A. Race is defined as a group or category of
individuals having traits that set them apart from one another. Ethnicity is
based on a cultural heritage that is shared while race revolves around the idea
of biological characteristics. Social scientists and sociologists believe that
race is a socially constructed concept. It is an idea that was created by
society to justify inequality. Science and DNA show there is only one human
race, no multiple races of humans. The multiple race paradigms come from presuppositions
regarding evolutionary theory (Lee,
2004).
Race is a social construct produced by the dominant group in society and their
power to define. In other words, race is not based on biology, but race is
instead an idea that we ascribe to biology.
B . What I found particularly interesting is
that race was never just a matter of how you look, but about how people
assigned meaning to how you look. This is true on the most part in that during
times of slavery and slave trade, people with black skin were discriminated
simply upon sight (Little,
2008).
This aspect is particularly disturbing in that people should be judged by the
content of their character instead of color of their skin.
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C. The information has increased my
understanding of race from a social perspective in that humans have the idea
that there are these fundamental differences between other humans. We do not
realize that race is an idea that evolves over time and that it has a history (COATES,
2013).
It is saddening that it is constructed by society to further certain economic
and political goals. It became a lens through which we view our world. I have also learned that race does not
account for patterns of genetic variation. As a species, our regency and the
way we have mated and moved throughout our history does.
D.
Racial segregation has been the significant outcome of using race in a manner
to separate people in society. Also, fear and ignorance are specifically
powerful outcomes that perpetuate the notion of discriminating against members
of different groups. Both of these conditions prevent individuals of one group
from honestly getting to know individuals of other groups. Hence, the dominant
group individuals tend to rely upon preconceived notions and, in worst-case
scenarios, use them to form their opinions of others. In turn, by narrowing
their mindset, they close themselves off from the possibility of learning about
other people and eventually accepting others based on their humanity as opposed
to what they are known to stand for.