Question

I need help writing a discussion board for sociology:
Racial traits are among the first things we can observe about a person, yet race is socially constructed. How can this be?

Answer 1

What do you mean by discussion board?

Answer 2

What type of points are you supposed to be making, and how long of points?

Answer 3

i have to post something for my class online

Answer 4

So you mean a post on a forum that is meant to facilitate discussion?

Answer 5

e.g. one paragraph?

Answer 6

yea

Answer 7

talk about somethin in 3-4 sentences

Answer 8

Well, the whole idea of race is a social construct. There is only one race, the human race, and many different ethnicity. There is no African Race, Chinese Race, etc.. Many groups make immediate judgements on "race" based on appearance, namely, the visual difference of another person in relation to most people in their "own" - most similar - social group. But that difference in appearance does not mean a different race, a different personality, or even a different culture (e.g. many Americans look very different, and are of different ethnicity, same language, same culturally, the same "race" [humans]).

Answer 9

wow thats very good & long haha

Answer 10

can I shorten it

Answer 11

"racial" traits are easy to pick up precisely because they're socially constructed - by viewing ourselves as part of of a similar looking group of people, we immediately notice differences (and unfortunately often judge them).

Answer 12

*notice visual differences

Answer 13

thats perfect!

Answer 14

"racial" traits are easy to pick up precisely because they're socially constructed by viewing ourselves as part of of a similar looking group of people, we immediately notice visual differences and unfortunately often judge them.

Answer 15

For example, if you see a black cat, and a white cat - do you immediately think that you've seen two races of cats? (no - they're both cats - the cat race to you). But you did see a black colored cat, and a white colored cat. However race did not enter your mind. That's because of the human social construct of racial differences - our societies pick up on visual differences and infer something that isn't there.

Answer 16

woah ok thats good enough

Answer 17

And that's basically the theory of social constructionism ( assigning things that may not be there due to our social selves)

Answer 18

haha alright, good luck =)

Answer 19

soo is this 1 good it explains it all:"racial" traits are easy to pick up precisely because they're socially constructed by viewing ourselves as part of of a similar looking group of people, we immediately notice visual differences and unfortunately often judge them.

Answer 20

I would add that there is only actually one race (human), so the entire idea of differentiating "race" based on appearance must be social - it's a social concept.

Answer 21

good luck!

Answer 22

how would i add that? im confused?:/

Answer 23

hellp? where'd you go? excuse me