Johnathan Fragoso
Sociology 170
Distinguishing
what we really are
Race,
something that is socially constructed for a society, it is something that is
considered to be important by all members of society, and it is explains the
biologically similar transmitted traits found in our being. But variation can separate
us among society, it can portray certain meanings and false definition to those
of different race or ethnicity from their own.
` I’d
like to start off that we are all broken up into different groups, for example Hispanics,
Arab, white, Asian, African, Etc. Because of this it can lead to some
conflicts. This can be defined as prejudice and stereotyping. Prejudice is a
rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people, while
Stereotyping is exaggerated descriptions applied to every person in some
category, basically labeling. Such as the assumption that of “Asians are good
at math” or more harsh stereotyping that “Mexicans are lazy and stupid” There
are a few theories of why prejudice occurs
The
first theory of why prejudice occurs is Scapegoat theory, which says that
disadvantaged people unfairly blame minorities for their own problems.
(Basically all problems come from those who are not born to their own) The next
is The Authoritarian personality theory in which their morals are based on a “Black
and white” premises on the outlook of other races. The next is culture theory
which is that prejudice is embedded in culture and the source of this comes
from within. Lastly is conflict theory which states cultivation of climate of
race consciousness for the greater and the more privileged then those
minorities. These prejudice and discriminations that are followed can greatly affect
the group it targets. For example with the view of a minority in the united
states, it usually becomes hard for them to find work, they become socially disadvantaged
and end up using low position jobs because of social stratification.
Another form that can separated races
is racism, this is the widespread belief that one racial category is innately superior
or inferior to another race. This has been something that has influenced much negative
activity, for example this is linked to why slavery was support in the past
because of the differences in power with different races. Although in the United
States, it has been on a downward trend, but the issue is still present and is
a large scale social problem today.
Personally
I have dealt with all of this prejudice, racism, and discrimination. Especially
growing up, being of Hispanic origins there usually wouldn’t be a day you wouldn’t
hear something said about my skin color, or the stereotypes of how Mexicans acted.
For example I would I would be asked things such as “How my lawn was looking”
or asked “Where I could get some cheap labor” I do believe this dies down as we
age though, especially for our generation, I feel that there is more acceptance
towards the culture we are heading into.
In
conclusion, things such as discrimination, prejudice to others, and stereotyping
to another race are all forms that have a negative effect because of societies
formation of Race. Each of which hurts society and downgrades a certain race in
some form or another, although it’s still an issue, there is still hope in the
future that we can cut this down much more than it already has been.
No comments:
Post a Comment