Race is a term used to classify people with regard to their physical characteristics. Historically, we are brought up to believe that races do exist, and they are sources of our identity, but biological evidence shows that human beings are genetically 99.9 percent identical. Race is a cultural, political, and social concept that is set to divide the society in a certain line. Races have divided the society into black, white and Asians. There are no genetic characteristics that are possessed by the whites and not possessed by non-whites, in fact, the intra-race difference exceeds the inter-race differences.
Social construction is a theory that asserts that many aspects of our everyday life are a result of social agreement and social action and not because of any objective facts. Most of the things we take for granted are not objective but they are a result of human subjectivity.
There is evidence that shows that race is a social construction apart from the biological evidence.’ Race’ is a linguistic phenomenon, it is a word. It is not a natural structure that we found on this earth. Language is a part of the social context of life. Language is a powerful aspect of the social life of human beings. Historically there are other social divisions created by humans such as religion and social classes. Race is just of them.
Race is a social construct introduced by the dominant group in the society to define their boundaries (Takaki 108). Historically the whites are the dominant race. The Africans came to America as slaves for the white people. The whites used the issue of the skin difference/race to make the black people feel they were inferior so that they could serve them forever. The abolition of slavery came with increased black population in America. The dominant group was forced to perpetuate racial differences so that they could still dominate the others.
Theories of evolution particularly Darwin’s theory shows that human beings have a common descent. The evolution story does not talk about a certain race but, it talks about the whole human race. It even says that human originated from Africa.
Classifying people in the lines of races has done more damage than good. It all begins with racism; this is the discrimination of a person based on the race they belong to. Racial hatred had existed since the period of colonization when the whites decided that they were superior. It is a problem that has resulted in very tragic situations such as the Nazi rule, which almost wiped out the whole Jewish population. Racism has led to harassment of other races, which are considered to be the minority.
Racial stereotypes have been created. These stereotypes are deeply rooted within us such that a small child will tell whatever race he is. Most comedies show how different races have been stereotyped though most of those things are true. The bigger problem with stereotyping is that it leads to profiling. Most minorities find themselves being stopped by the police and being linked with criminals. In the justice system, most minorities end up in jail when compared to whites. This is not because they are always on the wrong side of the law but because the minorities are stereotyped as having more criminal tendencies.
The members of the dominant group benefit when it comes to jobs and infrastructure. Though the situation is improving, it is very common to find that members of a minority race are on lower job positions with little pay. The dominant group continues to hire their own, leaving out the other races.
Works cited
Takaki, Ronald. A different mirror: a history of multicultural America. Little, Brown & Co.
1993, Print
