"Race": a social construct used to divide us.

 When we use and hear the term race, many of us think of our own race, and where our position is on the social ladder, or in the hierarchy of social status. One is either black or one is white, both reflecting the extreme ends of a very focused color spectrum, the middle being gray. Gray...who wants to be gray, the definition of boring, middle of the road, and unappealing? And yet we accept, it seems, this definition; this fundamental statement that tells us who we are.

In this video, The Myth of Race debunked in five minutes,  Jennee Desmond-Harris explains some things about what many of assume is fact, but in fact isn't: 


In her paper, Why teaching race as a social construct still matters, Jennifer L. Pierce states the following: "For scholars who teach about race in sociology, ethnic studies, American studies, and related disciplines, one of the foundational arguments in our respective fields is that race is a socially and historically constructed concept. By that we mean that race is not some unchanging, biological essence, but rather a malleable social category created through the state, law, science, and/or social interaction in particular historical times and place."


Bibliography:

PIERCE, J. L. Why Teaching About Race as a Social Construct Still Matters. Sociological Forum, [s. l.], v. 29, n. 1, p. 259–264, 2014. DOI 10.1111/socf.12079. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=94758330&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 31 jul. 2022.


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