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Froylan Vargas Matt C. Reynolds Intro to Sociology 101 MWF 1:00 November 3, 2011 Race & Ethnicity Paper Race truly doesnt exist but it does because, we as human classify each other based on culture and skin color. Race is a socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important, while ethnicity is a shared culture heritage. In todays world anybody can be part of a race or ethnicity without looking the part. In the United States the country is a multiethnic society in which various individuals share and express their culture to others. The rise of the term race is shown in three points by religious, political, and scientific means. The idea of race began to take shape with the rise of a world political economy and manifested itself from there. Race also arose out of the context of African slavery. Although slavery existed prior to this slavery in colonial America it had a bigger difference because, the cultures between the colonists differed greatly than that of the African slave. Religion categorized white as purity and black being the opposite and is associated with evil. Politics divided people of different social economic status and had them reside in a certain part of a town usually from high the white Anglo-Saxon protestant to the minority races that being the African Americans that began in early colonial United States. Carolos Linnaeus became the first scientist to categorize people and set the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature.

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The theory I find to be most accurate of why prejudice exists is more on the Culture Theory that suggests that some form of prejudice is found in all humans even though some are more prominent in various people. Prejudice acts a cultural defense mechanism and people have different ways of channeling that emotion whether it is good or bad. Some people just display theirs in a physical or verbal sense but ultimately its up to the individual to decide whether this negativity remains and spawns itself to something worse or able to control his or hers emotion on that prejudice. An example would be a child growing up and their parents steering them to marry in their ethnic group. Even though some people dont say they show prejudice in their lives many people do have that inner prejudice even just a little bit though many might not show it to others. A stereotype is an exaggerated description applied to every person in some category. Stereotypes are hard to dismiss but are common and are usually passed from an authoritative figure. Stereotypes have always existed throughout history to sway a group of certain people to believe that a group of other people act a certain way all the time. This type of discrimination evolves out of fear of people of different minority groups. Stereotypes are even portrayed during war like that of WWII. American showed Japanese as an evil like short devious monkey that wont give up at all costs. A stereotype that affected me when I was little was when we went to Mexico and stopped by a small town in western Texas and experienced a stereotype that my family and I could only speak Spanish but, they were ultimately surprised when we spoke English better than them. Growing up to many people thought that my friends and I were affiliated with gangs because, we wore certain clothes even when they knew we werent and knew we were successful in school.

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Overall ethnicity and race will always exist but how a person manifests it whether for the good or bad depends on future generations. In America people are slowly progressing to a society that accepts an individual for who they are rather than how they look and where they came from. Though people cant get rid of all discrimination more and more attempts can bring it closer to that goal.