Final Essay Questions #1. Explain why anthropologists no longer think the race concept is the best way to understand human variation. There are many anthropologists that argue that race concept is not a scientifically useful term. The reason for this is because race concept is a social construction and race is a relative construct. Arbitrariness of classification varies from place to place and person to person.
The United States Judicial System and Racial Profiling ENG 122 Lisa M. Carlo May 27, 2013 The United States Judicial System and Racial Profiling There is reluctance in American society to talk about race and crime because race is a touchy subject. Everything in today's society has to be politically correct. One has to be very careful what they write or say because of the fear of what might happen if someone misunderstood what the real meaning to their statement was. For that reason, when a person talks about race and crime many individuals may interpret their opinions differently. Therefore, many people try to avoid talking about such controversial subjects.
Many people claim that this distinction in race is necessary because the society in which we live is still racist and only parents of the same ethnic group would be able to give enough cultural support to the children. On the other hand this distinction on races can be considered racist for some people and it could contribute to create a racist society. In the section called “Room for Debate” of the New York Times website, we can find a debate showing different arguments about this issue. In the depate there are three participants with very clear and strong positions. One of the participants is Kevin Noble, author of the article “Not a Deciding Factor but not to be ignored”.
Racial Micro-aggressions against Minorities Jose P. Polanco Carlos Albizu University PSYM 523-A Racial Micro-aggressions against Minorities The term micro-aggressions are consider a brief everyday exchanges that send demeaning messages to certain individuals because of their group memberships. The nature of racism has evolve over time from the old fashioned overt expressions of White supremacy and racial hatred to the more subtle, ambiguous, and unintentional expressions called aversive racism. Because most White people associate racism with hate crimes and White supremacist groups, they are unaware how racism has taken on an invisible nature to the extent that they have lost the perception of unintentional racism towards people of color. White Americans believe that discrimination is on the decline, that racism is not a significant issue that has an impact in their behavior and performance. In contrast, Black Americans perceive that racism is a constant reality in their lives, White individuals continue to respond toward them.
Smay and Armelagos (2000) identify what they believe to be three variations of forensic anthropologists, with respect to attitude towards the race concept. The first category is represented by those who accept race at face value, without ever questioning its validity. Alternatively there are some who believe that race is not an entirely valid concept, realising that it is not possible to assign every individual a particular race however, they do accept that racial grouping does have its uses in certain circumstances. The final category discussed represents those who feel that race is a completely invalid concept, with no real value in the human identification
For example, Troyna and Williams suggest that the British curriculum is ethnocentric because it prioritises white culture and therefore is a prime example of institutional racism. Stephen Ball goes further by criticising the national curriculum as he suggests that it ignores cultural/ethnic diversity as it promotes ‘little Englandism.’ This according to Bernard Coard creates an inferior image of black people and leads to low self esteem and failure. Although this could explain reasons for ethnic differences in achievement outside of the home background, it isn’t clear how much of an impact it has. This is because, even though it may ignore cultures like Chinese, their achievement levels are higher than the national average and therefore the curriculum cannot be that significant. Also, even with post modern society placing more emphasis on multi culturalism, the differences in achievement still remain.
Race is nature and ethnicity is nurture; that is, birth characteristics versus cultural heritage” ("What Is the Difference"). However, there seems to be a tendency for people to substitute ethnicity for race "Some educators and researchers use ethnicity interchangeably with race because we believe they are still uncomfortable with race, racism and its role in education. But, if we abandon the concept of ‘race’ we also abandon discussions of power, domination and group conflict, economic exploitation, political power and powerlessness” (The Socially Constructed Nature of Race).
Jeff Badu History 281 Section AD1 2/4/13 Paper #1 The Pursuit of Power In the book Whiteness of a Different Color, Jacobson made a strong argument on how race was not only something biological, but a social construction and a forever evolving, unstable process. This means that the color of your skin did not necessarily define who you were, but how society viewed you based on your appearance and actions determined your race. Also, different people such as the Irish faced different obstacles throughout different times in order to gain their citizenship and be socially accepted as “white”. Jacobson’s book does not support the idea that all immigrants encountered the same obstacles with the different examples he provides and the term “whiteness of a different color” refers to how different racial groups were fighting in order to be considered white. Different racial groups had to struggle throughout different time periods in order to gain their “whiteness”.
Together as a society, a single persons destiny weaved together with others symbolizes a combined destiny. One can try to detach its self from civilization, but never can be entirely disconnected from it because everyone is affected by the issues of society. There are many other issues that relates to Kings case against racial segregation. Not only do people judge skin color, but other things like religion, sexual orientation, and culture. Other social issues like these affect even more people because any kind of segregation can make individuals feel like a less important person because they have been personally attacked.
It cannot be argued that in American history there have been many cases of discrimination imposed on people of different race, creed, color, ethnic background, and of course gender differences. However, it is an incorrect assumption that these members, of either group, deserve to be over compensated in professional business settings or even the in the judicial system. America was not built on equal opportunity, that point cannot be argued, however it is still discrimination to allow preferential treatment to those who feel they deserve it due to past behaviors. The articles clearly state that impoverished white Americans suffer many if not all the