Social construction of race refers to the theory of knowledge that race was created in the society. Race refers to an individual or a group of individuals who have physically identifiable differences with a social significance. Race and ethnicity are analyzed from various perspectives of sociology and they are as discussed below (Schaefer, 2013). Race refers to physical differences that distinguish a society from others while ethnicity refers to setting apart a group from others on the basis of factors such as national origin, cultural patterns, among others. Some of the perspectives that analyze race and ethnicity include:
Functionalist Perspective and
Conflict perspective
Functionalist Perspective
Functionalist perspective opined that a society comprises of structures that exist interdependently as the functions of each organ are mutually dependent. A perfect example is the human body. A society is viewed as a human body that comprises various organs, and when an organ of a human body does not perform its functions, it affects the rest of the body (Schaefer, 2013). The same way in a society, when one structure does not perform well, the other structures get affected. Functionalist theorists concurred that discrimination is not to be admired, however, they pointed out several positive functions for those who exercise discrimination as follows:
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Racists justifies that discrimination maintains unequal society that results to depriving the minor groups some rights and privileges. For instance, southern Whites believed that being “black” represented devoid souls and being subhuman, therefore Africans were highly discriminated as slavery was justified on that ground.
Beliefs of racists discourage the ability of the minority groups to question their low status in the society. Deprivation of this right results to more oppression of the minority groups.
Racial myths opine that societal changes such as introduction of non-discrimination will result to an increment of poverty to the minority group, therefore lowering the majority`s as well as the society`s standard of living.
In spite of the fact that racial prejudice and discrimination has a couple of benefits to the majority group, it may result to societal dysfunction on the other hand. Examples of such dysfunctions were discussed by sociologist Arnold Rose and they are as outlined below:
A society that exercises discrimination fails to exhaust all the resources because discrimination limits the search for talent and leadership only to the dominant group.
In addition, racism increases problems encountered in the society such as; crime and poverty, among others and places the financial burden of eliminating such problems on the dominant group.
Further, discrimination acts as a barrier to goodwill and friendly diplomatic relations among countries, and finally
Society must invest money and time in order to eliminate its barriers for the full participation of its members.
Example of Functionalist Perspective
A functionalist perspective promotes development in a society. For example, when a state enacts laws demanding citizens to pay taxes for them to be guaranteed protection and development. In this case, the government makes decisions and citizens are not involved. We can say that citizens are discriminated against by the state but this will be to their advantage, especially if the government uses the benefit rationale to impose taxes. This rationale means that the government is a “shopkeeper” and citizens purchase services such as security, education and health, through payment of taxes.
Conflict Perspective
The conflict perspective opines that discrimination and racial prejudice have negative consequences to the society. The perspective differs from functionalist perspective because the prior views society as a peaceful unit. The theory tends to concur with the views of Sociologist Arnold Rose, who according to her, racial prejudice and discrimination resulted to societal dysfunction (Schaefer, 2013). Conflict Perspective, like functional perspective describes a society as a system of interdependent organs that work together and the functions are mutually dependent. Several theorists have developed theories that illustrate how discrimination pulls back societal development as discussed below.
Karl Marx was the founder of the Marxist theory of law. This theory is based on human rationality. Karl Marx did not believe in existence of a God. The assumptions according to Marx are that God do not exist and humans are evolving animals (Schaefer, 2013). Marx states that law arises from interactions of human beings within social structures that contain economic distinction. The economic difference results to conflicts and disorder therefore law is paramount to deal with this conflict.
Marx strongly condemned the power of the rich to make laws. He termed them as bourgeois. Laws made by these people were oppressive and unjust since they were developed on private property concepts hence contributed to promotion of inequity in rights. According to Marx, the laws made by the rich subjected the poor to follow them. This inequality is what disturbed Marx and he suggested that the solution of such discrimination is the poor to overthrow unjust tyranny and they be allowed to make laws also. From a Marxist point of view, it is observed that racial discrimination and prejudice keeps minority groups in low grade jobs working for the capitalists at low costs. Workers of dominant class who demand for a higher pay are replaced with minorities who are forced to accept low wages.
Other sociology theorists such as Herbert M. Hunter (2000), Robert Blauner (1972), and Oliver Cox (1948) used the exploitation theory to illustrate the basis of racial discrimination in the US.A (Schaefer, 2013). Exploitation refers to a situation where one social group which is superior takes for itself whatever is produced by another social group which is somewhat inferior. The exploitation theory in relation to conflict perspective connotes that employers make profits by exploiting their employees by offering relatively low wages compared to the amount of work and energy offered by employees. In a nutshell, conflict perspective tends to mean that unequal distribution of resources in a society results to conflicts from the two different social groups.
Example of conflict perspective
An example of conflict perspective in modern society is: In a state where there is a stable government, the civil servants who work for the government may hold peaceful demonstrations demanding an increment of the salary. In such a scenario, the government can be viewed as the bourgeois and the civil servants as the proletariat. Civil servants are government employees and they work so hard in order to get stipends as the wages they receive is not a lot. This scenario explains the Marxist theory whereby the poor are oppressed by the rich who make laws that are for their advantage.
In conclusion, on one hand, both perspectives of sociology have a similarity whereby they describe a society as a system of interdependent organs that work together and the functions are mutually dependent. On the other hand, functionalist perspective and conflict perspective differ in that, the prior views society as a peaceful unit while the latter views society as a unit that is trying to achieve a balance as there exists inequality between members due to the differences in social and economic status, therefore a society is not a peaceful unit according to the latter perspective.
References
Schaefer, R. (2013). Sociology: A Brief Introduction (10th ed.). New York, N.Y: McGraw-Hill.
