It is sad of how prevalent race is within our society today. Race is defined as a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important. The main physical characteristics that people associate with race are skin color, facial features, hair texture and color, body shape are just the most recognized elements. Before educating myself on this topic when thinking of the word race, my mind would automatically think of different skin colors, I did not realize that hair color such as blonde or black could be considered a race. It is human nature to make assumptions about people based on how they look; even though our assumptions might be furthest from the truth. One obvious example of how people make judgements about a person at first sight is if you are wearing glasses they automatically conclude that you are smart; when in reality you just have bad eyes that were passed down to you genetically. Another main assumption that people make is that people with blonde hair are dumb. I wonder what people would think of someone with blonde hair and glasses, would they be considered smart or dumb?
It is interesting to see the difference from the past and presents view on race. The book states that the notion of race came along over a century ago, and they attempted organize the whole worlds population into only three racial categories. The first being Caucasoid, for individuals with light skin and fine hair; the people who would be put into this category are all the way from the very light skinned Europeans to southern India's people. The next is called Negroids which were people who had the darkest skin most of this population being Africans. Lastly the Asians would fit into the category called Mongoloids. In just over a century our whole view on race has expanded extremely we went from three racial categories to hundreds of them.
With today's mixture of people many have defined themselves as multiracial. The majority of the population is not just one pure race, I feel that because of today's advanced technology in transportation our population is opening their minds to making to exploring the world and possibly falling for someone of a different race; therefore mixing the races and creating a diverse society. An interesting fact that was located in our sociology book is that based off of the 2011 census of the United States 8.7 million people checked off more than one of the racial groups. This statistic just shows us how far we have come in accepting and loving our diverse world!
It is interesting to see the difference from the past and presents view on race. The book states that the notion of race came along over a century ago, and they attempted organize the whole worlds population into only three racial categories. The first being Caucasoid, for individuals with light skin and fine hair; the people who would be put into this category are all the way from the very light skinned Europeans to southern India's people. The next is called Negroids which were people who had the darkest skin most of this population being Africans. Lastly the Asians would fit into the category called Mongoloids. In just over a century our whole view on race has expanded extremely we went from three racial categories to hundreds of them.
With today's mixture of people many have defined themselves as multiracial. The majority of the population is not just one pure race, I feel that because of today's advanced technology in transportation our population is opening their minds to making to exploring the world and possibly falling for someone of a different race; therefore mixing the races and creating a diverse society. An interesting fact that was located in our sociology book is that based off of the 2011 census of the United States 8.7 million people checked off more than one of the racial groups. This statistic just shows us how far we have come in accepting and loving our diverse world!
http://thepowerofone.hubpages.com/hub/importance-of-race
http://www.anus.com/zine/articles/race/
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