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Catina Toops
000803172
Week 5
11-23-2020
Sociology 1101
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The racial worldview has 100 percent made me appreciate myself and other people from other
nationalities a lot more. You see what is going on in the world with African Americans and it
just makes you wish and want for a better society than what we have right now. I personally
do not think skin color matters. What matters is who you are as a person, it should not matter
if you are white, black, biracial, Hispanic, anything. It matters if you are a good person who
has good intentions and that is all.
While watching the videos in our lesson plan, the beginning of the documentary a few of the
people stated that they got more racial views from people who were fully black. Ez, and T’nya
both stated this in the beginning of the video. (Documentary: The Other Race (Mixed Race)
2017) I am Hispanic and my experiences with being multiethnic is always being asked if you
are mixed or if you are white or black. I used to work in a fast-food restaurant and I constantly
had contact with customers, there were multiple times that I was asked about my skin tone,
and if I was mixed. I also have very curly hair and people ask about my hair as well. I grew up
speaking English because all my Spanish speaking relatives live in Puerto Rico or are no
longer alive. I know no Spanish and I get made fun of for that by other Hispanics as well like
it makes me less Hispanic than them.
The first theory I want to use to describe A racial worldview obscures the fact that the
perceived differences are actually products of historical and contemporary social, economic,
educational, and political circumstances rather than biological factors is symbolic
interactionism. Our book states that “People construct their roles as they interact; they do not
merely learn the roles that society has set out for them. As this interaction occurs, individuals
negotiate their definitions of the situations in which they find themselves and socially
construct the reality of these situations. In so doing, they rely heavily on symbols such as
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words and gestures to reach a shared understanding of their interaction.” ([Author removed at
request of original publisher], 2016) This shows that people judge and are racist because of what
is around them and what they picked up on and sooner or later ended up picking up on
themselves. It has nothing to do with biology. The second theory I want to use is conflict theory
because our textbook states “Society is characterized by pervasive inequality based on social
class, gender, and other factors.” This also shows that it is not all about color when talking about
racism.
I would like to think that nobody benefits from racism, but that is just not the case, if I had to
choose I would say whites mostly benefit from the current racial worldview because they have
white privilege. Even though there are jobs who say they do not discriminate they may to an
extent. Say there is one white guy and one African American guy who apply to the same job
and they have the same qualifications, maybe they both get hired, but most likely the white
guy is going to make more money. Whites in general benefit because they have white
privilege, African Americans or people who do not look white or who are biracial most likely
do not have that type of privilege.
I believe the steps that each of us can take to help change Americas worldview would be to
teach our kids that skin color does not matter, and we are all the same in the inside.
Obviously, this is not going to stop racism, but it is a step in the right direction for the next
generations to come.
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References
Terrance. 2017. “Documentary: The Other Race (Mixed Race).” Www.youtube.com. Retrieved
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfM-F172548).
[Author removed at request of original publisher]. 2016. “8.2 Explaining Stratification.”
Sociology. Retrieved November 17, 2020 (https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/8-
2-explaining-stratification/).
