According to our book "Sociology Matters", a racial group refers to a group of people set apart from other because of obvious physical differences. For example, Whites, African Americans, and Asian Americans are all considered racial groups. In opposition, an ethnic group is set apart from others primarily because of its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns. Puerto Ricans, Jews, and polish Americans are all in different ethnic groups.
In the above video there a many different slides that show facts and information about race and ethnicity within the United States. According to this video there is only one race in the world: the human race. I agree with this slide and it is the reason why I picked it because I don't believe we should have to look at each other by skin color or certain looks. I have plenty of friends from all different backgrounds and we were all raised differently. We still accept each other and don't treat each other differently because of our races. In my opinion, I think racism is still alive today there is no doubt in my mind. The way people reacted to Barack Obama being president and that he is a black man was a HUGE issue all because of his race. I heard a few people say they weren't voting for him just because he is black. That's racism at its best! Even though this is America everyone is allowed to have there opinions yet some things are better left unsaid. For example I am mixed with black and puerto rican and all throughout school I was always teased for talking properly and being light skined. I never really understood why until when I got old enough and my mother explained to me that people of certain races are looked at in certain ways because of the way they are portrayed in society.
To this day I still don't understand why people should be treated differently just because of race, ethnicity, gender, looks, or anything else. Racism comes in all different shapes, sizes and forms. If people learned more about others on a personal level rather than through the media or other places, I believe we could alleviate some of the racism and become more accepting of one another.
Brittanie, nice post! It is a shame that people gave you a hard time because of being light skinned and speaking properly. My Father used to tell me stories of how when my Great Grandmother came to America the Italians in Philadelphia gave her a hard time because she spoke proper Italian as opposed to the slang Philly Italian that the locals had developed. They thought that she was pretending to be better than them. How silly. It's funny because my fiance speaks Italian fluently and she also makes fun of me when I say something in Italian the way Philly people do because it is not proper Italian.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to start off by saying that this was a great post. Perfect video to use for an example of Race and Ethnicity. The video contained great example's how blacks are considered lower then the whites, which is ashamed. Everything that was talked about in the video was negative; from blacks to having lower education, to living poor, how 1 out of three black males are in prison. Also how African Americans has the highest percentage of AIDs. In this video nothing positive was said of African American's which is sad.
ReplyDeleteUntil this day I can still remember when my sister in law who is a white female, was driving my vehicle on Erie Ave doing 60mph and fled through two red lights. When we were pulled over the police officer asked for her information, and when he return to the vehicle he said "I'm going to give you a break, have a nice day". My sister in law Cheryl looked at me and said if you were driving that would of been a ticket, I got a break because I'm White!
I Agree that racism still plays a major role in society today.