Race

Race refers to a label that is commonly ascribed to individuals in certain societies based on their affiliation with a group of people. Members of racial groups typically share common characteristics in physical appearance or phenotype, but more significantly, they share a common stature within a given society. Although not widely regarded as such, many societies are hierarchically arranged by race, with the sociopolitically dominant group being composed of Whites and other racial groups variously (and frequently interchangeably) arrayed at lower rungs. Convention suggests that racial classification is a reflection of an objective scheme about biogenetic differences among humans (the presumption of “natural race”); however, such a conclusion is irrefutably false. According to the American Anthropological Association, race is a social construction whose origins can be traced to an ideology that associates observable physical qualities of people that serve as markers of race, with presumptions about the person's personality, morality, temperament, or “deservedness” of prized resources in a society. These resources include entry into political and judicial arenas, access to valued academic institutions, and opportunities to enter and be promoted in various occupational settings. That biogenetic differences are found in human groups appears to relate not to race, but rather to such factors as regional differences, group sensitivity to ultraviolet light, and resistance to disease.

Race is distinguished from ethnicity in that the former evolved out of a history of racial oppression. Determining which people constituted what racial group was influenced in part by ethnicity; yet the evolution of race appears to relate closely with the sociopolitical circumstances that surrounded the people in a society. Indeed, racial groups encompass people from different ethnicities. For example, in the United States, the White racial group category can include the multiple European ethnic groups that migrated to the country, just as the Asian/Pacific Islander American racial group includes people with ethnic origins in Cambodia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and the various inevitable admixtures. The other racial groups that have been constructed in the United States are African or Black American, Hispanic or Latino/a American, and Native/Alaskan/Aleutian American. People from historically marginalized racial groups can form pan-ethnic (or pan-tribal) allegiances because of the oppression they have endured. People who are visibly descended from ethnic groups often come to associate themselves as White people and, as such, become associated with the benefactor of racial entitlements in that society.

Race as a phenomenon is linked to European conquest that stems from thousands of years ago, but it began to take on greater virulence about 400 years ago. It continues to influence people's worldviews through a process of socialization. According to Diane Hughes and her colleagues, racial socialization occurs not only from direct teachings about issues of race that are conveyed by parents to children, but also through media, formal education, discourse that is considered acceptable according to societal norms, and politically resistant efforts, as in the establishment of learning settings that promote racial awareness and understanding. Over time, ideas can shift about who constitutes what race, as in far-gone delineations of [Page 1280]Africans that included distinguishing those of “mixed” race (labeled mulattoes or octoroons) from those with more African appearance in skin color, nose shape, and texture of hair.

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