Regardless of race, language or religion – these words in the Singapore Pledge acknowledge the fact that Singapore comprises of people of different races and ethnicities. The Singapore Pledge aims to create patriotism and racial harmony in Singaporeans for the progress of the nation. In default, Singaporeans are categorised under the CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others) scheme in order to facilitate government policies and administration (Chua 2003:60). In this paper, I will discuss how the concepts of race and ethnicity are interchangeable in most situations and how they are not, in the context of Singapore.
First of all, I will briefly describe the concepts of race and ethnicity as many people have the notion that both concepts are the same or interchangeable. In actual fact, both of the concepts differ from each other. Race, on one hand, refers to the phenotypical traits ascribed to a person biologically such as skin colour (Giddens and Sutton 2014:106). On the other hand, ethnicity refers to a group of people who has a shared cultural identity (language, religion and ancestry) that differentiate them from other groups in a society (Giddens and Sutton 2014:106). During the British colonial rule, the colonists used racial categorisation as a mean to control
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Indirectly, the boundaries between the different ethnic groups in Singapore are blurred under this scheme. The mother tongue language, especially, is seen as an indicator of major racial groups (Rocha 2014:282). This scheme has made many Singaporeans to have a notion that each race will share the similar physical attributes, language, traditions, religion and ancestry. For example, other races would expect an Indian person to be a Hindu and is able to converse in Tamil. Therefore, I would say that the concepts of race and ethnicity are interchangeable to a large extent in the Singapore
From Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s piece Racial Formation in the United States, they argue that “race” starts with a look at historical “racial formations” that is the “sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed” (21). This occurs through racial projects that link the representation and social structure of racial dynamics through ideology. This means the creation and reproduction of structures of domination based on essentialist categories of race, which is racism. Two groups to examine from the nineteenth century of the United States for the process of “racial formation” would be the Irish and the Chinese.
The notion of race, however, doesn’t hold any significance until it is given any, like in the United States of America. The land that was invaded by the British has deep rooted connections to racism. Huge discrimination and inequality gaps occurred when white people began referring to the Africans as an inferior race that belonged to a completely different
The conflict between race and ethnicity came up throughout the time I administered my questionnaires. In the questionnaires, many people questioned what they should respond to for the question which referenced their “race” or “ethnicity”. Some people saw it as a division and how the terms can be used as a negative term or a positive term to label a group of people.
Through research of DNA samples, scientists have been able to declare that race is not biologically constructed due to the similarities between human genes. Nevertheless, in reality, people still emphasized on biological aspects such as skin color, or hair texture to categorize others into different races. This in turn, denied the true identity of race, which it is culturally constructed. Ethnicity, by definition is also culturally constructed, therefore it greatly resemble race. There is no real clear line to distinct the two.
To most people ethnicity is shown by values, lifestyles, customs, and rituals that are personal to an individual ethnic group or religion. The feeling of belonging to a certain group is a basic need for mankind. In a sense, ethnicity can be separated into two particular categories, a unique social structure and culture heritage passed down from one generation to the next.
Race, in the common understanding, draws upon differences not only of skin color and physical attributes but also of language, nationality, and religion. Race categories are often used as ethnic intensifiers, with the aim of justifying the exploitation of one group by another. Race is an idea that has become so fixed in American society that there is no room for open-mindedness when challenging the idea of racial categories. Over the years there has been a drastic change with the way the term "race" is used by scientists. Essentially, there is a major difference between the biological and sociological views of race.
This variation has no substantial ties to skin color, but does show genetic variation from different geographical locations in the world. These variations are not categorized in groups of what people call race, but rather ethnicity. Ethnicity, defined by Stephen Cornell, is a sense of common ancestry based on cultural attachments, past linguistic heritage, religious affiliations, claimed kinship, or some physical traits. Race, as most people catoragize it, encompuses many ethnicitys. Ethnicities are local populations, this makes sense that they would tend to have less genetic variation compared to each other then the rest of the world as they would share genetic adaptations resulting from the environment they live in. This can include skin color, but can also
As defined by Cornell and Hartmann ethnicity is “a collectivity within a larger society having real or putative common ancestry,
More focus into the ethnic groups is just another racial grouping on a different perspective. The increased competition for ethnic identity among ethnic groups is posing as a rediscovery of racial groups, in which ethnic groups are termed as majority or minority groups. However, the shift to ethnic group has shaped some characteristics of individuals that were previously coined in social differentiation according to race. One of the noticeable individual features that have been shaped is the aspect of mutual and collective interests, in which every member strives to protect common interests of the group e.g. human rights. I believe that racial and ethnic groups are things that will continue to exist from our past historical experiences. We can together wipe out the problem of discrimination and injustices based on ethnicity and racial differences, if we all strive towards cherishing social consciousness for one another as a one human race and freeing ourselves from the trappings of our racial and ethnic
During the 18 century, people divided humans based on where they live and skin color like Europeans as “white”, Africans as “black”, Indians as “red”, and Asians as “yellow”. For example, in Haiti, color has been the dominant force in social and political life. Skin texture, facial feature, hair color, and socioeconomic class together play a role in placement. The anthropological perspective define race as members of a society have similar biological traits. These members are diverse from other members of society because of these traits. In the end, the race concept is not acceptable to humans but it is used as a cultural classification. ...
The two terms are often misconstrued as if they have identical meaning. The term ‘race’ is based on the thought of biological and physical differences. According to Robb, “the concept of ‘race’ included any… groups of people which held them to display inherent, heritable, persistent or predictive characteristics, and which thus had a biological or quasi-biological basis” (1995:1). In the study of race, particularly during the late part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, groups of people were classified on the basis of different phenotypical characteristics determined by physical attributes such as skin pigmentation, cranial capacity and hair type or colour (Miles, 1993:59). Hannaford (1996) refutes the idea that race is a biological concept, “We assume that the racial and ethnic diversity we see all around us has always existed as a historical, social, and biological fact that needs no further interrogation” (p3).
The biological understanding of race in the United States is that people from different places have different genetics and genes in their body, accounting for different traits in each people. These people could be grouped together by their biological traits because their similarities in genes would make them look alike. People wanted to believe that there actually were true biological differences between people. Race in the past and present (somewhat) has been categorized based on continental origin, skin color, nose structures, and hair type. To define a person’s race, someone could ask questions like: “what type of hair do they have, curly or straight? Is their skin dark or light? Are their eyes blue, brown, or black?” Based off of these
And ethnic group is a category of people (within social terms) who have a common culture, language religion and common norms and values. In Britain the main ethnicity is white however in the past 50 years Britain has become culturally diverse and now has a mix of diverse ethnic groups (sociologyencyclopedia 2009).
Race and ethnicity are two terms that are constantly used in today’s society. Understanding these terms can help people to recognize that color of skin or color of hair does not define a person. These terms connect with history, social interaction, and the overall make up of a person. However America is constantly obsessed with labeling people by the way that they look or the way that they act. America seems to encourage the terms race and ethnicity and continue to divide people into categories. It is interesting to comprehend these terms because they are not going to disappear any time soon. Race and ethnicity are apart of America’s history and will be a part of the future.
Hefner, R. W. (2001). The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.