In this video, she describes race as a socially constructed category. The video says that race is “used to categorize people who share biological traits that a society thinks are important.” They also state the fact that even though the physical traits are usually used to identify a race, they aren’t always applied consistently. She uses the example that someone who has a black parent and a white parent isn’t usually considered white. The video defines ethnicity as “socially constructed categories based on cultural traits that a society finds important rather than strictly biological traits.” Usually is a group that has shared cultural heritage. This video also brings up the common mistake that most people make which is saying that “Hispanic” is a race when it’s actually an ethnicity. The video then explains the difference between Hispanic, Latino and Latin American. Hispanics were viewed as the people whose heritage originated in a Spanish speaking country. Mexican-American or Cuban-Americans were considered Latin-Americans and Latinos were the one whose heritage originated from nations in the Americas that are south of the United States like Mexico, all of South America and the Caribbean. Race is usually based on observable and physical traits whereas ethnicities aren’t. Two people with the same ethnicity can be different races. Race is more commonly used as a way to organize people and distribute power but both race and ethnicity play a huge role in how people are perceived. Peoples race can influence social outcomes like education, income and experiences with the criminal justice system. In this video, sociologists define minorities as “any category of people, who are distinguished by physical or cultural difference, that a society sets apart and subordinates.” I think this video was a good choice because in class we talked about how race and ethnicity are similar yet different. Like the video, we also defined race as a socially defined category that’s based on biological differences between people. We defined ethnicity as a socially defined category based on nationality, history and culture factor. We also pointed out that sociologists see race and ethnicity as social constructions. The one thing that the video failed to mention was that ethnicity can be displaced or hidden whereas with race, racial identities are always showing. We also defined minority groups and the video said how the sociologists would define a minority. Overall this video is the perfect video because it helps add on to what we learned in class. WORD COUNT: 410
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