Race And Ethnicity In Society: Michael Omi And Howard Winant

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The authors Michael Omi and Howard Winant go into detail about race, ethnicity, and the problems that associates with them. An example they used to define race and the problems that go along with it was the case of a woman named Susie Guillory, who was mixed race and wanted to change her racial identity from black to white. The result of the case was the court still defining her race as black. This case was an example of how defining race is still an issue, as stated by the authors. According to the Omi & Winant (2008), “Europeans wondered if the natives of the New World were indeed human beings with redeemable souls” (Omi & Winant, 2008, pg. 20). A biological definition of race has yet to be discovered. The belied is that race is an outside factor that determines how society view you as a human being. Society decides if you should be enslaved and limited to your rights or if you are worthy of being a free citizen.
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For centuries, the media, has portrayed all races in a certain way. Characters and actors are defined by the color of their skin in movies and TV shows. Slavery can be a result of race and ethnicity issues. Slavery changed the image of how blacks was viewed in society. Slavery not only changed how Europeans viewed African Americans but it changed how they viewed themselves. With the power that they had acquired over blacks shaped how society view them as well. This was a result of viewing Europeans as “white” and others that are not white as “black”. With the incoming immigrants coming from all different countries other than Europe, they had to found a way to classify them easily. This resulted in the creation of “whites”. All races were combined and defined by their colors with them teaming together. The abolition of slavery increased the line and differences between races. Races could ban together to get what they want for everybody who could identify similarly to

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