Overview
Race and ethnicity are systems of thought and human behavior constructed within specific social contexts. Therefore, race and ethnicity are not solely 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.
In your initial post, address the race and ethnicity, colonial colonization, and the race matrix using your required resources to support your statements:
Subject: Race and Ethnicity
Explain why biology does not explain race.
- Summarize the difference between race and ethnicity.
Include: Why is it suggested that race and ethnicity are socially constructed?
- Subject: The Spanish colonization
- Evaluate how race was socially constructed during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
- Distinguish how the Spanish cultural ideologies affect how the Spanish constructed race.
- Identify how colonizers benefited from how they constructed race.
Subject: The Matrix of Race
- Using Figure 1.4 in your text, identify where you currently are on the continuum. You do not need to share this here but be mindful of what you learned about yourself.
- Evaluate how it might be difficult for some people to be honest with their own placement.