Race,Ethnicity,and Gender 1.Describe the difference between race and ethnicity?

Question

Race,Ethnicity,and Gender

1.Describe the difference between race and ethnicity?

2.To what extent are the concepts of race and ethnicity social constructed versus something fundamentally real in society?

3.How would a functionalist view racial and ethnic inequalities in society?

4.How would a conflict theorists view racial and ethnic inequalities in society?

5.Distinguish between assimilation and pluralism or multiculturalism?

6.What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

7.Which model best describes racial and ethnic relations in the Untied States?

Explanation / Answer

1. Race and Ethnicity, the terms may seem similar but are actually different as the origin of these words are associated with different field. Race is a term which is generally associated with the fiedl of biology and life, whereas, ethnicity deals with culture. If we get into the details that we have studied in our school we will able to recollect the terms like Genus, Species, Sub species,etc, in the case of human beings the Scientific Name id Homo Sapiens where Hono is the genus and sapiens is the species and there are also sub species. human beings can be differentiated into races but the variation is minimum. Race can be simply stated as a physiological nature of human beings which refers to a certain population.

As mentioned above, ethnicity deals largely with culture and this may depend on various parameters like religion followed, language spoekn, food habit, customs and rituals, etc but the most important of them is Geographical region because we have noticed that people of a particular region possess almost the same habits.

2. Our society is a blend which possess people from different race and ethnicity, if we take the example of North America and South America we will have clear picture how Race and Ethnicity play an important role. Due to differences in Geographical tropography there is a clear difference of food habits, livelihood, customs, skin color, language and many more.

3. A functionalist theory states that racial and ethnic inequalities that prevail in the society at present is due to the result of deeds in the past and the customs, beliefs and traditions followed at that time. It has been mentioned by scholars that the fucntionalist theory was unable to provide a proper solution of race and ethnic inequalities in the past. This theory talks about the elements but the inequalities that prevail are not elaborated because a functionalist cconsider this evident and inevitable and classifies it as inequality of power. This view has an ignoring attitude towards the problem and is not successful to a large extent in resolving conflicts.

4. The conflict theory provides a better explanation of the issue, instead of ignoring the actual root cause. The theory states that not only biological factors but cultural and social factors and also gender play an important role in creating the discrimination in the society. The conflict theory has not limited itself to race and ethnicity only but also included the class concept and according to some class discrimation was primary.

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