JULIUS NYERERE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

NAME: Bokani

SURNAME: Moyo

REG NUMBER: M178352

COURSE CODE: SOCH413

COURSE TITLE: Race, Class and Identities

PROGRAMME: Sociology

LEVEL: 4:1

LECTURER: Mr Mutangi

QUESTION: Discuss the notion that race is a social construct.

MARK

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The notion of race was invented as a way to give white people power and legitimize their rule
over non-whites. Race is defined as populations differing in the incidence of certain genes but
actually exchanging or potentially able to exchange genes across the boundaries (usually
geographic) that separates them (Tumbo, 2016). The world is viewed through the eyes of
African, Arab, Caucasian, and Mexican people, to name a few, who abound on our television
screens on a regular basis. Regardless of whether they agree with the parallel or not, race has
defined daily human life, as many social anthropologists have found. Therefore it can be said
that race is a social construction that is something created by people, that is not a natural
development and is constructed or created for a certain purpose. This essays serves to discuss the
notion that race is a social construct looking at how race is a product of human definition and
interpretation shaped by cultural and historical contexts and how it has changed and reproduced
through historical processes within institutions and culture (Mitchell, 2013).

To begin, the concept of race may be traced back to the 1850s, when Robert Knox who was an
English anatomist decided that people of color were inferior in his scientific conclusion The
Races of Man. Knox's findings were regarded very seriously, despite the fact that his conclusion
was based on the experiment of only one man who was nonwhite. Eugenics is an effort to breed
better human beings by encouraging the reproduction of people with “good” genes and
discouraging those with “bad” genes (Herrnstein and Murray, 1995). Eugenicists effectively
lobbied for social legislation to keep racial and ethnic groups separate, to restrict immigration
from Asia, Africa and southern and eastern Europe, and to sterilize people considered
“genetically unfit hence the United States took Eugenics and ran with it, presented it as
legitimate making it part of mainstream society (Herrnstein and Murray, 1995). Therefore the
construction of race is evident here through referring of black races to ‘people of colour’ and the
fact the so called people of colour were regarded as inferior to whites because they had bad
genes. One should also take note that this social constructivism is one that led to dark races being
slaves of white people back in history.

Anyone who did not have a trace of African or Indian blood was considered white. The term
"white" was used as a political tool to unite Europeans in order to increase their ability to
maintain control and supremacy over Native Americans and African slaves. Tumbo (2016) says
that whiteness is a constantly shifting boundary separating those who are entitled to have certain
privileges from those whose exploitation and vulnerability to violence is justified by their not
being white. However not everybody has been considered white at the same time for example the
Irish, Jews, Italians went through a process of becoming white, this was a process of assimilation
that required certain cultural losses in order to gain white privilege and power (Tumbo, 2016).
When people who were originally considered white in their home countries, such as South
America, moved to the United States of America, they were labeled Latino by white society.
This is because they were considered not white enough and because the white society wanted to
maintain a certain level of dominance over them hence race and whiteness were socially
constructed.

Social constructionism is a theory of knowledge that holds that characteristics typically thought
to be immutable and solely biological such as gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality are
products of human definition and interpretation shaped by cultural and historical contexts
(Mitchell, 2013). As such, social constructionism highlights the ways in which cultural
categories like race are concepts created, changed, and reproduced through historical processes
within institutions and culture. Society creates groups based on specific physical characteristics,
assigns meaning to these categories, and then assigns people to these categories depending on
race. For example, in the United States, persons with any African ancestor are deemed black,
regardless of their looks unlike in Brazil where many individuals with African ancestry are
considered to be white. This shows how racial conceptualization, racial categories and identity
categories are not based on strict biological characteristics, but on the social perceptions and
meanings that are assumed. As a result, the social constructionist view is focuses on the meaning
established in cultural contexts by identifying and categorizing groups of people, experiences,
and reality.

In addition, the phrase "social construct" also alludes to the notion that all humans are created
equal, but that some have looked to be more dominant than others as a result of human
inventions that have formed social classes (Tumbo, 2016). Biologically all persons are identical
no gene is available to whites and absent to blacks or vice versa however, people had to have a
classification to introduce classification and so they had to look at the skin color since it was
evidently different. The lenses through which society defines others determine who gets the
menial jobs and defines who lives in which neighborhood for example the demonstrations in the
United States cities (Mitchell, 2013) that is tagged along the lines of “black lives matter” have
been popular. This is after most black people especially boys and men in USA have been
brutalized and killed by white police officers because they were seen in white neighborhoods
where they are deemed as a threat to whites, gangsters and dangerous because they are black
hence the evidence that up to date the social construct of race has not left human beings.

In the United States since the republic's founding, race has emerged socially and has gained
respect, as a result, the prevalent sense of universal national identity has increased inequalities
and ethnic divisions. Mead (1968) states that the enactment of a constitution in 1789 barred
many indigenous people from African descent from citizenship, and this resulted in too many of
them being slaves putting them to a dependent state. In later years between 1820 and 1830, the
right to vote which was offered to some blacks ceased and only whites would vote and their fight
for recognition failed in the 1850s after the Supreme Court led by Dred Scott made a declaration
that all Blacks were ineligible for citizenship (Mead, 1968). Racism became a phenomenon to
the fact that the blacks were very segregated and had no legal or political rights. All these
policies and rules were made and implemented by the white supremacy as a strategy to deny the
blacks access to some states and freedom of movement. Therefore it is without doubt that race
was and still is a social construct.

In addition current statistics indicate that unemployment, poverty, social isolation, and
imprisonment are all more common among blacks than among whites. Herrnstein and Murray
(1995) assert that structural inequality due to racial disparity remains a key problem in the
American society since during the leadership of Jim Crow in 1880s. Racism was directed to
anyone who was not white to the extent that there was a ban on Chinese immigration (Herrnstein
and Murray, 1995). This necessitated the passage of immigration legislation that imposed quotas,
and racial cruelty won over the liberalization that had been previously achieved via constitutional
reforms. This led to many Southern blacks making a massive migration to the North just to
escape the constant segregation and abuse.

Furthermore, going back to the history of Europe the social construct of race was evident before
the Second World War where Hitler had scientists that “proved” his theories that some races
were superior to others, had superior intelligence, and were prone to rule over others. Claire,
(1988) notes that the European scientists played a bigger role in helping Hitler and his
government come up with formulas for determining who was black and who was Jewish and by
what percentage. His actions and their approval of his thesis resulted in a complete destruction of
Jews and blacks across Europe. It is interesting to note that when viable reasons are lacking to
divide humans into them, human beings have constructed theirs to subjugate some over the
others which is clearly seen in the German case (Claire, 1988) hence the notion that race is a
social construct.

It is clear from the discussion above that race is a social construct although they are a few
scholars who have argued that race is a biological phenomenon that is, claiming that race is the
difference between phenotypes and genetics that vary from region to region, people think they
share the same race but they have a different phenotype (Williams and Eberhardt,
2008).However these interpretations of race have been highly controversial for decades in
academic disciplines as sociologists have argued that race as a biological construct does not
exist.

In conclusion, this essay has discussed the different perspectives and social differences that
variation in race brings about in society. It's from the concepts discussed herein that one gets to
understand how competition among different races began, the origin of racism and why some
races feel superior to others. The construct of human beings belonging to different races has
passed generations that were only keen on introducing classes for their benefit. Boundaries of
what constitutes white and black have shifted over time, depending on the circumstances and
goal at hand. All human beings are born equal, and the categories imposed on them are only
attempts by various classes of people to redefine borders in order to gain an advantage.
REFERENCE

Herrnstein, R.J. and Murray, C. (1995) The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence, and the future
of America. Basic Books, New York.

Tumbo, O. (2016) Race as a social construct. GRIN Verlag, Munich,

Claire, D. (1988) "Chocolat"– A Case Study for Race and Representation in German and
European Cinema. France.

Mead, M. (1968). Science and the concept of race. Columbia University Press, New York.

Mitchell, W. J. (2013). Seeing through race. Harvard University Press, Cambridge USA.

Williams, M. J. and Eberhardt, J. L. (2008). Biological conceptions of race and the motivation to
cross racial boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.