Ethnic Identity Construction

Ethnicity is constantly being shaped and redefined and there is two basic parts of ethnicity: culture and identity. Ethnic identity can be influenced and constructed with the issue of boundaries. Boundaries define who is not a member and who is. They tell you which ethnic categories are available for you depending on when and where you are. Debates that appoint and decide the ethnic boundaries and the social worth of some groups are major forces in the construction of ethnicity. The combination of the view one has of oneself plus the views others have about your ethnicity results in our ethnic identity. While a person still has the option to choose from a set of ethnic identities, the set is usually limited to ethnic categories that have been

The exterior forces that reinforce racial inequity are political, economic, and cultural. Cultural can be divided into two: the national opinions and beliefs that people have on race and the cultural traits that arise from patterns of intragroup interaction in settings that form out of segregation and discrimination. Those situations reflect the shared experiences of the people inside those surroundings. In history, racism has been a major player in these ethnic markers and cultural frames that has shaped how whites view and act towards blacks. Another major player in the role of framing racial beliefs today is the direct result of biased media and their reports on racial stereotypes. People here in America fail to see how larger, exterior forces of society are the reason why some people are poor and jobless. It is easier to blame them, to say it is because of their own faults or inadequacies, rather than to reflect on discrimination, a lack of economic opportunity, failing public schools, and segregation. This type of racism is referred to as “laissesz faire racism” where people think blacks are responsible for their own economic difficulties and hence they do not deserve any special support from the government. The whites are not big supporters of the idea that the federal government has a

People in these neighborhoods are susceptible to higher levels of broken homes which could lead to problems like crime, gang violence, and drugs. Because of the poverty, there are higher levels of drug activity and drugs lead to violence in the neighborhood, and that decreases the involvement in the community, which results in lower levels of social organization. These neighborhoods that live in extreme poverty are viewed as dangerous so people from the outside go out of their way to avoid them and that in turn makes these neighborhoods isolated economically and socially. When there is an absence of work on a regular basis, the person is not only missing a steady income but also a clear system of solid expectations and goals. The components of culture are situationally adaptive, shapes people into following the models of behavior that surround them, situations that apply specifically to that community. If most of the members from that place are people who do not work on a regular basis, then it will become and be seen as something acceptable. All the people that live inside that racially segregated community are susceptible to the cultural traits of that specific group that are born out of the racial exclusion and there is little possibility of social mobility inside that world. Also, work not only provides you with an