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Theoretical Perspectives. Issues of inequality and discrimination based on race and ethnicity can be observed through the paradigms of positivism, critical sociology and interpretive sociology. As discussed throughout this textbook, the choice of perspective affects the type of analysis sociologists can provide.
glossary. dominant group: a group of people who have more power in a society than any of the subordinate groups. ethnicity: shared culture, which may include heritage, language, religion, and more. minority group: any group of people who are singled out from the others for differential and unequal treatment. race:
- How Is Race A Social Construct?
- Social Construction of Race Examples
- How Race Is Socially Constructed
- Criticisms of The Social Construction of Race
- Why Study The Social Construction of Race?
- Conclusion
- References
A social construct is a category that is primarily defined socially. Often, we consider gender, social class, and beauty to be ideas that are constructed by society. The simplest way to understand this idea is to compare current ideas about categories to past ideas about the same things. For example, 150 years ago, the idea of ideal beauty was diff...
Italians as whites – Interesting historical research by Dewhurst (2008) has demonstrated how Italians were not seen as white people in early colonial Australia. As a result, they faced increased di...African Americans – Whereas in the 18th and early 19th Centuries, African Americans were considered in parts of the USA as the property of whites, lacking legal rights, and being seen as lesser hum...Orientalism – Famous postcolonial scholar Edward Said wrote in Orientalism that Westerners socially construct people Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific in simplistic and stereotypical w...According to poststructural theorists, race is socially constructed whenever it is spoken about. It is through speaking about a race category – repeatedly by many people – that the category is defined and re-defined. Key ways in which we speak about, and therefore construct, race, include: 1. Language – The words we use, the phrases, and the metaph...
1. Race is a Biological Reality
If we took a purely biological perspective on the issue of race, it becomes clear that there are clear biological differences between people that can be categorized under scientific categories of race. Examples of biological differences include skin pigmentation, facial features, height, and susceptibility to certain diseases. These features are hereditary and biological fact (Burr, 2015). As a result, many people – particularly in the hard sciences – contest the notion of social construction...
2. The Social Constructionist Perspective Detracts from Individual Experiences of Racialized People
Many racialized groups believe that their race is a fixed and essential feature of how they self-identify. For example, the unique experience of being Black in America is something many people choose to celebrate. For these people, a claim that their race is socially constructed may detract from their experience of identity, much in the same way that claiming homosexuality is socially constructed might undermine an LGBTQI+ person’s claim that their sexuality is an inherent part of who they ar...
If we were to proceed from the premise that race is socially constructed, several lines of academic inquiry are opened up that have important implications. Most importantly, the knowledge that race is socially constructed opens up opportunities to explore ways to re-construct race in more socially equitable ways. For example, scholars will often ex...
The idea that race is socially constructed is based on the premise that the definitions of all social categories – including race, gender, and even disability – are socially and culturally mediated. Moving from this premise, scholars can explore how the way we define people can marginalize, normalize, include, or exclude people within society. Neve...
Burr, V. (2015). Social constructionism. New York: Routledge. Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. Cambridge: Routledge. Dewhirst, C. (2008). Collaborating on whiteness: representing Italians in early White Australia. Journal of Australian Studies, 32(1), 33-49. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050801993800 Feldman, H. M., Blum, N. J., Elias, E. R.,...
Intersectionality is a feminist sociological theory first highlighted by leading critical theorist thinker Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989). The theory proposes that different biological, social, and cultural factors, such as as gender, race, and class, do not operate in isolation of one antoher. Rather, they are interrlated, forming a system of ...
While many students first entering a sociology classroom are accustomed to conflating the terms “race,” “ethnicity,” and “minority group,” these three terms have distinct meanings for sociologists. race refers to superficial physical differences that a particular society considers significant. ethnicity describes shared culture.
Chapter 11. Race and Ethnicity. 11.1. Racial, Ethnic, and Minority Groups. While many students may be accustomed to conflating the terms race, ethnicity, and minority group, these three terms have distinct meanings for sociologists. The idea of race refers to superficial physical differences, like skin colour, that a particular society ...
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a race in the same way you are born with fingers, eyes, and hair. Fingers, eyes, and hair are natural creations, whereas race is a social fabrication ~Duster 2003; Graves 2001!. We define race as a symbolic category, based on phenotype or ancestry and con-structed according to specific social and historical contexts, that is misrecognized as a ...
