Race and Ethnicity

Race and Ethnicity 1
Race and Ethnicity
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Race and Ethnicity 2
Race and Ethnicity
Traditionally, race was used to refer to differences based on biological characteristics
(Delgado and Stefancic 2017). Particularly, skin colour was an important factor in
determination of race. Using this differentiation, there were two main races, black and white.
Racism started during the slave trade and became a matter of concern in the following
centuries. Even after the abolition of the slave trade, racism became a matter of great
concern in the United States of America. In the modern days, the meaning of the word race
has greatly changed. The change occurs through the process of social construction. In the
contemporary society, the term race does not refer to biological differences but differences in
the socioeconomic status. Ethnicity on the other hand refers to some shared beliefs, values,
religion and traditions. There are unique characteristics that are used to distinguish an ethnic
group from another. In the modern days, the mobility from one ethnic identity to another is
high. Sociologists have linked this increased mobility to the process of globalisation and
increased intercultural interactions. Sociologists argue that when people from different ethnic
backgrounds are subjected to a single rule, there is high likelihood for social conflicts to
occur. The social conflicts witnessed in Africa could be explained by this phenomenon.
Race
Historically, the concept of race has greatly changed across cultures and region. The
concept has evolved to become less connected to ancestral lines and more connected to the
superficial physical characteristics that exist among human beings. In the past, theorists
used to look at race in terms of geographical regions and skin colours. Therefore, people
could be categorized to belong to different races if they were in different regions or of there
were a variation in their skin colour. In the modern day, the conceptualization by of racial
science by sociologists and other scholars has greatly changed. According to the modern
sociological understanding, race cannot be identified on biological basis. Contemporary
understanding of race is mainly pegged on socioeconomic issues illustrate the great change

Race and Ethnicity 3
that has occurred. In the modern society, it is common to find people who refer to
themselves as white having more black pigmentation (melanin) than those that are referred
as black (West 2017). This phenomenon clearly illustrates that skin colour and biology are
no longer important in determination of race. In some countries of the world, race is
determined by social class rather than skin colour. Therefore, racial discrimination in the
modern times mainly occurs along socioeconomic lines. Level of education is another
important factor that is used in the modern definition and categorization of race. The more
educated a person is, the more they are thought to acquire the ‘white’ while low levels of
education are associated the quality of being black. Therefore, there is a sense in which
‘white’ as defined in the modern way, is thought to be superior to black.
The social construction of race in the contemporary society has great significance. As
we have seen, race is not just a matter of categorization according to some aspects. It is a
concept that has far reaching effects in a society. There exists evidence to show that the
concept of race affects how we view both ourselves and other people (Smedley 2018). It has
so far reaching effects that it also plays a role in determining how we behave and the people
that we interact with. In most societies, people learn at an early age on how to value people
based on the characteristics that those people have. In the modern society, there is a
tendency of thinking highly of person who belongs to a high social class and look down upon
those who are from a lower one. It is very unfortunate that these beliefs that people have
about others have greatly contributed to stereotyping (Andersen and Collins 2015). For
instance, there is a tendency for people to think that the poor are weak while the rich are
strong. In addition, it is common for what rich person says to be respected while the words of
a poor person may not be greatly considered. Although there has been shifts in the
dimensions in which race in understood, racism remain to be largely a negative thing.
It is almost impossible to alienate the topic of race from that of racism. In fact, when
most people hear the word race, they almost always think of racism. Racism has been
considered a great ill in the society for centuries now. In order to understand the significance