Race and Ethnicity

Thesis Statement

Race & ethnicity shape one's life-chances in contemporary society

Introduction

Our lives are shaped by who we are and what we are and where we come from. What race or ethnic group we belong to determines our life chances in contemporary society. Ethnicity is the cultural background of a group of people who share a belief in common ancestry. According to Max Weber, ethnic groups are formed by colonisation and immigration. Ethnicity is something we all have but in Australia and in many parts of the world, ethnicity is often applied on minority groups to highlight dominant groups of people on the bases of physical appearance, race, origins or culture. Being part of a dominant group provides prestige, power and control over the running of societies. The term ethnic comes from ancient Greek to mean gentile or non Christians. It was also used to refer to 'other people', separating 'us' and 'them'. The definition of ethnicity changes over time and place. In the case of Australia and in many parts of the western world, the recognition of a dominant ethnic group is through their 'whiteness' of their appearance (Holmes at al:144 - 154). 'Whiteness' played a central part in Australia's history. The white Australia policy of 1902 paved the way to a white, democratic society for those who were allowed into the country to shared in the prosperity and discriminated against migrants who were regarded as 'others' based on their colour, race and ethnicity (Jakubowicz:107). Anglo-Celtic individuals from countries like Australia, the United Kingdom and North America were considered white whereas other Europeans like the Greeks and the Italians were considered not as white as people from Anglo-Celtics origins but were whiter than the Asians (Holmes at el: 159).

Discussion

The terms “Race” and “Ethnicity” have been employed in public debates refer to government activity directed at a suspect or a group of suspects because of their color, gender, whether intentional or due to the disproportionate numbers of contacts based upon other pre-textual basis. For many century conflicts have taken place between the Whites, Blacks, Mexicans, Arabs and the Asians.

What ethnicity one belongs to does shape one's life-chances in contemporary society. Life chance described by Max Weber is the opportunities available to people in society. Life opportunities are determined by social-class location including issues on health, education and employment (Holmes at al:148). Ethnic minorities are often disadvantaged through being discriminated against at work, when looking for accommodation, health services and through various levels of law and order (Bilton et al:186).

The constant racial discrimination in the workforce limits employment opportunities. A study undertook in 1977 showed that White British were more likely to obtain employment compared to ethnic minorities. And that Asians with foreign sounding names were 30 per cent less likely to get jobs compared to Anglo-Saxon names. The study also found that people from other European countries like Greeks were less likely to be discriminated against compared to Asian minorities, suggesting that discrimination was based on race and not ...