The Social Construction of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender Essay Example for Free

The Social Construction of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender EssaySocialization is the unequal distribution of power, wealth, income and cordial office between single(a)s and aggroups. This distribution is not random, it is patterned and social organisationd. Three important axes of global inequality argon gender, track down and ethnicity, and class. These inequalities are on a global scale and are found in virtuall(a)y all societies. It wasnt until relatively recently, however, that a caste system developed to include race and ethnicity among class and gender.Since imperialism and the conquest of the Americas, a number of social changes have occurred, and, as a result, the dominant groups today are not however higher in the social order, in terms of rank, but they are considered mend as well. concord to Winant, there are two main excogitations of race, race as an ideological concept, and race as an object lens condition. Barbara Fields, genius of the main supporte rs and activists for the race as an ideological concept theory, explains the concept of race as a concept that arose to meet an ideological need its original effectiveness lay in its ability to reconcile exemption and slavery. Remember, Africans werent the only slaves, Asians, for example, were slaves too. This created a distinction between the white slave owners and all other races, and this was acceptable because their slaves were dismount than them, according to Fields theory, so it was okay to enslave other humans. Winant says that, Socio semipolitical circumstances change over diachronic time, racially defined groups? achieve mobility or remain mired in poverty, and so on. If race is considered an objective condition it doesnt give up for the reconceptualization of race, one simply is ones race. Most early theories of race took this stance and Stephen Jay Gould, as recently as 1981, has do similar claims. However, it is impossible to support such a theory on a number of gr ounds. First, its been scientifically proven that there are more genetic differences between a single race thus there are between different races. Second, it doesnt allow for any change ? certain races will incessantly be disappoint than other races. There are social beliefs which are present today that correct social stigmas on people who are affiliated with certain ethnicitys.Yen Le Espiritu puts forth the arguing that The exercise of political-economic domination by racial elites always involves attempts to objectify the subordinate group by brand subordinate groups as alternatively inferior, threatening, or praiseworthy. An example that is taking place today is that cosmetic mathematical process being per potpourried on Asian-American women, as Eugena Kaw points out in her article. In particular they are making changes to their look and noses to look more ideal. Is that okay though? Should one groups sense of ideal be forced upon other group?Many of the Asian-American women surveyed said their reason for undergoing cosmetic surgery was to form their own personal form of beauty. But why then did these women all undergo similar surgeries to ? correct how they look? Class is the one social construction that has existed since the beginning of history. There have always been those who oppress and those who are oppressed, from the serfs and lords of the middle ages to the mercenary and proletariat of today (According to Marx). The distinction of class today is different than its been in the past though.It used to be based on your heritage, but today it is based on capital, the more you have the higher and better you are. Many people feel that cultures that veil women, such as Muslims, make them suffer psychological and socioeconomic consequences. Homa Hoodfar discusses how the west equates veils with ignorance and oppression in her article. But throughout historic time and place, there has been a benefit division of labour in the allocation of econo mic tasks between men and women. This division has always been partially justified in terms of? biological differences. However, many feminists argue that we learn, through culturally specific socialization, how to be masculine and feminine and to assume the identities of men and women. Due to that fact that many societies proclaim masculine characteristics to be more socially ? useful and generally ? more important than feminine ones, a social structure often results where there are highly unequal gender relations. Even if women attain social/political rights equal to those of men its unlikely that all the sources of oppression of women will be removed.How is that fair? We are more biased today than ever before, at least there was some justification during the middle ages for why women couldnt be knights. But today mental capacity should be the major basis in the workplace. wherefore are women so under represented in government? Why do they get gainful less than 80% of what men get paid to do the same job? Why are women discriminated against today? Essentially, the social constructs of race, gender, ethnicity, and class are all the same thing.They all are ways to select people and put certain people on top. Not unlike capitalism where someone is on top and others are on the bottom (its also not surprising that the way we view the quaternion social constructs changed around the time that capitalism was being developed). Now that we have this whole in group out group view of society, can we ever go back to being color projection screen? Can we go back to people being distinguished based on who their allegiances are to or their character? The way we view the social constructs of society need to change.Peoples arbitrary biases shouldnt prevent someone from getting a job Its ludicrous to assume that because of the color of ones skin, or ones sex that someone is worse and lower than you. The very fact that there are still people today who see the white mans bill shows how backwards we really are, even in todays modern society. We need to stop segregating each and every individual as a collective of whites, blacks, men, women, Jews, Christians, etc. and start living as Americans because thats the only way that social progress will ever be made.