Social Construction Essay

2032 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Race as a social construction

Throughout American history, the media has played an important role in creating and molding social constructions relating to race and crime. Conceptually, the idea that a persons’ race is driven by external, physical characteristics. However, every human being on the planet shares the exact same number of chromosomes and sequences of deoxyribonucleic acids. Likewise, differing appearances between people hailing from different parts of the world show genetic adaptations to the environment from which they came. Scientifically, all human beings are of one race, limited only by their ability or inability to better their current situation. The media would have a person believe that they are in a bad situation because of what location their genetic …show more content…

The social construction of race is based solely on external physical characteristics of groups of people, with a majority of the construction determined by the coloration of one’s skin. Likewise, people tend to associate with others that are alike in their physical appearance, based on race, in order to remain in their comfort zone. Markedly, the education sector of America has been struck various ways by the social construction of race, leading to increased segregation, both through district boundaries and with the educators themselves. Additionally, the media feeds into the social construct of race by airing entertainment shows the put people into stereotypical situations and communities. Barring the occasional portrayal of role-reversals, the media has firmly established social constructions based on race. More often than not, the media uses the racial construction to link crimes and poverty occurring in low-income neighborhoods. For the most part, the media utilizes the “blocked opportunity” frame to show the myriad of social issues within impoverished areas and the need for government intervention to reverse the descent of societal values. Lastly, the legal system has been the subject of controversy in regards to “victim’s laws,” with few named to honor people of

Show More
Related

  • Racial Bias In Media Essay

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    Racial bias in media causes prejudice and discriminatory practices against African-Americans and other minorities groups in America. Today in our society, we are still struggling to overcome racial tension within America because we are over shallow with prejudice and discriminatory images and ideas. Many White Americans feel that the media refuses to report on all crimes committed by blacks against whites, yet report on all crimes committed by whites against blacks. Therefore, they see the media as being not bias. My research will show that African-Americans are over-represented in news reports on crime, and within those stories, they are more likely shown as the perpetrators of the crime than as the persons reacting to or suffering from it. The news media has often been criticized for the way it chooses to portray Latinos and African-Americans.

    Read More

  • Disparities In Criminal Justice Essay

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    The criminal justice system is full of inequality and disparities among race, gender, and class. From policing neighborhoods, and the ongoing war on drugs, to sentencing, there are underlying biases and discriminatory practices in the criminal justice system that impacts minority communities and groups. Fueled by stereotypes and generalizations, it is important to identify and discuss what crimes take place and who actually makes it up.

    Read More

  • Race, Class And Gender Play

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    The intersectionality of race, class and gender play an important role in the way we address the causes of crime and the way we respond to such crimes. To avoid marginalizing the most vulnerable of our populations, those with a low socioeconomic status, primarily of the minority races, we must account for the social designations when designing policy and dealing with the crime problem. Aside from race, as described thoroughly by Michelle Alexander in The New Jim Crow, gender and low socioeconomic status are to be considered.

    Read More

  • The Disparity In Sentencing Amongst Minorities In Prison

    1640 Words  | 4 Pages

    Racism in American society plays a part in the manner in which the judicial system operates. The American prison population is larger than at any time in the history of the penal system in the world.” Nearly half of the more than two million Americans behind bars are African Americans. These statistics are well known and frequently cited by white and black Americans; for many they define Black humanity”. (Ryan D. King, 2010) Since the end of slavery African Americans were believed to be prone to crime and in general a menace to American Society and are to blame for this disparity. While this minority population has broken the law and deserve retribution they are ultimately products of their environment. In a study conducted as early as the late 20’s concerning minority crime. Thorsten Sellin’s research in “The Negro criminal”; a statistical note (Sellin, 1928) put it in perspective. “the stigmatization of crime as “black” and the masking of crime among whites as isolated failure, was a practice of discriminatory views by a majority white population. “The practice of linking crime to blacks, as a racial group, but not whites, he conclu...

    Read More

  • Racial Disparity In The Criminal Justice System Essay

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    For much of the twentieth century, punishment and crime have portrayed some of the most powerful signs of the racial divide in the United States. Marginalized and the poor remains the most biased against the criminal justice scheme (Barak, 2010). Throughout the Americas. racial minorities were tried in white courtrooms by white juries. Class and race are challenging.

    Read More

  • Naturalization Of Racism

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    Race has been a controversial issue throughout history and even more so today. The idea of race has contributed to the justifications of racial inequality and has led to the prejudice and discrimination of certain racial groups. Race and racism were constructed to disadvantage people of color and to maintain white power in America. Today, race has been the center of many political changes and actions that have affected people of color. The idea of race has played a role in how people from different racial groups interact amongst each other. Interactions within one’s own racial group are more common than interactions among other racial groups, at least in my own experiences. Therefore, because I have been positioned to surround myself with people from my own racial group since a very young age, I have internalized that being around my own racial group is a normal and natural occurrence.

    Read More

  • Race: biological or cultural

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the past, races were identified by the imposition of discrete boundaries upon continuous and often discordant biological variation. The concept of race is therefore a historical construct and not one that provides either valid classification or an explanatory process. Popular everyday awareness of race is transmitted from generation to generation through cultural learning. Attributing race to an individual or a population amounts to applying a social and cultural label that lacks scientific consensus and supporting data. While anthropologists continue to study how and why humans vary biologically, it is apparent that human populations differ from one another much less than do populations in other species because we use our cultural, rather than our physical differences to aid us in adapting to various environments.

    Read More

  • Race And Race: The Preconceptions Of Race

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    All over the world, race is used by others to assign meaning to the way you look; people will use physical characteristics like: nose shape, eye shape, hair texture and most infamously, skin color to categorize race. Race isn’t a tangible concept, Social Construction Theory determines it’s more of a social idea created by institutions in society, meaning that it is created by society and is constantly changed. The notion of race is perpetuated and conserved, and therefore, must be changed by adjusting society’s preconceptions about race, institution’s structure and laws that are negatively based on race, and how education and awareness about race can create positive change.

    Read More

  • The Social Construction Of Race

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although we often use race to classify, interact, and identify with various communities, there is a general consensus among scientists that racial differences do not exist. Indeed, biologists such as Joseph Graves state, "the measured amount of genetic variation in the human population is extremely small." Although we often ascribe genetics to the notion of race, there are no significant genetic differences between racial groups. Thus, there is no genetic basis for race. Our insistence and belief in the idea of race as biology, though, underlines the socially constructed nature of race. Racial groupings of people are based on perceived physical similarities (skin color, hair structure, physique, etc.), not genetic similarities. Nevertheless, we are inclined to equate physical similarities with genetics. Sociologists also use a temporality to argue that race is a social construct. The notion of race results from patterns from the signification of certain traits to different groups of people. However, these patterns (and societal notions of race) change over time. For example, the 20th century belief that "In vital capacity… the tendency of the Negro race has been downward" is certainly not commonplace among individuals today. Notions of race also differ across societies. Racial attitudes towards blacks, for example, are inherently different between the United States and Nigeria. These arguments all suggest that race is socially constructed. The lack of a universal notion of race means that it is not a natural, inherent, or scientific human trait. Rather, different societies use race to ordain their respective social

    Read More

  • Social Artifacts Essay

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout time, human beings have gathered, connected and utilized objects for themselves in one way or another to better their lives. These objects are usually collected over a long period of time and stored in museums to remind the community of historical or artistic significance. In the United States, every museum has artifacts that naturally lend themselves to social experiences in the community. It might be a slave whip that triggers museum visitors to share their memories of their grandparent’s experience during the African American slave trade, or a dinosaur’s skeleton that makes people speculate on how the current world would have been with them in it. It could be a piece of art with a mystery that visitors point to one another in amusement, or a compelling historical image, such as the United States dropping the atomic bomb in Hiroshima that makes people discuss its destructiveness. These experiences and artifacts are all objects that are considered social. It can be said that social objects are the fundamental engines of socially network experiences in the community, around which conversation takes

    Read More

  • Muslims In The Media Essay

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    Race is used to place a label on people to categorize people to create a social reality. This social reality not only effects how one perceives their own race but well as other races. The color of a person’s skin has an astonishing impact when it comes to media representation. It’s not only the Muslim community, even African Americans or Hispanics face discrimination due to their skin color. However, focusing only Muslims, the brown skin with dark features such as beards, dark hair and eyebrows automatically categorizes an individual into a specific racial

    Read More

  • Social Construction Of Reality Essay

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is no true universal definition or correct perception of reality. Reality can be defined as the state of things as it actually exists, rather than as they may appear or may be thought to be. Many sociologists have determined that reality is different for every individual and two concepts that support this conclusion are the Thomas theorem and Ethnomethodology, which will be briefly discuss in this paper.

    Read More

  • Primary Socialisation Essay

    1661 Words  | 4 Pages

    Our values are things that we consider to be important, worthwhile and morally right. These may include equality, honesty, dignity, respect, perseverance and loyalty. Our values are individual and they affect us at a deep subconscious level.

    Read More

  • Social Relationships Essay

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social relationships are very important in our society because as humans we are a very social species. The reason we are classified as social species is because we engage in sustained cooperation that is more than just associating with mates. There are many benefits associated with social species such as alloparental care, sharing resources and helping each other out. The two different types of bonding humans partake in include kin bonding and non-kin bonding. Kin relationships are social relations between individuals who are genetically related such as cousins, siblings and parents. Non-kin relationships are relations between individuals who are not genetically related such as friends and acquaintances. Kin relationships is favoured by kin selection because evolutionarily humans have been known to favour the success of their relatives. Therefore to help relatives, humans usually form close relationships with their kin that

    Read More

  • Social Science Essay

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    “A branch of science that deals with the institutions and functioning of human society and with the interpersonal relationships of individuals as members of a society.” (Merriam Webster)

    Read More

More about Social Construction Essay

Open Document