I have been thinking about something for quite some time. When we talk about race in class, we generally are able to discuss race as being more than just a biological and social construction. Of course, we do not say that it is solely one or the other, but we do recognize that there are shades of gray.
An interesting idea regarding race is the concept that we "do" race. There are certain ways of acting, interacting, speaking, etc. that are associated with a particular race in society. But after talking about the idea of "doing" race, we manage to discredit many of the stereotypes.
What I am wondering, and also having trouble with, is being able to think about race as fluid. It seems that we can all do that in class and our discussions provide an outlet that points out the invalid conclusions of mainstream stereotypes. But in one of my sociology classes, race is seen as something more solid. It is used as a category and a marker when observing people and making conclusions regarding their behavior, actions, way of life, etc. For instance, when conducting research, I have been taught that the four independent variables sociologists look out for are gender, class, age, and race. If we are labeling "race" as a variable, are we attributing certain observations solely on race? Doesn't this make the concept of race less fluid? I am having trouble trying to reconcile what we discuss in class with the content of my other classes.
I think we all strive to see race as fluid, but it's hard to realize that there is still so much that goes into race and how it is perceived.
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I have thought about this also. Although there is a spectrum of colors within each race, and they all blend from one end to the other, there is still this desire to put race into discrete categories. It really makes me think of foundation makeup- I think almost everyone (every girl at least) has seen the makeup counter with the skin colored makeup ranging from ivory to ebony. Often, its difficult to find what color you are. My friend, who is half indian, gets very frustrated in the winter when she is the same makeup color as her white friends who go tanning-- as if it takes away from her ethnicity and identity to be the same as the white girls. Does this make her a different race, or the same race due to her color? Absolutely not. So even as people can be a spectrum of colors, we still try to determine color and race because it says something. Race is an immediate statement- like its black or white but really its more like a rainbow.
ReplyDeleteI was reading for my sociology course again and we are on the topic of conducting research and experiments.
ReplyDeleteThe variable of race came up again and it was mentioned that there are properties that are permanent, such as race and gender. It continues to say that these permanent properties are what researchers use to establish causal directions because these are termed "determining factors and not determined effects".
Something else came up in my class lecture last week and it was the idea that race can be attributed to certain drugs working better in certain groups of people based on their race. I immediately thought of our class discussions about how race is not biological but we continue to make it so through the research aspect.
So if we are continuing to try and slodify race, can we really view race as more than just a variable and permanent characteristic that supposedly determines causal relationships?