This week in sociology we talked about race. We discovered that race is a creation of society and there is no clear definition of race because every society thinks of race in a different way cWe learbed how some countries have over 50 (in some cases) descriptions of what race is which, living in the United Stares is something I have never thought about doing before. I also found it interesting how America categorizes race by a few main categories such as White, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Latino. Although it was common to see most of those on applications and questionarres i never really put much thought into how discriminatory that actually was. And it doesn't have to be done like that.
This new concept of race I want to apply to my life. I want to start thinking of people more in the way that other more accepting countries do. I realize it is hard because in the United States we think completely differently but doing my best not to automatically categorize people by the race they were given is a very good start.
Glad you are seeing how erroneous the idea of race is. I remember having that realization myself. I am not sure that there is a "more accepting" country but there are just different ways of thinking about race. I think on a personal level, you should just keep reminding yourself to not think in terms of race, but instead try harder to see people as individuals.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the race category on applications and questionaires goes, it is complicated. Oftentimes this is listed as a category because institutions want to show that they are not being discriminatory and that they are hiring all different types of people. The problem is that when so many of us see that categorization everywhere, it reinforces that those categories exist.