Assignment: Race and Ethnicity

ETHNICITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC..............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Ethnicity refers to the group of people who have some common factors. These factors can
be cultural factors or social factors. On the basis of these factors, individuals identify each other
as a common base (Steinmetz, 2018). An example of ethnicity is British can define themselves
on the basis of nationality and on the same basis, they differentiate themselves from others such
as Germany or Spanish etc. Cultural society refers to the group of people on the basis of cultural
aspects such as religion, race, values, customs and beliefs etc. Example of cultural society is
Christian group and Hindu group etc. The terms Ethnicity and Cultural society are interrelated to
each other’s. This essay will highlight the roles of ethnicity in the context of cultural society's
development.
MAIN BODY
Ethnicity plays a vital role in cultural society as it impacts people's lives as well as their
identity in different forms. Ethnicity is normally referred as national background by which an
individual is identified. In other words ethnicity is used to describe and categories an individual's
cultural characteristics for example skin colour, genes and various other features. Ethnicity
strongly impacts today's modern society as it influences people's behaviour, mentality, attitude as
well as the way they feel about any issue. It is identified the moment any person is born. It also
defines the way an individual behaves, handle any kind of conflict, the way they solve their
problems as well as the way they express their feelings through body language or expressions or
verbally. It has been seen that ethnicity is gaining momentum in today's world as today there is
no nation who has one single ethnic group. Due to this increasing momentum culture is getting
affected drastically which is further affecting characteristics of individual’s involved in particular
ethnic groups (Hussain, 2017). Many times due to this ethnicity cultural differences are created
in terms of education, willingness to accept an information or incorporate that information within
their lifestyle. Ethnicity also affects wellness and health of an individual, their education, their
creativity and innovation, sustainability, interaction, communication as well as overall behaviour
of a society.
Conflict theory-
This is often applied to the inequalities which are caused into various classes, race and
ethnicity which will be specifying the conflicts between minorities. It can be added that conflict
theory which was according to the perspective of US history that was under struggle among
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racial ethnic minorities and ruling class people. Into the late 19th century when the black
American’s were dominating with limited black political and social power.
Interactionism theory-
From this theory it can be added that ethnicity or race is providing stronger symbol for
the source of identity. As it can be suggested that racial prejudice can be formed into the
interaction within the member of dominant group but is this interaction is not there then it can
lead to racist view. For an example then individual who is believing about a particular group
which are based on images which is most commonly conveyed by media. The person will be
feeling the same way as the group is depicted by media.
Sometimes ethnicity of a nation also describes the working environment or organizational
culture adopted by an organization i.e. whether the organization follows collectivism or
individualism cultural perspective for decision making. For example Companies which operate
in collectivist cultural nation can take any kind of unethical decisions which can benefit their
business and they consider it as a correct behaviour or attitude. Whereas companies which
operate in individualist cultural nation do not take any kind of unethical decisions even if it
benefits their business. They do not find this behaviour appropriate to work and take any
unethical decision. This is because of the culture or environment in which the organization
operates. Ethnicity also affects the cultural behaviour and believes of all the individuals as they
all are from same origin. It plays a vital role in social development of a society which impacts an
individual's needs and desires in order to improve their quality of life (Garbarino, 2017).
Ethnicity also helps people to develop their own perspective, impacts their thinking and
mentality which helps them to move in correct direction because an individual living in a society
normally follows some unwritten rules or guidelines which are created based on their ethnic
groups. Different nations has diverse cultural group people with different thinking, perspectives
and mentality should follow and focus on ethnicity as it helps them to focus on brotherhood
which will help them in building a feeling of humanity within them as it reflects the community
from which they belong, social group from which they belong. Therefore ethnicity should never
be treated as an individual element but should be considered as a part of the society as it not only
impact in individuals thinking perspective but it also affects thinking, and mentality of a society
in which they live in. From the above discussion it is also clear that ethnicity also affects the way
an organization operates within different nations.
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CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarized that Ethnicity plays an important role in
the development of the cultural society. Human behaviour, living styles, communication styles
etc. are representing the ethnicity which is developed by human itself from the observation of its
own cultural society. Due to difference between cultural societies, there are high chances for the
conflicts between two groups which badly impact the ethnicity.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Garbarino, J., 2017. Children and Families in the Social Environment: Modern Applications of
Social Work. Routledge.
Hussain, Y., 2017. Writing diaspora: South Asian women, culture and ethnicity. Routledge.
Steinmetz, G. ed., 2018. State/culture: State-formation after the cultural turn. Cornell University
Press.
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