Race Social Construct

Racial and ethnic differences have been proven to be minor and insignificant, however, society continues to use them as socially significant categories, bringing up the question as to why. Before answering the proposed question, it is critical to understand race and ethnicity. First, race is defined as a social construct according to which human beings are socially classified based on their genetic and physical differences such as skin color, hair texture, etc. (Cornell, 2006. pg.24) Such perception of race also pushes the ideology that human beings according to their physical and genetic differences can excel in particular abilities such as athletic, intelligence, or music. (Race: The Power of Illusion, Episode 1, The Difference Between Us, …show more content…
(Cornell, 2006, pg.16) Historically at first, ethnicity was used to describe groups that were considered as part of a dominant religion, but later transformed into a classification based on shared culture, language, religion, and patterns of behavior. What is important to understand is that race and ethnicity are different, however they do overlap. Race was institutionalized and used as a group boundary, while ethnicity was created more by the members of the ethnic groups for self-identification but used in similar ways as race. Now that race and ethnicity have been identified and it is clear that there are no significant differences among the socially constructed groups of human beings, it is important to understand why we as a society continue to use race or ethnicity as a socially significant category. To start with, race was a social construct that was a product of power and a tool to imply inferiority. Typically, such classification was used by a dominant group to impose upon less powerful groups, its purpose was to divide white groups from …show more content…
Ethnocentrism is defined as the belief that one’s ethnicity is superior to others. Cornell, 2006, pg. 78. 28. The ethnic group with such psychological belief, might not desire to reject its superiority over others, maintaining the practice of categorizing. Another reason behind this is history, classification based on race and ethnicity has been around for decades and is deemed to be natural. Cornell underlines that “although characters such as kinship or physiology appear to be natural or inherent, their uses in defining groups are fundamentally arbitrary. “ (Cornell, 2006, pg.33) The unfortunate discriminatory practices are still present and have been very vivid in society up until recently. The main reasoning behind the use of racial and ethnic categories today is due to the two social constructs being historically around for such a long time, that modern societies cannot simply reject them but rather recognize them to be

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