Why is It so Difficult to Outline and Classify Race

The thinking of race is ubiquitous but tricky; people assume race is apparent because of the quick visualization one can make based on distinctive color and physical appearance. Yet there is plenty extra than meets the eye. Sociologist relate to race as a social construction. This capability that race is now not primarily based on some innate and immutable scientific fact, but rather, that this thought describes the social meanings ascribed to racial categories. Race is a category that brings together human beings who share similar features that a society believes to be socially enormous from genetics to phenotypic characteristics. It’s now not that biological variations don’t exist that makes race a social construction, however alternatively that people’s grasp of these differences are shaped by the subculture they stay in. Race is distinct from Ethnicity, while race describes the physical appearances and genetic biology, and on the other hand, Ethics describes specific group of people with forged social interaction and same cultural, language and beliefs. I conducted a survey that describes an individual’s personal identity, racial affiliation, psychology, behavior and lifestyle in a very diverse society. One of my interviewees was Christopher Jordan Alava, who is 37-year-old mixed with Filipino, Chinese and Spanish. He is currently a Pharmacist and lives with his girlfriend who is mixed with Japanese and black.

There are a lot of factors into shaping an individual identity, out of which the two most important ones are Race and Ethics which interpedently rely on each other. Jordan expressed that his racial affiliation wasn’t that strong because although he could speak Tagalog and Spanish fluently and Korean and Japanese at a conversational level, but he used English 99.99% of the time when communicating with others. I personally feel the same way since I was born and raised India, but I do attend cultural event that bring our racial group together. It’s very hard for an individual to retain his racial affiliations when you are far away from your motherland. United states have been called a “melting pot” because of its diversity. With a country so diverse, America has dealt with race related issues for years. Our country’s race relation has continuously shown to be improved over the years, in specific, it made a huge impact when President Obama was elected. Jordan believes Race relation has proven to be improving due to an increase in interracial marriages. According to CBS news, just 15% American say his presidency has brought varieties of racial group together. My interviewee believes that the race is not the only factor when being discriminated, it’s also the amount of income an individual make. According to my interviewee, he has never been discriminated in his life because he was taught to be humble and respectful towards others. I on the other hand was raised in a community where my parents were brainwashed into thinking that people with fair skin tone were superior to the darker ones. After we moved to United States, my family’s point of view changed significantly, and we were able to see eye to eye on this.

Science tells us that “race” only exist in the mind of people. There is no specific genetic sequence for blacks or whites or Asians. Thus, there are no specific racial genes that make black more susceptible to high blood pressure, just as there is no specific gene for cancer to be assigned to a specific racial group. Jordan believes that an individual’s DNA determines what each individual is capable of achieving (genotype) while environment and upbringing determines which of those genes get nurtured (phenotype).

It’s not just the skin color that differentiates the race, it is their cultures, their hobbies their significant values and the history they share together as a group. Every race has their distinctive attributes and their way of doing things such as where I am from, elders’ blessing is considered a vital factor to accomplish a task successfully. ex. Final exam. Jordan believes that whites have had more time to increase their economic status than African American, so a disparity will always exist since it will be nearly impossible for the latter to catch up financially. Which is not far from the truth, given US history, Black history had always had set back due to a lot of reasons, mainly because of racial profiling. In my opinion, there is no such thing as racial profiling. Someone’s skin color or height won’t determine one’s potential, its ability to put in the effort will.

In conclusion, sociologists outline race as a thought that signifies differing kinds of human bodies. Whereas there's no biological basis for racial classification, sociologists acknowledge an extended history of tries to prepare teams of individuals supported similar complexion and physical look. The absence of any biological foundation makes race usually troublesome to outline and classify, and intrinsically, sociologists view racial classes and their significance of race in society as unstable, continually shifting, and intimately connected to alternative social forces and structures.