Racism and Ethnicity - Coursework Example

Racism & Ethni Task: Outline Introduction 2. Shifting race definitions 3. Social construction 4. Combining approaches 5. Prejudice, discrimination and bias 6. Expression of racism 7. Conclusion Introduction A race is a human population that people believe to be different in a special way from other people with regard to their real or imaginary physique differences. Racial categorizations root from the biological notion of classification of human beings in accordance to their morphology such as facial traits and colour of skin (Weber, 2001). Moreover, individuals are commonly extrinsically categorized into a certain race category; they do not choose their own favourite racial classification. Additionally, ideas of race and racial groupings are overtly controversial as regards their magnanimous influence on social character and certain races’ implied position in society (Jones, 2004). Ethnicity, though not related to race, does not refer to physical traits but to the social characteristics that shared by members of a human population. For instance, some social characteristics include tribe, language, culture, and shared faith. Moreover, unlike races, ethnicity of an individual is not dependent on others (Tai, 2000). Thus, external individuals are not in a position to assign ethnicity to their counterparts. Furthermore, an ethnic group consists of a category of individuals who share a culture or past and have a divine connection to each other in terms of their common traditions, spiritual faith, language, and coinciding cultural perspectives. Shifting race definitions The division of humanity into various races can be traced back to the past Egyptian revered text, which acknowledged four diverse races. Furthermore, this ancient division fused ethnic and racial distinctions, merging national and tribal identities with the colour of skin. Moreover, early Greek authors also tried to explicate and classify observable morphological dichotomies between individuals that they knew. Some distinct racial models blended classical notions with the idea that humanity rose from Noah’s three sons. Furthermore, races were discriminated by colour of skin, hair pigment and facial nature among others. Additionally, races were almost globally perceived to echo group dichotomies in intellect and ethical character. These past racial understandings were commonly both biological and essentialistic (Weber, 2001). Essentialism, basically, denotes intrinsic and static individual traits while taxonomy is hierarchical in the real sense. Moreover, the initiation of the Darwinian progression models questioned the scientific legitimacy of both traits and demanded a fundamental racial modification. Social Construction Debates ensue within and out of academic disciplines regarding how people ought to perceive. Most sociologists and taxonomists perceive that race is a social creation, meaning that it has no basis whatsoever in the real world but is basically a manmade distinction. Resultantly, most researchers have jumped into analyses and conceptualizations of human deviation by race in populace terms, while dismissing racial categorizations in general. In the event of the augmenting dejection of race as compelling categorization system, numerous societal scientists have replaced race with ethnicity to mean self-recognizing groupings that are based on shared culture and religion. Combining Approaches Probably, the best way to confer race is to recognize that the socially created demarcations and genetic constituents overlie. There are overt taxonomic diversities between races, though they are meagre and there is greater disparity within the races as opposed to between them. However, the real criterions used in the racial categorizations are manmade and socially created. Distinctions between racial groupings are decreasing because of intermarriages; they have existed for ages. For instance, African Americans claim to possess West American and European roots (Weber, 2001). However, concerned researchers have identified that a large percentage of African Americans has almost 85% African ancestry roots. Similarly, numerous white Americans possess a blend of African and European lineage. Furthermore, if intermarriages continue to augment, the hereditary and natural features shall increasingly grow undetectable. Moreover, if a mixed population eventually develops, any racial categorizations in that population would be mere social creations. Additionally, debates surrounding the actual definition of the word race will probably ensue for some time in the near future. However, there exist pertinent considerations that extend way beyond the race definition. Race and related concerns continue to influence various issues in the society (Weber, 2001). For instance, discrimination of different races in a certain society in terms of housing or employment of workforce still exists. Race remains to be a marginal factor in social livelihood and sociologists feel mandated to study its implications in multiple dimensions. Prejudice, Discrimination and Bias As the name suggests, prejudice refers to the art of prejudgement of an object or a situation. It encompasses the arrival to a judgement on a given subject prior to conferring where the actual, correct evidence to convict lies. Alternatively, it can refer to the arrival into a judgement without any established and qualified experience and knowhow. Generally, it refers to downbeat views of an individual or group on the basis of social typecasts. At its most extreme level, prejudicial approaches advocated for the denial of a group or an individual of benefit without notable warrant and exclusively based on groundless viewpoints of a given personage. In addition, persons ought to conceive in mind that prejudice is a mere conviction and may not decipher into discrimination, referred to as the unfair and indiscriminate treatment of a given individual or group of individuals on the basis of a given criterion or trait. Though prejudice may transform into discrimination, both are diverse concepts. Theoretically, however, persons should distinguish prejudice from standpoints that they amass throughout real life encounters. Such standpoints or values are not prejudgements but rather are post judgements (Moses, 2002). Moreover, post-judgements that individuals derive from experience that overtly maintains inequitable and hackneyed perspectives on an assemblage of persons is bias. Prejudice can be conveyed through other means such as mass media. Bias may grow through exaggerated connotations in the course of interaction with a given assemblage of individuals. Most people negatively connote both chauvinism and bias as discriminatory though various sociologists have reasoned out that both bias and prejudice are pertinent human endurance adaptations (Weber, 2001). Factually, evidence exists that proves that human beings possess innate or fundamental preferences for persons who resemble them in various aspects, especially in racial cases. Humans are more empathetic to members of their own racial groupings. Perceptively, biases and prejudices may have a biological component behind them. Since most persons lack adequate time to craft their own personal viewpoints on every other group of individuals, biases and prejudices may serve a pertinent tool to enhance communication, though negatively connoted. Expression of racism Individuals may express racism consciously and personally, mostly through unequivocal deeds, thoughts and feelings. However, they may also express racism socially and unknowingly. Persons may propagate racism through foundations that harbor inequalities among racial dispensations (Lewis, 2003). There exist various levels of racism, which I have highlighted. First, individual or personal level racism encompasses circumstances where individuals interact with people from other races. An instance of this racism level may include a person believing that the opposite race is rationally inferior. Secondly, structural racism encompasses the dissimilarities that have roots in the establishment of an affiliation or system. An instance of structural racism may be proven by a past research on a given workplace case of bigotry. There is that aspect of discrimination against potential job hopefuls who are African Americans. This category of personages would be 50% less likely to obtain callbacks for consultations, regardless of their qualifications and preceding know-how (Moses, 2002). Most researchers view this incident as pitted with unfounded bias and purport this behavior to have rooted from the nation’s history in discriminatory practices. Thirdly, cultural racism is a variant of structural racism, which basically occurs when a given person purports that a given race is inferior on the basis of its culture. Furthermore, in this context, the racist party expresses its culture to be unique and better than that of the other parties. Moreover, this racist behavior is common in socialization situations. For instance, Asian American high school students who perform exemplarily receive complementation from their peers as opposed to their African American counterparts who receive rejection regardless of their high GPA’s (Lewis, 2003). Additionally, historical racism or social inequality roots from precedent racism cases that affected the preceding generations. This racist behavior comes in through shortfalls within the formal education arena and unfounded, racist inclinations of public members of a given population. For instance, African American personages have been through numerous adversities in the ancient times. They, therefore, conceive a negative, racist attitude to descendants of aggressors who oppressed their ancestors. Moreover, racist prospects in the US have emanated chiefly from the favoritism and discrimination portended by the affirmative action. Conclusion In conclusion, it is overt that various factors such as religion, age, locality and health among other factors play a pertinent role in crafting ethnicity and multiple social characters that persons embody on individual grounds. Additionally, we have explicated on racism in depth and have found out that it encompasses various modes that altogether lead into pronounced patterns of discriminatory behavior among various groups in the society. Eventually, it is also overt that racism and ethnicity have a correlation though they do not have the same denotation (Jones, 2004). References Tai, R. (2000). Critical ethnicity: Countering the waves of identity politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Weber, L. (2001). Understanding race, class, gender, and sexuality: a conceptual framework. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Lewis, A. (2003). Race in the schoolyard: Negotiating the color line in classrooms and communities. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Moses, M. (2002). Embracing race: Why we need race-conscious education policy. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Jones, S. (2004). The archaeology of ethnicity: Constructing identities in the past and present. New York, NY: Routledge. Read More