Ishell Robinson Essays (969 words) - Social Constructionism

Ishell Robinson Elizabeth Kim English 10:40 10 July 2015 Racial Formation s Is it true all "black" people love soul food? That crunchy fried chicken, mac cheese, sweet pot atoes, collard greens, and do not forget that good ole' corn bread! If yes, did someone else inform you of this? Or did you observe the race yourself and co me up wit h that outcome? Or were you taught knowing that "black" people love soul food? Race does not just have one specific meaning. It can be interpreted in beast ways depending on multiple customs . In "Racial Formations , " written by Omi and Winant , they elaborate on how societies needs to break the barrier of stereotypes and defining people of their race because race is always changing. Once societies come to the realization that race is more then Ideology is the way people think, their ideas and beliefs about something. Racial Ideology is people's preconceived notion of race , their set of beliefs on race. Most beliefs are based off of h ow they think a certain race should act or how they should look , which can be described as racial etiquette . As Omi and Winant puts it, "We also become disoriented when people do not act black,' Latino,' or indeed white.' The content of such stereotypes reveals a series of substantiated beliefs about who these groups are and what they' are like" (Omi and Winant 4). The authors are stating how people become confused or dumbfounded when their beliefs do not mock how they perceived a specific race group to be like. They become mysterious to how they should perceive races as. This connects to Omi and Winant's main argument that race is not just one specific thing because Social Sciences believe social concept in consideration of race would be more reliable then biological notion of race. Race was not just something people knew about, it was shaped by the type of society and or culture. Racial class and the meaning of race are given a solid expression by the specific social connection and historical setting in which they are implanted. Over time racial meaning had differed in size a significant amount between different soci eties. Omi and Winant writes, "In contempo rary British politics the term black' is used to refer to all nonwhites Rather, in political and cultural movements, Asians as well as Afro- Caribbean youth are adopting the term as an expression of self- identity" (Omi and Winant 3). Omi and Winant explains how race can be defined in multiple ways based on the society a certain racial category lives in or the type of culture being taught among the society. In certain societies they define themselves as what they want to be defined as instead of letting others define their identity for them. And in other societies they allow their own people to be corrupted by the stereotypes and categorize them however they want to. This is great evidence that proves Omi and Winant's main argument; they explain how rather race being defined as what color someone skin is that race is really based of societies and cultural status. As racial slavery was made physically stronger in the US, the racial class of "black" developed gradually. Work Cited Reflection My first college English paper, it was the total opposite of what I expected. 3 pages are not even that bad to write, but for some odd reason I was having difficulties writing my paper. At first I wasn't really sure of the author's main argument. Then as a class we started talking more about the book more. The discussions in class about the book were very helpful. It allowed me to grasp more of the deeper concept that was being stated in the book. I loved how my classmates and I helped each other out by explaining things into further detail if someone was confused. Another big part that helped me with my writing was tutoring. Our CAs is amazing. I tend to have writer's block or not really know how to organize my thoughts to where as I would put things. The CA that was helping me got me