I am an American. I choose this word to represent me, although others may not acquiesce and won’t categorize individuals who aren’t born in this country to be Americans. In others perspective, to be an American means to have the blood of an American. But I on the other hand, don’t have the heritage and the qualifications that are expected of me to be an American but that is the word that I have chosen to describe myself regardless. The definition of what it means to be an American is debatable and varies from each person. It is more about what you are about rather than who you are. It is contributing to this country, pledging allegiance to a flag and being open to the idea of life, liberty, and equality.
Race is a grouping of individuals who share lineage, and or physical characteristics. Ethnicity is more about culture, and tradition, people with common interests. Is there a relation between race and ethnicity? I think yes, to a point there is. The people you associate with, for the most part, are similar to you, share the same culture, and same interests. This person does not have to be the same race as you, however humans tend to cling to things that are familiar. It is not as much as racism, as it is subconsciously trying to fit in. Then you can say that race and ethnicity have nothing to do with each other, which also is not entirely true. Hispanic people have a strong culture surrounding them, strong heritage. Most people who
Five percent of the United States population is homeless, one of the million people being NFL superstar, Michael Oher. Various life lessons are taught throughout the novel The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. The 300 pound monster went through a rough patch in life as he was growing up. Michael was automatically thought of as empty-headed due to the tone of his skin. Teachers didn’t believe he could be taught since he was large and black. People would tell his foster parents to throw him out on the streets, because he shouldn’t be trusted in a house full of whites. He was called disgusting names from the day he was born and had always deal with it. A major theme of the novel is judging people based on their character, not their appearance.
Culture is defined as the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group. (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture) It is the history of the people; their reason for conducting themselves the way they do. The culture of a group of people is something they are proud of. It showcases the very things that make them unique and separates them from others. While culture does provide a uniqueness to groups and regions, all cultures do have similarities. Most countries, groups, and religions generally have one set culture, some may consist of many subcultures. While a country’s culture has deep roots in heritage, external factors may influence its growth and change; such as people, geography,
When filling out a questionnaire, it is only a matter of time before I come across the predictable: what is your race/ethnicity? I do not have to think long nor hard about my answer. In fact, I do not hesitate to pencil in African American. Why is that? It could very well be that at a glance my skin tone and accent is enough for people to quickly label me as such thus reaffirming my identity. Though, I know people with similar physical dispositions that struggle with the question every time it arises and others complain about the limited options that make them feel pigeonholed into too broad of an identity.
Race and ethnicity are two terms which are used interchangeably in every day conversation, however, there is a distinction between the two. Race is a categorization of people who have been singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis of phenotype – observable physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, eye shape, or other selective attributes. Race is a social construct and has been known to change with historical and political events. Contrarily, ethnicity does not necessarily provide visual clues, instead, ethnicity is categorized on the basis of a shared common culture and includes elements such as language, norms, customs, religion, music, art, literature. Ethnic Groups are developed by their unique history
Historically, race has been divided into four categories: black/African American, white, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American/Alaskan Native. This type of categorization is based on skin color. By categorizing people in this way, most of the information that is gathered is not completely accurate. It does not take into consideration people who are of mixed races. For example, someone could
Race and ethnicity are seen as form of an individual’s cultural identity. Researchers have linked the concept of “race” to the discourses of social Darwinism that in essence is a categorization of “types” of people, grouping them by biological and physical characteristics, most common one being skin pigmentation.
Before answering the question of “Should physicians pay attention to “race”?” lets first discuss why it is necessary for a physician to know the “race” of the patients. The first reason is in regard to pathogenic reasons leading to the field of pharmacogenetics. The second is more social reason and leads to racial division among a population. In considering of the latter reason, one should note that it may not the physician’s intention to cause any racial division. In fact the physician may have nothing but the best intentions in mind but the division it self comes from the interpretation of the physician’s questions. In order justify racial profiling or injustice in a society an uneducated and ignorant society that is searching for a genetic link to race may wrongfully assume genetics are the sole reason of racial differences. These assumptions are made stronger if someone of such a high social position like a physician takes “race” in consideration. However race it self cannot be linked to genetics in anyway. In fact according to the human genome project humans share 99.9% of the same gene pool. Furthermore a study by the Genetic Society of America, weakens the myth that race is caused by genetic differences by stating that there is a “larger Genetic Differences Within Africans Than Between Africans and Eurasians” meaning “blacks” are more genetically similar to “whites”
Just as gender is ambiguous, race is ambiguous. Race is not biological or physiological to where we can see the structure of the sexual reproduction organs and state “He of our society and our social values within these societies. Therefore, one can say that race is a folk taxonomy or social construct, because it is not based on scientific knowledge, just ones opinion that may be constructed on skin color or even religion depending on the societies traditions. Therefore, race varies culture to culture. Someone that may be black in the United States may be classified in a is black or she is white”. Race is not imaginary, because it is real. It is a perception different racial group somewhere else in the world. It is just like the difference
Race is a term that is connected to biology rather than ethnicity. Race is a population with the same exact species. Ethnicity is more based on culture than race, because it’s focusing on religion, customs, and language and to be part of that you must be involved with the qualities. My friend is a Chinese and American race wise however, he does not practice any Chinese customs and doesn’t speak the language at all, so ethnicity wise you could say he’s
Race and culture are two different concepts when looked at by themselves, but when combined, they create the unique individuals that influences the diversity seen in the world today. Race classifies individuals by their genetic make-up and physical characteristics. Culture classifies individuals by the way they practice their religion, beliefs, ritual practices, values, and the type of foods they eat.
This chapter explains the difference between race and ethnicity and how they came about. It also explains the advantages and disadvantages some have due to the creation of race. Race and ethnicity have strong foundations not only within countries, but between them. Globalization has increased the individual’s ethnic identities, but has also put some at disadvantages.
Ethnic-is a relating to or characteristic of a human group having racial, religious, linguistic, and certain other traits in common The term «multiculturalism» has arisen in 1960-s in Canada during searches in order to resolve the situation and to manage the country. The intention «multiculturalism» is usually used in three contexts. One of them is political within the structure of which arguments «for» and «against» multiculturalism policy are given, and both supporters and adversaries use the phrase. The other definition is experiential, expository or analytical. It is commonly used in academic writings and in public debate, relating different demonstrations of cultural heterogeneity of society, and is most closely associated with the emergence of «multi-cultural societies». The third context concerns the social and political philosophy, social and political order and human rights in the cultural heterogeneity of a society.
Dr. Wells, a 33-year old geneticist, has travelled around the world in search of an answer to a question that has crossed the minds of many people: “Where do we all come from?”. Throughout the movie, Wells travels everywhere, meeting different tribes and attempting to find genetic evidence supporting the theory that all people, of all races, originated from Africa 60,000 years ago. During his trip, he follows the path of genetic markers that the Y-chromosome has created, discovering the truth behind everyone’s different features, until he’s almost completely traced out the journey of the first people to travel out of Africa and into the rest of the world.