what is social construction of race ?

Answer 1

Words have hidden meanings sometimes.
The Human RACE?
What are We RACING to?
Self-destruction?

Answer 2

That is a really, really big question that people have written books on. Basically, I guess it boils down to the fact that the biology of the genetic differences between different "races" is really very slight, but the social gulf between different races has been made very large. For example, psychiatric research has shown people associate certain races with certain foods (pork with African Americans, roast beef with Caucasians, rice with Asians), despite how people from any of those races can eat any of those foods often enough. The same thing happens with language and slang, with Ebonics and Valley Girl and the Western tendency to think of Asian languages as all a bunch of ringing tones.

But all of that is just social, influenced by society--a genetic Caucasian adopted and raised by African Americans can speak Ebonics, just as easily as Caucasians who grow up in predominantly African American areas can do the same, and vice versa.

And like I said, the genetic differences are really very small, and blend into each other. For another example, the genes that control the color of skin are multiple and varied, which naturally allows people to be a range of different hues, differing in only slight degree.

The whole social idea of "race" didn't exist in English (or most other European languages), not the way we know it, until about 500 years ago, when European exploration introduced Europe to the rest of the world. The explorers dealt with the new people they met by assigning them into different groups mostly based on physical characteristics.

What they didn't realize is that they all weren't as different as they thought, and the rigid racial barriers they put between each other couldn't exist. People started noticing this soon after they came into contact with each other, when Caucasians and African Americans had children, or African Americans and Native Americans, or Asians and Caucasians, and so on... And the children weren't strictly members of either "race," because the whole idea of "race" was just a socially invented concept to begin with, not an ingrained physical difference.

The best definition is that any "social construct" is an idea that exists only because people agree to believe it exists--otherwise, it would disappear, because it doesn't have enough basis in reality.

For more on the whole fascinating subject, see the sources below.

Answer 3

a society's views, values, perspectives that regardless of their merit are deemed to be 'normal'. the things that we take for granted that are different to other groups. sexism is a social construction, because it isnt a truth, it is a view. we attach roles to gender.

we believe that boys should play sports and girls should learn gymnastics (as an example), and this sexism becomes naturalised until we buy our girls pink clothes and out boys blue. we have been socially shaped to believe that gender roles are truth. when a guy wears pink we label him as gay. he may not be. but our views have been manipulated to believe it. and those labels ensure that shame is attached to people trying to break away from this status quo.

it can be a vicious cycle.

so before you judge people, ask yourself why you judge, and where did you get that belief from... as children we are blank slates and gain information from those around us. for better or worse.

the media is the best engine for socially constructed transmission of ideals. thats why many western shows are banned in some Muslim areas, because they challenge that areas socially constructed views on many issues.

you see?

Answer 4

thats a very good question. however my opnion of race is of physical charecteristics and is not related to ethnecity in my point of view. however the world is so racially mixed now adays its hard to determine what catagory u would fit in. but i dont really pay attention to race when i judge people. I pay attention to people on there character.