Good Example Of Racial And Ethnic Groups In US Essay

The world is made up of different people representing different races and ethnic groups around the world. It is important to note that that these social profiling of different people were constructed by the dominant group in a given society. It is important to note that one’s race is determined by their physical features such as one’s phenotype, type of hair, among other things. On the other hand, one’s ethnicity is determined by their culture, language, beliefs and traditional roots. Both the racial and ethnic groups have been formed and integrated into our society by the dominant group as a way of forming a racial hierarchy in the society. Social construct through racial profiling has been a key accelerator to cases of racism in the US. Social construct has brought about racial hierarchy in a society where by one race believes that they are the top of the list. This paper will examine the effect of social construction of race and ethnicities in the US by discussing how the dominant group enjoys power and prestige over the subordinate groups.
Given that the US has different races and ethnicities as a result of immigration, the dominant group has established a system that categorizes the different types of people living in the US. The Europeans were the dominant groups living in the US for a long time. However, it is important to note that there are different ethnicities of white Europeans who settled in the US during the 17th century. The Italian-Americans and the Irish-Americans were in conflict because of their ethnicities such that the Italian-Americans were the dominant group at that time. Thus, they treated the Irish-Americans with brutality and tagged them as the ‘White Niggers’. This indicates that though the Irish Americans were white in terms of their phenotype, they were segregated in the community because of their race. The Italian Americans treated the Irish Americans as a subordinate group in order to maintain their place at the social hierarchy by occupying the prestigious jobs in the market at that time. This indicates that the dominant group, Italian Americans, segregated the other ethnicities by using a form of social construction that favored them instead of other ethnicities.
Secondly, the US is predominately occupied by the White Americans and given the fact that they have more power in the society, they have become the dominant group in the US. Thus, racial profiling has been an ideal way to constructing racial hierarchy. This aspect of racial hierarchy has been used for a number of years especially when the Japanese Americans were forced into segregation. Japanese Americans had never been seen as part of the society but as the other in America. Japanese Americans were forced into the internment camps because of their race and the fact that white Americans had become xenophobic towards them. This was because the Japanese Americans turned into farming to make a source of living but the white Americans believed that they had come to take their jobs. As a result, white Americans became sinophobic, disliked people of Asian descent. This indicates that the white Americans, created excuses to dislike and put down the Asians as they believed they were at the top of the social hierarchy. Thus, social construct has become a key fact in forming social hierarchy for a lengthy time.
In addition, racial profiling is still evident in the American society in that the African Americans are yet to be integrated into the American way of life. Due to their phenotype, they have received negative stereotypes from the white Americans such as being known as criminals, being in the gangs, among other things. One of the ways that the dominant group created a racial profile of the African Americans is through using the Bible. For example, the white Europeans believed in monogenesis whereby they believed that the Deity has created only one race, and that was the white race. Due to this form of belief and mentality, the white Europeans dehumanized the African Americans and racially segregated them from the greater society. During the slavery period, the US constitution outlined that only free people were deemed as whole whereas the slaves at that time, Africans Americans, were defined as three-fifths of a person. This shows that the African Americans were diminished to less than a human being by being considered a property. African Americans were racially segregated not only through theology but also through the law. To substantiate their perceptions, the white Americans also went further to conduct a scientific experiment to demonstrate that the African Americans were not human. This was known as the eugenics movement. This project failed because the human genes do not differ depending one’s race making racial profiling a social construct. This form of traumatizing segregation of a given race is still evident to day in that the negative stereotypes of one race are still adamant in our society. There is institutional racism embedded in the community such that the white Americans enjoy power and prestige based on their phenotype whereas the African Americans who are at the bottom of racial hierarchy, hardly enjoy the prestigious white collar jobs as the white Americans. This indicates that racism is something that was socially constructed by the dominant group as a way ensuring that they remain at the top of social hierarchy whereas the minority groups remain below the social hierarchy engrained in our society.
In conclusion, it is evident that race is defined by one’s physical attributes whereas ethnicity encompasses one’s culture, tradition, language, belief, among others. Racial and ethnic groups have been embedded in the society as a way of differentiating one person from another. However, these groups were mainly constructed in the society as a way of supporting social hierarchy enacted and engrained in the social system by the dominant group. Groups of people have been marginalized in the society due to their ethnicity. For example, the Irish Americans were segregated in the society by the Italian Americans regardless of the fact that they were white. The Italian Americans tagged the Irish Americans as the white niggers as a way of diminishing their relevance in the society and as a way of uplifting their race so as to enjoy power and prestige. On the other hand, racism is still adamant in the US in that the African Americans are still looked down upon by the dominant group, white Americans. Negative stereotypes and racial profiling have brought about prejudice and discrimination among different races in the US. The dominant group has created social hierarchy as a way of maintaining their position at the top so as to enjoy power and prestige in the society based on their phenotype.