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Race, Social Construction of

The social construction of race refers to the establishment by society of distinct groupings of people who have generally similar physical or other characteristics. Following contemporary thought, race is seen as being socially constructed as humans use symbols to create meaning from their social environment. In this view, race is not an intrinsic part of a human being or the environment, but an identity created using symbols to establish meaning in a culture or society. This entry discusses the development of racial groupings, how race is constructed differently in different nations, and intrarace variations.

Development of Racial Groupings

Although race is partially characterized by physical similarities such as skin color, facial features, or hair texture, contemporary scholars hold that human beings create categories of race based on physical characteristics rather than that the physical characteristics have intrinsic biological meaning. In addition to the social construction of the meaning of race, humans also construct the racial groupings. Frequently, these racial categories emerge from historical processes and often gain legitimacy in society though political action. The formation or reformation of racial categories is accomplished by dominant racial groupings exerting power over minority or subordinate racial groupings.

For example, the U.S. Constitution required an enumeration or census, which fostered the development of racial classifications. By 1890, these racial classifications, formed largely by White men, included “Black,” “mulatto,” “quadroon,” and “octoroon” to describe the amount of known African ancestry of African Americans. The 1890 racial classification is indicative of the “one-drop rule” whereby any African ancestry constituted exclusion from the dominant White racial grouping into a subordinate racial grouping; hierarchy among races is a common theme throughout the history of race.

In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that it was lawful to provide “separate but equal” facilities for Blacks and for Whites. As such, the U.S. Census Bureau collapsed the more “objective” racial categories of “mulatto,” “quadroon,” and “octoroon” into “Black.” If race had been an inherently biological construction used for the classification of a group of individuals within a species, as many scientists of the period contended, the emergence and decline of the “quadroon” and “octoroon” races might have drawn considerable scientific interest. The historical record indicates that cultural and legal factors significantly contributed to the social formation of racial groupings; there was little public discussion in the reclassification of individuals and races, a trend that continues.

Constructing Race in Different Nations

There is considerable variation in how different nations construe race. For example, in many parts of Latin America, racial groupings are based less on the biological physical features and more on an intersection between physical features and social features such as economic class, dress, education, and context. Thus, a more fluid treatment allows for the construction of race as an achieved status rather than an ascribed status as is the case in the United States. The variation of racial groupings between nations is at least partially explained by an unstable coupling between historical patterns of colonization and miscegenation.

First, divergent patterns of colonization may account for differences in the construction of racial groupings, as evidenced in Latin America, which was colonized primarily by the Spanish. The Spanish colonials had a longer history of tolerance of non-White racial groupings through their interactions with the Moors and North African social groups, as well as a different understanding of the rights of colonized subjects and a different pattern of economic development. In the United States, which was colonized primarily by the English, there was less interaction with non-White racial groupings, an assumption that colonized subjects were considered property rather than subjects, and a heavy reliance on African slaves for economic development.

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