Race and Racism

Race as Socially Constructed

Race is a socially constructed concept. Although it includes the possession of distinctive hereditary traits, essential to race is how these traits are used to categorize individuals into certain racial groups. These categories are not static, as evidenced by the fact that they have changed over time and with different societies. The associated concept of ethnicity is also socially constructed and refers to a group of people who perceive themselves and are perceived by others as sharing cultural traits such as language, religion, family customs, and food preferences. In common language, the terms race and ethnicity are often used interchangeably because they are highly interrelated. Often people of the same racial group share ethnic practices (e.g., Turkish people engage in Turkish customs); however, this is not always the case. Whites and blacks in southern Louisiana, for example, may consider their ethnicity Cajun, not American.

Social science shows that individuals native to a certain country are considered to have the race and ethnicity associated with that country (e.g., the racial and ethnic categorization of people from China is Chinese). The main exception is the United States, due to its vast racial and ethnic diversity. In the United States, the ethnic category of “Hispanic” is often offered as an option in addition to a racial category. For example, a person could identify their race as white and their ethnicity as Hispanic. White and black people who have indicated that they are not Hispanic are assumed to have American ethnicity, whereas other racial groups (such as Korean) are assumed to have the ethnicity of their country of origin, or American ethnicity if they have assimilated to American culture.

Domestic statistics are often reported using some variation of the following categories, which incorporate both race and ethnicity:

• White or Caucasian: Origins in Europe
• Black or African American: origins of any of the black racial groups of Africa
• Hispanic: origins in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central America, or South America
• Asian: origins in east Asia, southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent
• American Indian or Alaskan Native: origins in the original peoples of North, South, or Central America who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment
• Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: origins in Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands
• Other or multiracial

Birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people in the specified group. Fertility rate is an average of how many children a woman would have in a specified group. Mothers of color have higher birth and fertility rates in comparison to white mothers. Hispanic mothers have the highest birthrate (23.4) and fertility rate (3.11) of all racial and ethnic groups. This is usually explained by the ethnic value placed on Catholicism and large families, as well as a need for children to contribute to the family's economic sustenance.

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