Why discuss race and racial ideology? Race and racial ideology are important concepts to learn and understand. We unknowingly make rushed judgments about other individuals and groups without a decent understanding of these concepts. Some of those judgments are harmless and have little to no effect on individuals or groups. While other rushed, judgments can have negative attitudes and feelings toward individuals or groups. The readings that were provided gave me a better perception on the historical and present day use of race and racial ideologies. In Sports in Society, Jay Coakley discusses and defines race related terms. Before reading this material, I often used race and ethnicity interchangeably. Race refers to a population of people
…show more content…
Fields used the example of Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti. The United States has had a history of the one-drop rule. This meant, if you have one drop of Black blood, you are labeled as Black. While being interviewed by an American journalist, Papa Doc Duvalier answered a question regarding Haiti’s population of white people. He stated, “Ninety-eight percent,” of the population were white. This confused the journalist. When asked how he defines White, Duvalier gave a similar response to the one-drop rule. However, instead of one drop of Black blood, it was one drop of White blood. This example, contributes to our understanding of race and racial ideology by expressing how variant the definitions of race …show more content…
It also explores race as a social construction. In class, we learned race, a social construction is the idea that race can take on different forms and give different meanings from one situation, culture, or point in time to the next. What may have been considered a race decades ago may have now changed in the present day. For the case of Susie Guillory Phipps, her racial identity was challenged. For most of her life, she knew she was white until a state law declared she was black. This case is an example of how laws play a role and influenced racial identities and ideologies.
In Racial and Ethnic Relations, the authors Joe R. Feagin and Clairece Booher Feagin discuss a hierarchy of the races. They also discuss how the perspectives of race have changed. At the top of the hierarchy are white Europeans; while toward the bottom of the hierarchy are Africans. This logic followed the notion from scholars and scientists that Africans are primitive. Scholars and scientists counted on biological factors to further their racial
Fields used the example of Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti. The United States has had a history of the one-drop rule. This meant, if you have one drop of Black blood, you are labeled as Black. While being interviewed by an American journalist, Papa Doc Duvalier answered a question regarding Haiti’s population of white people. He stated, “Ninety-eight percent,” of the population were white. This confused the journalist. When asked how he defines White, Duvalier gave a similar response to the one-drop rule. However, instead of one drop of Black blood, it was one drop of White blood. This example, contributes to our understanding of race and racial ideology by expressing how variant the definitions of race …show more content…
It also explores race as a social construction. In class, we learned race, a social construction is the idea that race can take on different forms and give different meanings from one situation, culture, or point in time to the next. What may have been considered a race decades ago may have now changed in the present day. For the case of Susie Guillory Phipps, her racial identity was challenged. For most of her life, she knew she was white until a state law declared she was black. This case is an example of how laws play a role and influenced racial identities and ideologies.
In Racial and Ethnic Relations, the authors Joe R. Feagin and Clairece Booher Feagin discuss a hierarchy of the races. They also discuss how the perspectives of race have changed. At the top of the hierarchy are white Europeans; while toward the bottom of the hierarchy are Africans. This logic followed the notion from scholars and scientists that Africans are primitive. Scholars and scientists counted on biological factors to further their racial