The Consequences Of Social Construction

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In an article by the Huffington Post, they went on record to say, “Black athletes are usually given credit for their “natural athleticism,” while whites are credited for their “hard work,” “discipline,” and “knowledge of the game” (Huffington Post).. The article further goes on to speak on how this helps whites find employment easier because this attributes to their smarts and work ethic and gives them a greater image. Race is groupings of people believed to share common descent based on perceived innate physical similarities (Lecture 3/28/16). Some physical similarities include skin color, head and shape, hair color and texture, shape and size of the nose, eye color and shape, size and shape of the lips, body size, shape musculature, and size of genitalia (Lecture 3/28/16). To say that race is a social construction means that the concept of race results from a process of signification whereby only certain physical characteristics are attributed with meaning and are then used to organize populations into groups which are defined ‘races’ (Smith Lecture March 28). In my own words, this means that people are viewed based off of their race. With a person being a certain race comes how they are looked at, treated, and classified in society. This notion was constructed because there is no biological basis for making the distinctions that we do. But because of race being socially constructed, we are expected to act a certain way based off of race. Sociologists argue there is a social construction because there is no biological basis for what we do because race is not fixed, objective, or concrete. Instead, notions of race change depending on social context. It is culturally and historically constituted. With race not being fixed, objective, or concrete, within societies, notions of race change over time, and across societies, notions of race differ. An example Professor Smith used in class was the twins, Kian and Remee. With this set of twins one was black (Kian), and the other was white (Remee.) Although they are twins, what will make the big difference in both of their lives is their skin tone. Because of the difference of their skin tone, this will later on affect both of their social classes (education, income, occupation), and political power in other parts of the world. Because of their race, and the way race is socially constructed, this will lead to their lives being structured by their race. Race structures our lives because it affects how we make sense of the world, in the end producing racial hierarchies. An example of how race structures our lives is how races are historically viewed. The Antebellum view of blacks were loyal, devoted willing to be led, and childlike. Postbellum views were lazy violent, criminal, and innately inferior. Because a person is African American, they will receive these views even if they break …show more content…
This aspect of race can be explained by Fields concept of race as an “ideology,” where race has been maintained through laws, customs, and daily practices to address practical needs. Fields coins the term “ideology” as the “daily methods through which people make sense of the social reality they create” (Fields). Essentially, race became an everyday habit that the people used in order to justify what was going on in the world around them. Consequences of social construction is exclusion. In lecture, Professor Smith used a quote from Robert Miles stating “All instances where a specific group is shown to be in unequal receipt of resources and services, or to be unequally represented in the hierarchy of class relations.” We know exclusion is true because the fact of unequal representation or receipt of rewards and services presumes the existence of decisions and processes which discriminate between people but also the existence of scarcity: acts of discrimination and exclusion are premised on the need to allocate scarce resources and services and therefore involve decisions of worth and eligibility. We see in the video “Race The Power of an Illusion: The Difference Between Us.” This series of videos shows how racism is deeply fixed in cultures in the United States. The video is broken into three chapters to breakdown the theories of racial differences going back to the 19th Century. Part one of the series goes to Africa where the first homo sapien was found. Part one also

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