PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

 TOWARD A SOCIOLOGY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY

ABSTRACT

Throughout this article, the ideal that I visualize for the changing boundaries of the study of ethnicity and race have been the subject of much debate in recent years. New theoretical debates have come to the fore and empirical research has broached new questions. Taking its cue from the wide range of themes covered in this special issue, this article seeks to map out some of the key areas in which this transformation has become apparent and to highlight the implication for ethnic and race relations as a field of study. In doing so it engages with some of the key questions that run through the whole of these special issue, including the relations between race, power and politics, identify the difference and the politics of multiculturalism. It concludes by touching on some issues that need further research and analysis.

 

 Keywords:  Ethnicity, Race, Social, Language, Religion, Culture

 

1. Introduction

Race refers to the concept of dividing people into groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics and the process of ascribing social meaning to those groups. Ethnicity describes the culture of people in a given geographic region, including their language, heritage, religion and customs. In comparison on other areas of sociological inquiry (E.g.: religion, family, culture,

work, gender, etc.), the sociology of race and ethnicity is a relatively understand field- that has grown over the past century. Early scholars concerned with the fact that race and ethnicity must

be examined in order to more fully understand capitalism, class, or even the emergence of modernity in world.

 

2. RACE vs. ETHNICITY

 

On my view and I’m of those who believe that there is one race, the “Human race”. When doing research about cultural diversity I found that talking about the difference between Race and Ethnicity. I personally didn’t that there was a difference but that’s the way it is so because I want to learn with you and I want to share with you what I know. I don’t believe that it’s racist to say that there are different races. It doesn’t mean that one is better than another. I guess it depends on how you see life, your philosophy of life. Race and ethnicity play an important role in our

lives, and it impacts how we see the world. The traditional definition of race and ethnicity is related

to physical and sociological factors respectively. As

for ethnicity; it refers to cultural factors such as nationality, regional culture, ancestry and language.

Obviously race and ethnicity can overlap, but they are distinct. In order to go further and get a better understanding of difference between race and culture (as component of ethnicity). I think it’s becoming more and more difficult to make the distinction between Race and Ethnicity because of

the mix of people and the migration of people all over the world. Let’s take an example: A women who was born and raised in the US but her parents

emigrated from China so this woman grew up within a Chinese cultural environment but she went to school in the US, she grew up in the US and she actually got both the Chinese and American cultures. So for her, as for many people- including me- when you come from different places, when you grew up within different cultures, it’s sometimes difficult to identify yourself with a race or an ethnicity.

 

 2.1 The basis of "races"

 

To determine an individual's race, people may use

one or more ancestry or biological bases, phenotypic or physical characteristics, and cultural bases, such as ideology and language. It's true that we do routinely identify each other's race as "black," "white" or "Asian," based on visual cues. But crucially, those are values that humans have chosen to ascribe to each other or themselves. The problem occurs when we conflate this social habit with scientific truth. The reason is that racial discrimination historically has been and continues today to be a phenomenon of social attitudes and behaviors, stemming from people’s perceptions.

 

2.2 Where ethnicity comes in

While race is ascribed to individuals on the basis of physical traits, ethnicity is more frequently chosen by the individual. And, because it encompasses everything from language, to nationality, culture and religion, it can enable people to take on several identities. Someone might choose to identify themselves as Asian American, British Somali or an Ashkenazi Jew, for instance, drawing on different aspects of their ascribed racial identity, culture, ancestry and religion. Ethnicity has been used to oppress different groups, as occurred during the Holocaust, or within interethnic conflict of the Rwandan genocide, where ethnicity was used to justify mass killings. Yet, ethnicity can also be a boon for people who feel like they're soloed into one racial group or another, because it offers a degree of agency, If ekwunigwe said. "That's where this ethnicity question becomes really interesting, because it does provide people with access to multiplicity," she said.

3. Culture

Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of particular people, encompassing language, religion,

cuisine, social habits, music and arts, thus it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group. Culture manifests the uniqueness of particular race which a

group of people belongs to. Culture is a way of life

of a group of people the behaviors, beliefs values and symbols that they accept. Culture has 5 basic characteristics. It is learned, shared, based on symbols, integrated and dynamic. All culture shares

these basic features.

 

4. RACE AND ETHNICITY SOCIOLOGY

How do you define race? If you had to describe why you think you’re a member of one race and someone else was a member of a different one, you’d probably focus on appearances- your skin,your hair, maybe even the structures of your bodies and faces. But most of the time, those physical criteria mean different things; depending on the culture you’re a part of. An obvious example is skin colour. We use the words white and black to describe two races, but the distinction in skin color between those races isn’t as clear cut. A white person who’s spent the summer at the beach might come home with brown skin, but getting a tan doesn’t change their race. Clearly, race is about more than just the literal colour of someone’s skin.

 

3.1 CONCLUSION

On this article this concludes and something that should be cleared from everything we looked about today is that races aren’t fixed immutable categories-they are defined by societies. This article discussed how definitions of races and ethnicities have changed over time and across places. And we finished up by discussing how races are defined in

the world.

 

3.2 REFERENCE

[1] Reading material W6-R-1

[2] Reading material W6-R-2

[3] Reading material W6-R-3

[4]  [3] Barger,S., Donoho, C (2009). The relative

contributions of Race/ Ethnicity, relationship and

Quality of Life Research, 18(2), page no: 179-189.