SOC 308 Week 1 Discussion

  

Week 1 - Discussion 

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

  

The Social   Construction of Racial and Ethnic Groups [WLOs: 2, 4] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 5]

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapters 1 and 2 from your textbook and review the following resources:

• The Story of Race: A History (Links to an external site.) 
• RACE – The Power of an Illusion (Links      to an external site.)
• To Bring a Divided Country Together, Start      With a Little Spit (Links to an external site.)
• Race ≠ DNA: If Race is a Social Construct,      What's Up With DNA Ancestry Testing? (Links to an external site.)

This discussion will help you think about race and ethnicity as socially constructed concepts. Rather than being rooted in any major biological differences, race and ethnicity are systems of thought and human behavior constructed within specific social contexts. Therefore, race and ethnicity are not directly based on nature or biology but instead result from social ideas and practices. In other words, racial and ethnic categories exist because people believe they are real and important. Furthermore, certain groups have historically decided who belongs to a given racial group, as well as the characteristics and values attributed to these groups.

Today as home DNA tests are illuminating people’s genetic diversity, long-held ideas about racial and ethnic groups are being challenged. In your initial post, please address the following:

• Watch the video The Story of Race: A History (Links to an external site.) or review the web page RACE - The Power of an Illusion (Links      to an external site.).      Explain the difference between race and ethnicity. What do sociologists      mean when they say that race and ethnicity are socially constructed?
• During the Spanish colonization      of the Americas, how was race socially constructed? How did colonizers      benefit from how they constructed race?
• According to the article Race ≠ DNA: If Race is a Social Construct,      What's Up With DNA Ancestry Testing? (Links to an external site.) what makes race a socially      defined identity rather than a biologically defined one? Does race matter      if it is not a biological concept? Provide an example to support your      answer of why race does or does not matter if it is not a biological      concept.
• Home genetic (DNA) testing has      become a multibillion-dollar industry and millions of people globally have      taken these home tests to uncover their genetic stories. According to the      resources you reviewed, how do DNA test results shape people’s perceptions      of race and ethnicity? Why are some people resistant to their test      results?
• According to the article To Bring a Divided Country Together, Start      With a Little Spit (Links to an external site.) how might taking a home DNA      test help bridge the deep racial and ethnic divisions in our society?      Explain why you agree or disagree with this.

Your initial post should be at least 650 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material and/or other scholarly resources and properly cite any references. Be sure to review the list of recommended resources for additional assistance.

Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7. In your responses, be sure to note any interesting aspects of their response, such as the social rather than biological conceptualization of race and/or the role of DNA in shaping people’s perceptions of race and ethnicity. Your responses should be at least 200 words in length.