RACE

Race

Abstract

The research aims to analyze the notion that the American race problem has withdrawn from the forefront of the public imagination, only to mask ever-widening social, political, and economic inequalities caused by the persistence of American racism. Historically, racial and other forms of diversity within and among groups have been characterized as problematic. Rather than being viewed as a composite force to be embraced and leveraged for positive social change, diversity has elicited responses of fear, denial, avoidance, and oversimplification. The conventional ways of thinking about difference have provided a fractured, distorted, and limited perspective of diversity.

Table of Contents

Introduction2

Discussion2

Pertinent Historical, Political, Social, Economic, and Cultural Factors2

Developmental Theory Models3

Laws and Programs4

Issues of Life Challenges and Aspects of Diversity4

Evaluation of Other Two Issues5

Aspects of Diversity5

Cultural Generalizations6

Racial Reasoning6

Self-Definition through Oppositionality6

Resources for Diversity Special Services7

Personal Insights about Diversity7

Personal Characteristics and Diversity7

Family Biases8

Relevant Concerns8

Conclusion8

Race

Introduction

The concept of race has a historical legacy that attempted to categorize individuals based on the position of the self as the superior and difference (based mostly on skin color) as “the other.” Over time, attributions were associated with innate biological characteristics that defined individuals' intelligence, morals, and behaviors. The American race problem has withdrawn from the forefront of the public imagination, only to mask ever-widening social, political, and economic inequalities caused by the persistence of American racism. Racial thinking was at its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries and was associated with the ideologies of empire and colonialism.

Discussion

Pertinent Historical, Political, Social, Economic, and Cultural Factors

The argument that race is a socially constructed category and ideology rather than a biological or “natural” method of human classification are based on social constructionist, who challenges arguments for the “naturalness” of human organization systems, the categories within those systems, and the ideologies on which those systems are founded. In this perspective, the argument for the “naturalness” or “commonsense” use of methods of social categorization is rejected outright (Rees, 2007). These ideologies are then subjected to critical examination, which can serve to expose the power relations that make clear basis for defining the concept in a way given the historical and geographic context.

In the case of race, critically examining the way in which racial groups are defined varies geographically and has varied significantly throughout history. These variations and historical redefinitions typically have served to rationalize the exploitation of one population by another. For example, the British comfortably interchanged the concept of race with political nationality in their subjugation of the Irish “race.” The Nazi Party in World War II sought to exterminate the Jewish “race,” despite the fact that religion is not a biologically inheritable trait.

Liberal environmentalism, or the idea that there were no differences between races which were likely to affect their social, cultural and academic performance; all apparent differences were the result of the environment, slowly began refuting the dominant thinking about race as fixed and biologically determined (Taylor, 2004).

Developmental Theory Models

Over the past 15 years, critical race theory (CRT) has been utilized as a tool in the structural analysis ...