Race (Chapter 11)

                      Today, many American citizens believe race to be ambivalent to our society. However, history has shown a very different view. Multiple races have been scrutinized and tortured just because of their race. Many still see the treatment and discrimination that some races still endure today with career opportunities and racism. Most people believe race to be "a category of individuals labeled and treated as similar because of common inborn biological traits, such as skin color, color and texture of hair, shape of eyes, nose, and head" (Newman, 360). Many people believe that people who belong to the same category of race share behavioral and personality traits, but sociologists call these non-biological traits ethnicity. Most people would define race according to biology and citizens genetic makeup. However, today many races are intermixed. For example, the book describes that 75% of African Americans are partly Caucasian. President Obama is a biracial president, but we continue to call him the first black President of the United States. In Ireland, they call everyone who is not Irish black. In Brazil, they label you as white according to your social class. Therefore, race is not really chosen by genetics, but it is rather socially constructed.  The social construction of reality refers to the process which facts, knowledge, truth, and success are discovered made known, reaffirmed, and altered by members of society"(Newman, 57). Therefore, characteristic of a specific society are not only categorized by race, but by social ranking and access to important resources. One race may feel superior to another, not because of their skin tone, but because of the resources they have. Take for example, when Europeans started to travel to Plymouth Rock and began to spread disease, cut down trees, and invade Native Americans Lands. They did not obtain the land, because they were superior. They conquered the land because they had access to more resources than the Native Americans did. The Europeans had horses, cannons, guns, and bullets. Something the Native Americans did not have.   

                 Every ethnic minority has its own story of persecution. Even, European immigrants like Italians, Greeks, Jews, the Irish, Germans, and Poles were discriminated against when they first arrived to the United States. In the 19^th century, Irish citizens were looked upon with disgust from the majority of U.S. citizens. The newspapers, routinely wrote that “No Irish need apply” in their job listings. Jewish citizens were not accepted into United States school universities until the middle of the 20^th century. At one point in time, there was an act that United States Congress approved that restricted southern Europeans, like Greeks and Italians from migrating to the United States (Newman, 364). These citizens were discriminated against, not because of their skin tone. Since these immigrants had the same skin tone as the dominant Caucasian Protestants had at this time. They were discriminated against because they were different. They were considered lower on the social level. These are examples of how race is socially constructed in society. Eventually, these groups moved into main stream society, but every minority group, including Caucasians had to endure discrimination in the United States at some point in time.