Read the Book(Uploaded) and write about the questions(each 1150~200 words)

266 C h a p t e r 9 R A C E A N D E T H N I C I T Y

Although large groupings of people can be classified by blood type and gene fre- quencies, even these classifications do not uncover “race.” Rather, race is so arbitrary that biologists and anthropologists cannot even agree on how many “races” there are (Smedley and Smedley 2005). Ashley Montagu (1964, 1999), a physical anthropolo- gist, pointed out that some scientists have classified humans into only two “races,” while others have found as many as two thousand. Montagu (1960) himself classified humans into forty “racial” groups. As the Down-to-Earth Sociology box on the next page illustrates, even a plane ride can change someone’s race!

The idea of race, of course, is far from a myth. Firmly embedded in our culture, it is a powerful force in our everyday lives. That no race is superior and that even biologists cannot decide how people should be classified into races is not what counts. “I know what I see, and you can’t tell me any different” seems to be the common attitude. As was noted in Chapter 4, sociologists W. I. and D. S. Thomas (1928) observed that “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” In other words, people act on perceptions and beliefs, not facts. As a result, we will always have people like Hitler and, as illustrated in our opening vignette, officials like those in the U.S. Public Health Service who thought that it was fine to experiment with people whom they deemed inferior. While few people hold such extreme views, most people appear to be ethnocentric enough to believe that their own race is—at least just a little—superior to others.

Ethnic Groups In contrast to race, which people use to refer to supposed biological characteristics that distinguish one group of people from another, ethnicity and ethnic refer to cultural char- acteristics. Derived from the word ethnos (a Greek word meaning “people” or “nation”), ethnicity and ethnic refer to people who identify with one another on the basis of common ancestry and cultural heritage. Their sense of belonging may center on their nation or region of origin, distinctive foods, clothing, language, music, religion, or family names and relationships.

People often confuse the terms race and ethnic group. For example, many people, in- cluding many Jews, consider Jews a race. Jews, however, are more properly considered an ethnic group, for it is their cultural characteristics, especially their religion, that bind them together. Wherever Jews have lived in the world, they have intermarried. Consequently,

The reason I selected these photos is to illustrate how seriously we must take all preaching of hatred and of racial supremacy, even though it seems to come from harmless or even humorous sources. The strange-looking person with his hands on his hips, who is wearing lederhosen, traditional clothing of Bavaria, Germany, is Adolf Hitler. He caused this horrific scene at the Landsberg concentration camp, which, as shown here, the U.S. military forced German civilians to view.

ethnicity (and ethnic) having distinctive cultural characteristics