Race as a Social Construct: An Analysis of Prejudice and Identity

This essay discusses how the concept of race is a social construct, shaped by prejudice and discrimination rather than biological factors. It references Jane Elliot's "The Angry Eye" experiment as a means to understand the experience of being subjected to discrimination. The author reflects on their o...Read More

Running head: RACE AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
Race as a Social Construct
Name of the student
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Author note

1RACE AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
The social prejudice prevailing has given birth to the concept of “race”. The hatred
and anger that white people have for the people of colour have been borne out of lack of
respect and humiliation towards the black people. It is not biological but the social norms that
have given birth to the ugly reality called “racism” (McGettigan, 2016).
The Angry Eye with Jane Elliot is like a social experiment that gives the opportunity
to find out how it feels to be on the other end- the white kids are placed on the receiving end
of the insult and discrimination. It is only by performing this kind of experiment that the
white people will be able to understand how the people of colour feel when they are subjected
to a bitter treatment in the society (Cruz, 2014). I did not empathise with the blue-eyed
participants as I feel that they should be able to feel what the people of colour go through
because only then they would be able to change their behaviour. According to me, this is a
valuable workshop that can teach about oppression as this will provide a practical view point
and provide people with enough scope for judgement.
My skin colour is an important aspect of my identity as it dictates how I will be
treated in the society. My brown skin colour defines why I am looked down upon by the
white people. The discrimination that is based on the colour of my eye has been constructed
by the society and my eye colour is indicative of the treatment that I will be meted out within
the social structure (Morning, 2014).
Statements like “I am not racist...I have a friend who is Racist” can often be heard of
within the social structure and everyone pretends to have an open mind towards the people of
colour. People in general are hypocrites and they pretend to be practitioners and followers of
the principle of social equality where discrimination is not based on the colour of eye and
skin colour. They tend to blame other people in the society for being racist and conceive of
themselves to be absolutely unprejudiced (Pierce, 2014). They act in a hypocritical manner

2RACE AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
and try to put the blame on other people. It should be understood that people of colour cannot
change their colour the way people can change their hair style and ornamentation and so they
should not be looked down upon or treated differently in the society.
Statement like “I don’t see your colour” is a sentence that does not hold enough
meaning and people tend to say these kind of things because they know that this kind of
statement sounds good. People tend to pretend that the colour of the skin does not matter
when actually it does. They tend to think of themselves as naive but they are just playing the
role of a hypocrite and pretending as if it does not matter. Racism is thriving in all the
countries and it can be perceived as being existent in all the layers of society.

3RACE AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
References:
Cruz, B. C. (2014). Social Studies Education. Talking Diversity with Teachers and Teacher
Educators: Exercises and Critical Conversations Across the Curriculum, 99.
McGettigan, T. (2016). A Remedy for Racism: Terminating White Privilege.
Morning, A. (2014). And you thought we had moved beyond all that: Biological race returns
to the social sciences. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(10), 1676-1685.
Pierce, J. L. (2014, March). Why Teaching About Race as a Social Construct Still Matters.
In Sociological Forum (Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 259-264).