Sociology Essay Example: Race Still Matters

Race still matters in the contemporary society despite the efforts to do away with the issue of race. The USA is a multicultural society and racism is very evident in the country as people from different races are treated differently. Some races are considered superior to others and thus given preferential treatment. Most of the racial constructs lack scientific or biological evidence but are merely social constructs based on assumptions and myths. Despite the efforts of biologists, anthropologists, and sociologists to show that race is not biological, many people find hard to accept that race is based on the culture of individuals. The skin color and the cultural heritage of a person should not be an outward way of classifying people. A critical analysis of the four alleles of genes shows that people across the globe have the alleles that have some similarities.

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The race is still relevant because it is used as a way of classifying people in the US during the census. During the census people, the US citizens are expected to mark appropriate box to indicate their race. The race is a tool for bringing discrimination in the society based on stereotypes and judgment based on the physical appearance. Black people are treated differently by some government agencies. If you look closely at the definitions, you will see that Black, African Am., or Negro is the only category where the term racial groups is used if this person has origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa) (Fuentes 28).The classification of Blacks simply shows that some government agencies define black as a race that is distinct from other races in the world. The racial classification of people based on their skin color and physical attributes has become a source of discrimination in the society today. We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work systematically to over-empower certain groups (McIntosh 541).

Racial profiling plays a role in racial segregation in the US, and thus it is quite clear that race is important in the white dominated society. Structures and systems in the country favor the whites and in one way or the other discriminates the minorities. McIntosh points that I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious. The classification of people according to their skin color and offering them different treatment is meant to maintain status quo in the society that some races are superior. The privileges accorded to the white people are based on the stereotypes about the minorities and help to give evidence that the minorities are exactly what the white people think they are. For instance, in the job market, the blacks are underpaid, and this kills their morale, and thus the whites assume that they are lazy as it is believed. Racial discrimination can work for any race in the country. Light-skinned immigrants in the US make more money on average than those with darker complexions, and the chief reason appears to be discrimination (Fuentes 29). This shows that according to some privileges to any race helps to divide the society into racial lines this makes it hard to address the issue of racism in the contemporary society.

Works Cited

Fuentes, Austin. From the Myth of Race

McIntosh, Peggy. The White Privilege: The Invisible Knapsack