Explain The Social Construction Of Race

The social construction of race

The definition of race is a classification system used to categorize humans into distinct groups. Nothing in that definition discusses or mentions genes, biology or proven facts as the reason for this separation; they are all referred to as a category of race. The division of people by race is a socially constructed idea to better organize the population. This categorization has created different groups and forced society to look at the color of the person as an essential determinant of who the person is. How each person views and behaves towards race is constructed through personal experience, institutions they take part in and cultural conditions. These different levels are intertwined, and the beliefs they
The way a person looks at race, once on an institutional level, varies much less than on a personal level. The rules, roles and assumptions of race are greater than just in our own families. Institutions have laws and regulations that, although changing with the changing views of society, are ingrain ideas into people's heads. "We learn that black people are more likely to steal, so store detectives follow them into stores" (Harrow, pg. 18). This stereotype of blacks, and many more have led to the institutional law, Stop and Frisk. The law was set to decrease crimes in New York City, yet the outcome has shown more innocent blacks being profiled and interrogated because of this. Racial segregation has embedded itself into laws and in turn society. There is a significantly higher rate of people of color in the criminal justice system, even though the number of white people committing crimes is about the same (Harrow, pg. 19). A person living in New York City might create a different view of Blacks compared to the one I grew up with, with a lack of race and racial laws, due to the difference in the way institutions treat race. A law like Stop and Frisk is just one example of embedded racism, but even the creation of just one racial law has significant repercussions on how racial segregation is
An example of this was in the 1920s when Jews were viewed as an inferior race. It's hard now to see that because being Jewish is not only not seen as a "race" but it is not seen, as much, as an oppressed one. Jews were not seen as skillful and were discriminated in the educational institutions. "it took federal programs to create the conditions whereby the abilities of Jews and other European immigrants could be recognized and rewarded rather than denigrated and denied" (Sacks, pg. 66). Once institutions change, it allowed for the "upward mobility" of the Jews. The institutions and how each race interacts with them much affect the racial construction of society. Society changed from viewing Jews as the lesser race to viewing people of color as the lesser race, and now our society views racial discrimination this