Racism And Social Identity

When getting to somebody, the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” really does hold true. In my life, I often come off as shy and reserved to someone who doesn’t know me. On the contrary, my friends describe me as a loudmouth who doesn’t stop asking unnecessary questions. As people I’ve known for some time, my friends know me for more than what first looks may tell. This theory is seen throughout society, far beyond the walls of John Jay High School. Social identity is not representative of one’s personal identity. Rather, until one gets enough exposure to somebody to reveal their true character, their social identity is simply a preconceived notion based on their appearance and social interactions.

Racism and discrimination can take many different forms and can have a negative effect on one’s career, health, and personal development. This paper will use sociological principles in order to analyze examples of the way various aspects of one’s life may be affected by discrimination, prejudice and racist behaviour.

Identity speaks of who we are as individuals but it also comes from two different groups: social and cultural. These groups are connected to power, values and ideology. Social identities are related to how we interact with people and how we present ourselves. Meanwhile cultural identities relate to society in whole such as religion, values, etc. In this paper I will talk about the dominant and subordinate identities. These identities are one of the biggest challenges people in our society face in their lives. They not only affect ones social life but also their daily interactions. I will also discuss two examples that support this statement, one of them being from the reading of “The complexity of identity” by Daniel Tatum.

The study of racism has a profound potential to become an ambiguous sociological endeavor. Incidentally, accounting for the multitude of factors which encompass this subject appear to make it the very heart of the matter and consequently the most time consuming. Although, it is my belief that all three of the main sociological theories (Functionalism, Conflict Theory and Symbolic Interactionism) should be integrated in order to achieve a legitimate and quantifiable outcome, for obvious reasons the “Conflict Theory” logically renders the best possible method to obtain a valid micro analysis of specific agents in this case. The oxford dictionary defines racism as being:

The social norms of society can pressure individuals who do not conform which can lead to the creation of his or her identity. This new identity can alter how he or she react to certain events. The creation of one’s identity can change how society perceives them. One simple change can lead to multiple dramatic unpleasant consequences.An individual’s experiences in life can affect his or her identity in a way that changes how they perceive society.

The concept of identity has been a notion of significant interest not just to sociologists and psychologists, but also to individuals found in a social context of perpetually trying to define themselves.

What is identity? How are identities formed? How much control does one have in molding their identity? Identity is the impression that one exhibits to the world. Principally, identity distinguishes a person by their qualities, beliefs, history and etc. Throughout an individual’s life, he/she focuses on developing an idiosyncratic set of values in order to develop a suitable sense of identity. There are countless factors that contribute towards the formation of one’s character. Generally, identity formation is shaped by the factor society which includes media, friends, family, and one’s surroundings. However, due to the complexity of the identity concept, people do not realize how some factors like society can alternate

The social backround in which a person grows up and education provided by the family as well as by the school has undeniably a crucial role in forming one 's identity.

Throughout history social scientists have been trying to examine the different parameters of race in terms of phenotypic characteristics, and cultural behaviors regarding the different groups that society construct’s. legally judges have had different rulings regarding the categorization of different ethnicities and groups within the United States. Many philosophers such as Kwame Appiah, and Scientists such as Dr. James Watson have had opposing arguments on the topic of race and whether it exists or not. In order to do so we need to examine the different definitions of race, and analyze them in order to see how race is a social construct, where people’s notions of race and their interactions with different races determine the way they perceive

Race is the social construct of social identities. We distinguish the uniqueness of individuals in such ways that our genotype and phenotype are closely associated to classifying these individuals into a particular race. Our culture, physical characteristics, and ethnicity separates us into five different categories of race: Black/African American, Yellow/Asian (including Pacific Islanders), Red/Native Americans, Brown/Hispanic/Latino, and White/Caucasian. Throughout history, darker complexions were often looked down upon. White skin becomes more favorable and are seen to be more superior than the other colors, creating this ideology that justifies inequality. Thus, creating the foundation of discrimination and social inequality in the United

We share the same cultural identity as we consume those cultural artifacts of narratives, memories, stories and fantasies to incorporate their cultural representations in similar or different ways into our everyday rituals and practices of daily life. Besides, the social and cultural construction of identity is highly influenced by media communication in the modern age. Technologies have empowered the media to communicate their meaning to a variety of people; (Hall, 1997) Social and cultural identity are linked to issues of power, value systems, and ideology. The media uses representations, such as images, words, and characters or personae, to convey specific ideas and values related to culture and identity in a society. (Identity: Key Concepts,

Identification naturally happens through established similarities and differences. Sometimes group identification shifts as a result of relational and situational identities. It’s only possible to define oneself through their relationships with others. Therefore “identification changes depending on who one currently has a relationship with”. The relational aspect of group identification is often studied through observing social situations. “Ethnic identity is imperative in the sense that one can rarely rid oneself of it entirely; if you are a Nuer, a Trobriander, a Sikh or an Englishman, you will always will be”. Once the relative importance’s in someone’s life is examined it is easier to

Identity is social construct that many have mistaken for something an individual is born with. There are many aspects of identity that one can inherit like genes that can drive a certain type of character and certain aspects of identity a person can adopt and build for themselves. However the most part of one’s identity is consistent of what the person wants and adopts for themselves and what the society/the people around him/her choose to give him/her.

"Racism is an ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups that devalues and renders inferior those groups that reflects and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society."

Across generations, memory culminates and turns into collective memory that is outside, but influences, an individual 's memory. Maurice Halbwachs ([1950] 1992) argues that “individual memories are only understood through a group context” (Brekhus 2015:147), stating that memory is an absolute sociological concept. Each group dictates their memory to match their present understanding. Therefore, according to Paul Ricoeur (1984; 1988), memories do not linearly follow time, and, instead, follows it phenomenologically. Individuals psychologically use schemas that are formed by groups and these schemas enable and limit their memory. Collective memory is a cultural element of society and affects racial inequality in modern-day America. In particular,