It is true that our construction of race is based on phenotypes. Phenotypes are the observable physical characteristics as a result of genes and environment. Almond eyes are associated with Asians, blonde hair with Whites, and black skin with Blacks. But these phenotypes are not as clear cut—what about brown skin? What racial category is that associated with? Southeast Asians? Latinos? What about South Asians who have dark skin? Are they blacks too? Or do we categorize them as Asians because of geography? The Australian aboriginals have dark skin, but blondish hair? What racial category would you classify them? The categorization of these stereotypes is where culture comes to play. Although there are genetic and biological explanations for certain physical characteristics, society's categorization of race is based on culture. The fact that we have rules and laws that define our racial categories mean that race is socially constructed. This means that what it means to be Black, White, Asian or whatever racial category a society has, is based on culture. Here are the reasons why race is culturally constructed.

Racial categories are different between cultures. The US has a rigid racial categorical system compared to Latin American countries. In our example of President Obama and Halle Berry, their white parents are ignored in their racial category and they are considered Blacks. Latin America has a more complex system. Here are the racial categories in colonial Peru:

• From Indian and Spaniard parents, the child is mestizo
• From Spaniard and Mestizo parents, the child is Quadroon, Quinterón
• From Spaniard and Black parents, the child is mulatto
• From Spaniard and Mulatto parents, the child is Quadroon, Quinterón
• From Mestizo and Indian parents, the child is Cholo
• From Mulatto and Indian parents, the child is Chinese
• From Spaniard and Chinese parents, the child is Chinese Quadroon
• From Black and Indian parents, the child is Zambo
• From Black and Mulatto parents, the child is Zambo

Mexico, former colonies under the French in the Caribbean, and Brazil all have distinctive racial categories. Unlike the US, the child' s race may not be like the father or mother in Latin America

Racial categories have changed throughout history. In the 1790 US Census, there were six categories: Free White Males, Free White Females, and All Other Free Persons, and Slaves (Lee 1993). Our categorizations reflect society's concerns during that time. Since one's status as being free or not was an central organizing factor in society, race was tied in with status as a free person. These categories have gone through a number of revisions with the latest one in 2000. In the current census, there are 5 racial categories: American Indian or Alaskan native; Black of African American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and White. There are also two minimum categories of ethnicity added: Hispanic/Latino or Not-Hispanic/Latino. Note that Hispanics and Latinos maybe of any race. An important change is that people can actually identify with one or more racial category. The concept of race as used by the Census Bureau reflects self-identification by people according to the race or races with which they most closely identify. These categories are socio-political constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature. Furthermore, the race categories include both racial and national-origin groups. The racial classifications used by the Census Bureau adhere to the October 30,1997, Federal Register Notice entitled, "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity" issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This is the official US Census racial classification.

While race refers to phenotypes, ethnicity refers to non-phenotypical traits that relate to culture, shared ancestry, language, and beliefs. Kurdish, Cuban, Italian, Hmong are all examples of ethnicity. Notice how in most cases, ethnicities are tied to nationalities or citizenship, but not all ethnic groups belong to a specific country or have a country. The Kurds are an example. The Kurdish people inhabit a region that is internationally recognized as belonging to Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey. The Kurds have long been fighting to establish their own country, Kurdistan, and for these ethnic enclaves to be a part of Kurdistan. Currently, only Iraqi Kurdistan is internationally recognized as an autonomous entity.

People belonging to the same ethnic group do not have to share the same race. Nipo-brasileiro or Brazilian citizen of Japanese origin are an interesting group of people especially when they migrate to other countries, for example the US. Although they are technically Asian in US categories, they are most likely ethnically Brazilians. There are an estimated 1.5 million Nipo-brasileiro. The Japanese migrated to Brazil during the early 20th century to work in the coffee plantations.

In South Africa, there are three racial categories, Black, White, Colored, and Indian. There are an estimated 1 million South Africans from India, and having a racial category based on the country is a sign of how these categories reflect social and cultural relations. Recently, the ethnic Chinese in South Africa have been legally reclassified as Blacks. This is again an example of how race means differently for different cultures. Blacks from the US or African Americans who visit Africa are surprised to learn that African Blacks consider them Whites (Newman 379, 2006). They are Whites not because of phenotypes, but because of status.

Racism is the basis of stratification based on race. Racism is the idea that there are superior and inferior races. Racism exists in two levels: personal and institutional. Personal racism occurs when an individual acting on prejudice and stereotypes discriminates against another human being based on race. For example, a person hiring a construction worker would give the job to a Hispanic than the White counterpart, since he/she believes that Hispanics are more hardworking than Whites. That person is racist against Whites. Prejudices are the beliefs held by one group towards another. Prejudices can either be negative or positive. Blacks are great dancers, and Asians can't drive. Prejudices are generally guided by stereotypes. One stereotypes when the person has generalized belief about a certain group. Statements such as all Irish go to the pub and drink excessively. All Asian parents are strict. Discrimination occurs when certain benefits are denied a certain group. Denying someone their vote is an example. During the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, a comparison of these two news reports shows how the manifestation of stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination may not be so blatant. Read the two captions and pay careful attention to how the two sets of Katrina victims were described.

Institutional racism, on the other hand, is the belief that racism is built in to social structures. It is not the individuals, per se, that are racist, but the institutions that organize societies (Giddens 318, 2005). Examples of institutional racism are the apartheid in South Africa, Jim Crow laws, and the Japanese internment camp in the US during World War II. These are situations wherein discrimination is codified into laws. In some cases, however, institutional racism is not overtly practiced, but exists nonetheless. The example about the media and Katrina is an example.

Discrimination in the real estate industry, motivated by housing prices is also another example. Housing prices are still very much influenced by the racial make-up of a neighborhood. To keep housing values at a certain price entails keeping certain groups of people out of a neighborhood. Redlining refers to the practice of delineating and labeling certain areas that are conducive to investment. The National Housing Act of 1934 during the great depression created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation in order to help homeowners. Under FHA, residential maps were created based on their viability for real-estate investments. As a result, poor neighborhoods, which are mostly inhabited by the minorities were discriminated against for bank and business loans. It was a classic policy of rich neighborhoods receiving more opportunities and the neighborhoods that were in most need of help ignored. These policies led to a further deterioration of inner city neighborhoods and furthered segregation. With the real estate boom of the 90s, US lenders have started lending to poor neighborhoods, albeit with sub-prime loans and higher than average interest rates, but the housing market bust is redefining redlining and discrimination in lending practices. Read about how the US housing collapse is resurrecting discrimination.

One of the central tenets of affirmative action is that since individuals have a tendency to be racist, institutions and laws need to be in place in order to prevent them from being racist. Keep in mind that affirmative action is not just based on race, but also gender. The basic premise is that without laws, people will stick to their “own kind” and diversity would be a myth. Read an excerpt from the Online Stanford Encyclopedia about the US Supreme Courts and affirmative action. Only read the short introduction and Part 4 of the text titled “Real World Affirmative Action: The Workplace.”

Up until the late 1960s, anti-miscegenation laws were still in place in the US. The graphs below however, show how US attitudes towards inter-racial marriage laws have changed in the past four decades by race. Although discrimination still exists, there has been a change in attitudes towards tolerance, at least with racial intermarriages.

One important point to keep in mind is the interrelation between the various forms of categories in society in analyzing stratification. In the previous chapter, we discussed how health and life expectancy is affected by one's social class. Life expectancy in the US is also influenced by race and gender. In fact, social class as a stratification system cannot be divorced from society's racial stratification. Below is a graph of life expectancy based on race and gender.

Because of its history and diversity, race has always played a major role in US politics, culture, and society. Compared to other industrialized countries, race plays a larger role in US identity than social class. Our history of slavery and lack of a aristocratic class has made race and ethnicity salient factors in framing our social issues. As the US becomes more racially diverse, it is interesting how our racial categories and race relations will evolve.

The concept of a “melting pot” refers to how the amalgamation of diverse cultures will lead to another culture that is a mixture of different elements. Assimilation, on the other hand, refers to how the minority groups will abandon their own cultures, and will adapt to the dominant culture. For example, first generation children of immigrants speaking English, or having family values that are more American than their parents. Lastly, multiculturalism is based on various cultures coexisting, where minority groups are able to have its distinct culture. However, in a multicultural society, a type of segregation can exists. Thus, even though minority groups practice their own culture, they may not necessarily interact with the the majority group.

In our Chapter on socialization, students learned the social construction of gender. Much like race, society's expectations of how a female and male should behave are dictated by social norms. Sociologists make a distinction between sex, which refers to the biological differences such as chromosomes, hormones, and genitals, and gender, which are the culturally defined characteristics of what is feminine and masculine. Through socialization, we learn gender roles and what is expected of females and males in society. Society's fear or hatred of homosexuals or homophobia is what makes members of society adhere to gender roles.

Family, school, friends, and the media all contribute to one's development of self-identity based on gender. It is obvious that these gender roles have changed throughout history. In the late 20th century, the stigma against women in sports, single mothers, stay-at-home dads, men wearing make-up are not as pronounced as they used to be. In a 2002 nationwide survey, 69% of respondents said that “if one parent stays home with the children, it makes not difference whether that parent is the mother or father (Schaefer 259, 2007).” However, even as attitudes have changed, the majority of stay-at-home parents are still women.

For the functionalist perspective, having different gender roles is necessary for the stability of societies and institutions. For example, the rising divorce rates in the US might be explained by women relinquishing their “traditional” roles. As women become more individualistic and have the ability to be financially independent, women are less likely to stay in unhappy marriages. For the functionalist perspective, the changing roles of women has compromised the family structure. There seems to be a correlation between the rise of female liberty in the 1920s and individualism in the 1980s and divorce rates (Coltrane 507-511, 2001).

However, this women's liberation is not the only explanation sociologists point to in their assessment of divorce—economic depression, wars, laws, religion, age of marriage, and social class seem to contribute to divorce rates. The functionalist perspective may see the change in women's traditional identity as destabilizing society, but the term “traditional” is nebulous.

For example, in hunting and gathering societies, which is the earliest form social structure, gender relations are egalitarian or equal. Hunter gatherers are characterized by foraging. They are mobile communities since they hunt for food rather than plant food their own food. Sociological analysis of existing hunting and gathering societies such as the Bushmen of Africa show how because women and men share the task of providing food for the family, gender relations are equitable (Kendall 319, 2006). In fact, it is believed that only in agricultural societies when gender inequality became institutionalized did the inequality between gender persisted (321). Since farming and agrarian production of food required manual labor, men tended to dominate food production, thus power over women. Thus, what is “traditional” is subjective. Thus, the functionalists' subjective definition of traditional weakens their argument. Is traditional gender relation egalitarian or unequal?

For the conflict perspective, it is the unequal value placed on gender roles that is important for sociologists to consider. For example, in society, it is acceptable for a girl to play with “masculine” toys such as trucks and cars, but quite the opposite is true if boys start playing with dolls. Society also places greater respect and monetary compensation for male occupational roles compared to female's. In the medical field, doctors are associated with men and nurses with women.

Poveryt levels based on gender also provides a way to assess the relationshp poverty and gender. Here are the poverty rates based on gender for 2014 in the US:

• 13% for males
• 16% for females

What I hope you have learned now in sociological analysis is that different variables have to be taken into accounting in studying society, from historical changes, race, and gender.

Since gender roles and responsibilities are socially constructed, different societies have contrasting views of women's rights. The headscarf used by some Muslim women is an example. In Egypt and in Turkey, the ban on women's use of headscarf has mobilized women for their right to wear the headscarf. Whereas most Western women view the headscarf as a form of oppression, some women fighting for their right to wear the headscarf are seeing it as women's right and a part of democracy.

• Assimilation
• Discrimination
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Gender Roles
• Gender Stratification
• Institutional Racism
• Melting Pot
• Multiculturalism
• Nationality
• One Drop of Blood Rule
• Personal Racism
• Phenotypes
• Prejudice
• Racism
• Redlining
• Segregation
• Sex
• Social Construction of Race
• Stereotypes
• Stratification