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Race and Social Construct Then and Now

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Race is the notion that humans can be classified into unique groups on the grounds of inherited behavioral and physical differences. Research done on human genetics in the 20th century rebutted the existence of biologically distinct races. Currently, races are considered to be cultural constructs that reflect specific beliefs and attitudes that were inflicted on different communities in European occupations dating back to the 15th century.1 2. The modern conceptualization of race emerged in the 1600s. Since then, it has experienced numerous meanings in various western-world languages. The common aspect of these definitions entails categorizing human beings due to their physical differences3.

In the United States, race is used for a group of individuals who share some visible physical attributes such as eye formation, facial features, hair texture, and skin color. These characteristics are connected to vast geographically dispersed populations, resulting in continental aggregates known as races. Such examples include ‘The European race,’ ‘The Asian race,’ and ‘The African race.’4 Many people believe that race reflects phenotypic differences among humans, independent of their cultural background and even without the established racial categories. The term race is also viewed from a linguistic point of view, such as the Latin race and the Arab race. Further, some religious groups have racial attributes, such as the Jewish race.

Many scholars currently accept the established scientific conceptualization of biological diversity among humans.5. Furthermore, it is long believed that the idea of race is solely founded on phenotypic features that do embody the concept of racism or the race’s social reality. Consequently, researchers argue that race is a social construct that originated relatively in the recent past. Most of its salient features can be traced back to the outcomes of its use in human classification6.

Race as an idea emerged in the late 1600s when European colonization and exploration emerged. It was founded as a belief system about differences between human beings due to being members of different populations, such as the Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans who started interacting significantly in the New World7. When slavery was abolished in the 1800s, this ideology evolved to position itself as a new approach to social stratification and division.

Racial classification evolved in the Americas as well as many other places around the world as an approach to social division grounded on what was believed to be natural differences between human populations. According to social policies, beliefs, and practices in the Americas regarding race between the 18th and 20th centuries, there was an emergence of a fundamental and unique ideology about the differences between human populations8. This racial worldview is an institutionalized and systematic set of attitudes and beliefs.

It was believed that the human population could be subdivided into discrete, exclusive, and separate populations referred to as races, and an individual can only be a member of one race9. They also believed that phenotypic differences are symbols of race, status and identity. Thirdly, they argued that each race has unique disposition, morality, temperament, and intellectual ability qualities. Furthermore, they asserted that races are not equal and can be ranked as superior to an inferior race. More so, it was suggested that each race’s physical and behavioral characteristics are innate and inherited and hence unalterable, permanent, and fixed10. In addition, it was viewed that races need to be segregated and allowed to progress in their own communities, institutions, and lifestyles that are different from other races.

The societies subjugated and enslaved by the British were phenotypically different from the Europeans. However, these differences were not the only reason for the formation of racial classifications. The British were historically known to separate themselves from other societies where foreigners, such as the Irish people, were considered to be aliens11. By the 1600s, the practices and policies of the British within Ireland resulted in the Irish being classified as savages who could not be civilized12. Attempts by the British to conquer the Irish were unsuccessful due to effective resistance by the Irish. This forced the British to consider colonizing the New World. How the British perceived the Irish provided the foundation for how Indians and Africans were treated in the Americas.

Consequently, the term race developed along with the establishment of the United States and was profoundly linked with the emergence of two key terms “slave” and “white.” Although the words “slave,” “race,” and” white” were in existence by the 16th century, the meaning that they hold today evolved in the United States13. Specifically, the needs that came with developing the Americas transformed those words into new notions.

The belief in natural laws among colonists in the Americas generated a revolutionary political movement in the later years of the 18th century. New American generations embraced revolutionary ideas such as the “social contract” by John Locke, which proposed the right to life, property, and liberty among all human beings and that a government must receive consent from the masses for it to be legitimate. This idea was further expanded during the declaration of independence in the United States. Along with the language of equality and liberty, concerns about slavery emerged as black colonists accepted the idea of freedom, and Britain abolished slavery within their territories14. Although the American Revolution culminated in increased arguments in regard to freedom and the future of slavery, the use of racial ideologies to separate individuals did not end15. Therefore, as much as the slave trade was abolished in 1808 in the United States, the institution of slavery and its association with African Americans persisted. However, racism is currently perceived as a problem that needs to be fully eradicated in the United States.

Various advances toward ending educational and economic disparities from a racial perspective are in place. While these disparities are deeply entrenched in American institutions, various institutions have also been established with the intention of healing the country from its long history of racism. Therefore, although the problem of race and racism has a long history and is persistent, numerous positive strides exist toward ending the idea of race and embracing humanity as a single race.

References

Ackerman-Barger, Kupiri, Dowin Boatright, Rosana Gonzalez-Colaso, Regina Orozco, and Darin Latimore. “Seeking Inclusion Excellence: Understanding Racial Microaggressions As Experienced By Underrepresented Medical And Nursing Students.” Academic Medicine 95, no. 5 (2020): 758-763. doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000003077.

Brooks, Oliver. “Police Brutality and Blacks: An American Immune System Disorder.” Journal of the National Medical Association 112, no. 3 (2020): 239-241. doi:10.1016/j.jnma.2020.06.003.

Coe, Kevin, and Anthony Schmidt. “America in Black And White: Locating Race in the Modern Presidency, 1933-2011.” Journal of Communication 62, no. 4 (2012): 609-627. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01652.x.

Corbin, Nicola A., William A. Smith, and J. Roberto Garcia. “Trapped Between Justified Anger And Being The Strong Black Woman: Black College Women Coping With Racial Battle Fatigue At Historically And Predominantly White Institutions.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 31, no. 7 (2018): 626-643. Doi: 10.1080/09518398.2018.1468045.

Dordunoo, Dzifa, Paivi Abernethy, Jenipher Kayuni, Stephanie McConkey, and Martha L. Aviles-G. “Dismantling “Race” In Health Research.” Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 2022, 084456212210748. Doi: 10.1177/08445621221074849.

Fagiani, Gil. “What Does It Mean To Be White In America: My Multi-Metamorphoses”? Italian Canadian 34 (2021): 77-82. doi:10.33137/ic.v34i0.37452.

Flores, René D., and Ariela Schachter. “Who Are The “Illegals?” The Social Construction of Illegality in the United States.” American Sociological Review 83, no. 5 (2018): 839-868. Doi: 10.1177/0003122418794635.

Kung, Franki Y.H., Melody M. Chao, Donna J. Yao, Wendi L. Adair, Jeanne H. Fu, and Kevin Tasa. “Bridging Racial Divides: Social Constructionist (Vs. Essentialist) Beliefs Facilitate Trust In Intergroup Contexts”. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 74 (2018): 121-134. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2017.09.008.

Pluckrose, Helen, and James Lindsay. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, And Identity—And Why This Harms Everybody. US & CA: Pitchstone Publishing, 2020.

Schudson, Zach C., and Susan A. Gelman. “Social Constructionist and Essentialist Beliefs about Gender and Race.” Group Processes &Amp; Intergroup Relations, 2022, 136843022110707. Doi:10.1177/13684302211070792.

Suyemoto, Karen L., Micaela Curley, and Shruti Mukkamala. “What Do We Mean By “Ethnicity” And “Race”? A Consensual Qualitative Research Investigation of Colloquial Understandings”. Genealogy 4, no. 3 (2020): 81. Doi: 10.3390/genealogy4030081.

Footnotes

  1. René D. Flores and Ariela Schachter, “Who Are the “Illegals?” The Social Construction of Illegality in the United States,” American Sociological Review 83, no. 5 (2018): 839-868, doi:10.1177/0003122418794635.
  2. Zach C. Schudson and Susan A. Gelman, “Social Constructionist and Essentialist Beliefs about Gender and Race,” Group Processes &Amp; Intergroup Relations, 2022, 136843022110707, doi:10.1177/13684302211070792.
  3. Nicola A. Corbin, William A. Smith, and J. Roberto Garcia, “Trapped between Justified Anger and Being the Strong Black Woman: Black College Women Coping with Racial Battle Fatigue at Historically and Predominantly White Institutions,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 31, no. 7 (2018): 626-643, doi:10.1080/09518398.2018.1468045.
  4. Kupiri Ackerman-Barger et al., “Seeking Inclusion Excellence: Understanding Racial Microaggressions as Experienced by Underrepresented Medical and Nursing Students,” Academic Medicine 95, no. 5 (2020): 758-763, doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000003077.
  5. Dzifa Dordunoo et al., “Dismantling “Race” In Health Research,” Canadian Journal Of Nursing Research, 2022, 084456212210748, doi:10.1177/08445621221074849.
  6. Franki Y.H. Kung et al., “Bridging Racial Divides: Social Constructionist (Vs. Essentialist) Beliefs Facilitate Trust in Intergroup Contexts”, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 74 (2018): 121-134, doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2017.09.008.
  7. René D. Flores and Ariela Schachter, “Who Are the “Illegals?” The Social Construction of Illegality in the United States,” American Sociological Review 83, no. 5 (2018): 839-868, doi:10.1177/0003122418794635.
  8. Karen L. Suyemoto, Micaela Curley and Shruti Mukkamala, “What Do We Mean By “Ethnicity” And “Race”? A Consensual Qualitative Research Investigation of Colloquial Understandings,” Genealogy 4, no. 3 (2020): 81, doi:10.3390/genealogy4030081.
  9. Kupiri Ackerman-Barger et al., “Seeking Inclusion Excellence: Understanding Racial Microaggressions As Experienced By Underrepresented Medical And Nursing Students,” Academic Medicine 95, no. 5 (2020): 758-763, doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000003077.
  10. Kevin Coe and Anthony Schmidt, “America In Black And White: Locating Race In The Modern Presidency, 1933-2011”, Journal Of Communication 62, no. 4 (2012): 609-627, doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01652.x.
  11. Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, And Identity—And Why This Harms Everybody (US & CA: Pitchstone Publishing, 2020).
  12. Nicola A. Corbin, William A. Smith, and J. Roberto Garcia, “Trapped Between Justified Anger And Being The Strong Black Woman: Black College Women Coping With Racial Battle Fatigue At Historically And Predominantly White Institutions,” International Journal Of Qualitative Studies In Education 31, no. 7 (2018): 626-643, doi:10.1080/09518398.2018.1468045.
  13. Kupiri Ackerman-Barger et al., “Seeking Inclusion Excellence: Understanding Racial Microaggressions As Experienced By Underrepresented Medical And Nursing Students,” Academic Medicine 95, no. 5 (2020): 758-763, doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000003077.
  14. René D. Flores and Ariela Schachter, “Who Are The “Illegals?” The Social Construction of Illegality In The United States,” American Sociological Review 83, no. 5 (2018): 839-868, doi:10.1177/0003122418794635.
  15. Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, And Identity—And Why This Harms Everybody (US & CA: Pitchstone Publishing, 2020.

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