Racial Distinctions
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We often confuse the concept of "racial" groups with "ethnic" groups, and we may use the terms interchangeably when they refer to very different types of group differences. In many ways, our society expresses confusion on the issue, at one time seeming to make the distinction, while at other times failing to do so. In the sixties and seventies there was the beginning of a debate over whether or not the experience of white immigrants had any meaning for America's racial minorities, showing a distinction between the two. At other times, we may speak of the two as if they are one. Recently, of course, the entire issue has been complicated by a scientific view that race itself has no meaning and that racial distinctions are themselves false. This is in contravention to the long-standing view that the concept of race did indeed have meaning and that there were real biological differences among the races, while now scientists say that these differences are not substantive. Prior to this, however, and in the popular view, racial distinctions are at least indicative of surface biological differences in skin color, hair type, and perhaps even body type. Ethnic differences relate more to geography and culture. To a great degree, these differences are social constructs that have real consequences as different policies are formed and implemented based on racial and ethnic classifications. Race was long considered to have biological meaning, while ethnicity was seen as having a
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e issues involved in racial and ethnic distinctions in American society is the degree to which successive immigrant groups have been accepted or rejected based on racial and ethnic differences:
A dominant myth about the social and economic experiences of U.S. immigrants is that most groups confronted similar opportunity structures and reception factors in the host society. Without regard for differences in the historical context of the migration, reception factors in the new society, or the migration process itself, ethnic groups are evaluated by how they fare in becoming American (Nelson and Tienda 49).
By this measure, those who succeed have satisfied the idea of America as a melting pot. Presumably an ethnic group such as the Irish would fare better than a racial group such as blacks because the former will over time shed their ethnic differences while the latter cannot shed their observable biological differences. An examination of how well different groups have succeeded in American society supports this idea to a degree, but at the same time there are clear exceptions that make the rule seem insupportable. Hispanics are not a different racial classification, but they are considered more identifiable than some groups an
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Approximate Word count = 1338
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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