The Study of Minorities

The Study of Minorities has turned out to be a pretty interesting class, largely because we discuss issues that are almost looked down upon within our culture. Our first meeting discussion encompassed what we understood by the word “race” and “ethnicity”. I think a lot of us struggled a little with defining race because it is one of those touchy subjects than has been engrained in our society for many years. Ethnicity, on the other hand, posed a far easier answer. Interesting enough, they are both practically the same it just seems we put negative connotations to the word “race.” After our personal definitions and understandings of what race/ethnicity meant to us, the professor began explaining what truly are these words and how did they come about. The term racial formation theory came about. This theory describes the historical context of race and how it has changed throughout the years. Historically, race was represented on biological or physical characteristics, such as Black, White, Latino, Asian etc. What really is interesting is that our definitions of race have changed and truly race cannot be specifically defined to accuracy. It cant truly be defined because it is socially constructed, which until recently, was discovered. As humans, we tend to categorize things to understand them. So instinctly, we categorize people who look different, who come from a different geographical location, or who posses different attributes into categories. This process gives us meaning and has become part of our conscious and subconscious mind. History has also not only categorized race as physical differences, but also in regards to power. Even today, the white population dominate this sort of power, whether in politics, finance, education, opportunity etc. The most important part of the whole conversation I learned is to consciously look at the way we evaluate and to understand that a lot of our decisions and mannerisms are based off of a distorted view of the world. Even though “race” has evolved for the positive, it still holds negativity.