what extent is racism inevitable in all societies?
Answers
Answer:
Racism cannot be defined without first defining race. Among
social scientists, ‘race’ is generally understood as a social
construct. Although biologically meaningless when applied to
humans – physical differences such as skin color have no
natural association with group differences in ability or behavior
– race nevertheless has tremendous significance in structuring
social reality. Indeed, historical variation in the definition and
use of the term provides a case in point.
The term race was first used to describe peoples and societies
in the way we now understand ethnicity or national identity.
Later, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as Euro-
peans encountered non-European civilizations, Enlightenment
scientists and philosophers gave race a biological meaning.
They applied the term to plants, animals, and humans as
a taxonomic subclassification within a species. As such, race
became understood as a biological, or natural, categorization
system of the human species. As Western colonialism and
slavery expanded, the concept was used to justify and prescribe
exploitation, domination, and violence against peoples racial-
ized as nonwhite. Today, race often maintains its ‘natural’
connotation in folk understandings; yet, the scientific
consensus is that race does not exist as a biological category
among humans – genetic variation is far greater within than
between ‘racial’ groups, common phenotypic markers exist on
a continuum, not as discrete categories, and the use and
significance of these markers varies across time, place, and even
within the same individual (Fiske, 2010).
For most social scientists, ‘race’ is distinct from ‘ethnicity’.
A major distinction is the assumption of a biological basis in
the case of race. Races are distinguished by perceived common
physical characteristics, which are thought to be fixed, whereas
ethnicities are defined by perceived common ancestry, history,
and cultural practices, which are seen as more fluid and
self-asserted rather than assigned by others (Cornell and
Hartmann, 2006). Thus, Asian is usually considered a ‘race’,
whereas Tibetans and Bengalis are considered ethnicities.
Although ethnicity and nationality often overlap, a nationality,
such as American, can contain many ethnic groups (e.g.,
Italian-Americans, Arab-Americans). Yet, all three categories –
race, ethnicity, and nationality – are socially constructed, and,
as such, groups once considered ethnicities have come to be
seen as races and vice versa. Moreover, some groups who are
now taken for granted as ‘white’, such as the Irish, Italians, and
Jews, were once excluded from this racial category. The defi-
nitional boundaries of race and ethnicity are shaped by the tug
and pull of state power, group interests, and other social forces.
From a sociological perspective, it is this social construction
of race – not its ‘natural’ existence – that is the primary object of
inquiry in the study of racism. Bundled up with eighteenth
century classifications of various racial groups were assertions
of moral, intellectual, spiritual, and other forms of superiority,
which were used to justify the domination of Europeans over
racialized others. In the North American context, racist ideol-
ogy served as justification for land appropriation and colonial
violence toward indigenous peoples as well as the enslavement