Race ,Ethnicity and Culture

Race ,ethnicity and culture are three familiar terms to most individuals in a society .These three terms are more or less controversially addressed amongst people. If you are also questioned as what is a race or what is ethnicity then most of you will  be uncertain about its answer. This is because you might have not tried to answer such questions earlier.

Race and Ethnicity

Race and ethnicity are often misunderstood by people. Most people think that these two terms have the same meaning. However , the two terms have two different meanings.

• Race is a  social construct which groups humans into categories based on the shared physical traits.
• Ethnicity refers to a social group which categorizes people based on the shared cultures, norms, religion ,language and ancestry.

Race is a socially created and a poorly defined categorization of people based on the real or perceived physical characters such as skin colour, texture of hair .There is a narrow range of options for physical traits to be used in division to races. So race in comparison to ethnicity is a narrow social group.

Do races exist?

In my point of view yes races exist in the society .It is because people still consider about races during the survival process. 

All humans don’t look alike but we all have the same metabolic processes happening in our body and most importantly we belong to the human race with more commonalities in genes. If so then why do we need to divide into subgroups within the human race and create racial inequality? I believe it is because each individual in a society tries to become unique from one another . To solve this, humans created this categorization as races. 

Humans have also introduced the racial hierarchy that is based on the belief that one racial group is superior than the other. 

Racial hierarchy has created numerous problems in societies and even was the cause for deaths of some people. It is humans who have created this and it is humans who suffer from it.

The most known and exposed situations of racial hierarchy is the white people been superior to black people .This have brought about many devastating consequences to the black lives. Such black people were not given proper education and respect as whites and at most instances they were used in slavery. White people did racially motivated violence against black people irrespective of age and gender. Many leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela took the lead to fight for the rights of the African Americans and this racial conflict was controlled to some extent but couldn’t put a full stop. Black and white racial discrimination still exists and the most recent incident was George Floyd’s murder. It is sad to say that racial discrimination is evident all over the world. 

Nelson Mandela stated that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights .We all have same right and dignity to live peacefully in this world . But the human constructed divisions , races , have caged up the freedom of  life of some individuals.

The moral dangers of racial thinking

Some moral dangers of racial thinking are;

• Moral Distancing
• False commonality
• Inescapable rational fate
• Dominance and hierarchy

Racial thinking cause distancing of individuals in different racial groups which discourage individuals in experiencing commonalities with other races such as commonalities of taste, sources of enjoyment, background and religions. Moreover, racial thinking makes individuals to believe in false commonalities. In my opinion it is better to avoid racial thinking and have more company with individuals from different races as it will definitely help us to clear most of our prejudices, beliefs and misconceptions held against their races.

CULTURE

• Culture is the beliefs, norms , behaviors, objects and other characteristics shared by a group of people.

Culture can also be referred as the patterns of learned and shared behavior and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic or age group.

Human cultures are cognitive structures and not a god given system. Culture, like language, is the foundation for the worlds of meaning which we create around ourselves.

Any person who sees another culture tends to understand it by using his / her familiar cultural codes. In other words, every cultural system is positively adapted for its users irrespective of the observers .

Culture is never fixed and static .Culture can change with time to suit the society .Cultural changes are therefore created by humans.

Cultural pluralism is seen in many societies and it is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities and they are accepted by the dominant culture. In my point of view cultural pluralism minimizes cultural conflicts in societies.

It must be realized that one’s race and ethnicity can have great influence to his/her life which can affect in a positive or negative way. In simple terms divisions formed for the need of some humans can be harmful to other humans. In conclusion, racial thinking, having misconceptions on different cultures and problems of different ethnicities must be erased from one’s mind and thoughts thereby it will help all individuals from different societies to live together in unity.