaking the spirits of supposedly different men and women so that they would feel fear to stand to their masters of a different creed. During the turn of the 20th century, slavery was outlawed in nearly every modern day country. But then came the prejudice after it. Desperate to cling to the power, former masters looked for the government to create Jim Crow laws, which would segregate and deny African Americans from services accessible to white men. After the…
After reading many articles in different themes in this class, I have to say that Racial Formation in the United States captured my attention. Coming from Congo, I had another way of perception about class and race. Surly the different background that I had on how to categorize people in a particular class based on their skin color changed slightly when I moved in the US. However, one thing that did not or I may say never occurred to me, was to think even once that race could also be viewed as someone's social class. To me social class was limited or based on someone's education, place of birth, income made, and country or city of origin. So this article really did stimulate my curiosity on looking into different way that race can play a big role into defining someone's social class. That is the reason why I am going to write about the theorist Michael Omi in how he argues about race and social class.…
Racism emerged out of the rise in the slave trade in the eighteenth century. Black people could be bought and sold like property and treated - or maltreated - as their owners wished, because they were regarded as something less than human.…