Nyein Chan Thu

Sociology 1
Professor Kathryn Coleman
1) Racial profiling is one sort of discrimination that any law enforcement of targeting
individual`s race, ethnicity, religion and national organization. 9/11 tragedy was a good
example to reflect the racial profiling. The US government reinforced several immigration
laws after 9/11 attacks. Customs officials, airport security and police target the muslin and
people coming from Islamic countries because they consider those people are likely to
engage in terrorist activities. Passing the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe
Neighborhoods Act in 2010 in Arizona raised the people`s concern of racial profiling.
According to the law, immigrants have to carry their legal immigration documents in case the
officers ask them. However, contact hypothesis help to recover the racial profiling because
through the cooperative circumstance we can appreciate each other and realize each other
talent and abilities, which are necessary to accomplish the tasks and achieve the same goal.

2) Ethnocentrism is the idea of regarding one race or ethnicity is superior to other.

Historically, we have experienced several ethnocentric practices. Dominant groups use power
to discriminate towards racial and minority groups. Genocide is one of the most intense
ethnocentric practices in the history. Turkish authorities killed 1 million Armenians beginning
in 1915 (331) is one of the examples of ethnocentric practice. Expulsion, the removal of
entire race or ethnicity from society, is another extreme form of ethnocentric practice.
Segregation that is enforced by law is also reflecting the ethnocentrism.
3) The social construction of race means that the race is merely categorized by society
without considering any scientific facts. Scientifically all human beings share the common
genetic materials. Based on the environment where they live their skin color or feature had
changed gradually. However, society constructs racial categories based on skin color and
feature including white, black, Asian and pacific islanders. Consequently, this social
construction of race can be applied to Americans, which have diverse racial backgrounds. In
the US, people can now choose more than one race, which represent their identity. More than
9 million people in the US reported that they were of two or more races (321).

4) Model minority refers to a subordinate group whose member achieves privilege in socially,
economically and educationally. Asian-American is perceived as living up to that image
because despite of being racial attack and discrimination, Asian-Americans achieve success
in the society. The advantages of being a model minority is having good impression of smart
and hard working people from other ethnic groups. However, the flip side is that they can still
face a glass ceiling. They can still get discrimination in job position and other aspects.

Works Citied
Witt, Jon. "Gender & Sexuality." In Soc, 321, 331. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.