Anthropology reading response

ANTH 3142 - 006 Article Response 18 Isabella Saad

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE FOR YOU TO GO BY FOR ANTHROPOLOGY 3142, ARTICLE RESPONSES. EACH ARTICLE FOR EACH WEEK NEEDS TO BE SET UP IN THIS WAY.

! Article 1: Citation: Kottak, C., & Kozaitis, K. 2012. On Being Different: Diversity & Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream. (4th ed., pp. 108-125). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Chapter 7. ! Central Theme: The central theme in the seventh chapter of On Being Different is about the concept of race in terms of biological and cultural views. The chapter goes into different approaches at discussing major topics on race and differentiate between the biological and social. ! What was the article about?: Race is a complex and ambiguous term that has political, social, and cultural connotations. Race was used as means to categorize peoples in order to ascertain the natural superiority of white Europeans. However, science has proven that human races, as mistakenly understood, are not static and distinct. Phenotypic differences result from an unclear association and combination of environmental factors and inherited genes (Kottak & Kozaitis, 2012). ! The assumption that race is a biological concept led scientists to classify certain diseases as black or white. Because Europeans and White Americans had economic control over resources, they believed that biological differences accounted for their apparent success. In fact, economic and health disparities are results of discrimination and political decisions rather than biological differences. ! Culture plays a crucial role in confining, or enlarging, the genetic pool of a population. The concept of whiteness was a cultural construct contoured by restrictions on social behavior and interactions, such interracial marriages. Therefore, racial classification was institutionalized in concordance to what culture identifies as natural. Culture works because in addition to interpreting differences, it is a dynamic way to establish social order and homogeneity. Racial classification was the result of cultural norms within a political and socioeconomic context. 
 Thoughts and Feelings: This chapter was very interesting as I have been exposed to race all of my life. I live in a Middle- Eastern home in the United States, and I have been exposed to the profiling of people towards

ANTH 3142 - 006 Article Response 18 Isabella Saad

my faith. There have been times when I was about to board a plane and airport security did "extra" screening at the gate and "randomly". My uncle whose name is Mohammad is almost always questioned when entering the United States even though he is a citizen. This shows how racial profiling actually works on the personal level at airports. The controversial utilization of race as a measure of difference between individuals and groups is dependent of the political, historic, social, and economic contexts. Race is a powerful notion because it is associated with visible physical traits. The field of genetics rejects the idea that race has a biological foundation. Nonetheless, as more scientific knowledge is discovered, genetic discrimination might replace racism and racial classification. ! Article 2: Citation: Blumer, H., & Allport, G. Is race prejudice a product of group position?. (pp. 152-173). From: Allport, G. W. (1979). The Young Child. The Nature of Prejudice. Blumer, H. (1958). Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position. The Pacific Sociological Review. ! Central Theme: The central theme of this particular article is the question of what causes racial prejudice. The theory of prejudice needs to be simultaneously built and considered from the collective process of defining race, and from the individual learning of the meanings of race and ethnicity through social experiences during childhood. ! What was the article about?: According to Blumer, prejudice is the result of dominance and challenge to the dominant perspectives. The mores and behaviors that oppose the dominant group`s set of values and cultural norms are protected by different forms of prejudice, such as racism. Subsequently, in order for race prejudice to exist, four different feelings have to meet and intertwine: superiority, distinctiveness, the sense of proprietary claim, and the feeling that the subordinate group is threatening the intrinsic rights of the dominant group. These feelings are necessary to formulate race prejudice, which positions the dominant group, by virtue of natural supremacy, above the other groups. Thus, prejudice should be understood and alienated from the group perspective (Blumer, 1958). ! Conversely, Allport argued that the first six years of childhood are fundamental in breeding prejudice within an individual. Further, the parents’ reactions to the child`s behavior can instill prejudice and predispose the child for intolerance, racism and ethnophobia. The latter is founded on the association between purity (whiteness) of the skin and categorization of

ANTH 3142 - 006 Article Response 18 Isabella Saad

colored individuals and groups as inferior by nature (Allport, 1979). ! Thoughts and Feelings: This article viewed prejudiced from the group and collective perspective, and from the individual acknowledgement of the social and cultural meaning of prejudice during early childhood. However, prejudice is a continuum between the two extremities of individual experiences and collective learning and definition of prejudice. Consequently, the sole view of prejudice, such as racism, from a single perspective is insufficient to reduce prejudice and its adverse impacts in the society. ! A Question I had from the Articles: ! 1. How equitable is the American society? 2. Does racism still exist in the United States? Or, did it take different forms?