Race

“Race” is not a black or white issue in the social sciences, and for the last sixty years it has been increasingly called into question. This paper will answer three specific questions dealing with the social scientific criticisms of “race.” The three questions will deal with the social construction of reality, the justification of basic concepts supporting the idea of separate races, and explaining the cause of high rates of hypertension among African-Americans.

Our first question: When the author says that the classification of races is arbitrary, how is this similar to our discussion of the social construction of reality?

Social construction of reality is a process by which a definition of reality is: 1) Socially created 2) Are internalized, and 3) Taken for granted. Classification of races is arbitrary because it is not based on fact and is not consistently applied. An example of this classification was during the racism of the late nineteenth century, mulattos had to either “pass” as whites or join wit

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This is why the scientific racists of the nineteenth century were never able to find measurable data that would objectively support separate racial types.

Our final question: What does the article say about the cause of high rates of hypertension among African-Americans? This is because social construction of reality can have biological effects. We should all try to love every single ethnic group in the world—it would only make it easier on us!

. The real danger lies in using “race” as an explanatory device in assuming that a person thinks, feels, or acts in a certain way because of where his or her ancestors came from, or because of what she/he looks like. In this case, the belief in “race” can lead to social conditions that create a biological difference. But one study shows the greatest incidence of hypertension among blacks with who are upwardly mobile achievers. Skin color in just one biological factor among many. This likely relates to the fact that the discrimination they experience does not fit with self-image as respectable individuals. The one-drop rule only applies to African Americans and has never made a Native American out of someone with a Cherokee great-grandmother (even a princess). Hypertension is a problem for African-Americans; roughly 34 percent have high blood pressure, compared with about 16 percent of whites.

In conclusion, our social understanding of race is not a face, but a social construction of reality; a historically grounded sense of heritage based on insiders’ and outsiders’ interpretations of made-up boundary markers. Many states then adopted the South’s one-drop rule, meaning that a person with any African ancestry was defined as black, although most “blacks” by then were brown. Lab studies show that stressful situations—like being followed in a store as if you were a shoplifter—can elevate blood pressure and lead to vascular changes that cause hypertension. Racial categories are socially and culturally defined.

Approximate Word count = 687
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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