The current view that race is a social construction supported by political realities has become increasingly popular. Race has been seen in the past as a biological construct linked to the genetic make-up of a person. However, the new idea that sees race as a social construction supported by political realities has come to challenge the biological approach to race. The new viewpoint on race as a social construction compares greatly with the biological view in the sense that the new idea is embedded on the fact that lacks a set of genes dominant in all neither blacks nor whites. The new idea is that while racial classifications remain to be a reality, this cannot be justified on biological grounds for no genes is linked to one race over then other. The new idea challenges that traditional view that looked at race as something that a person is born into and can be defined through the genetic make-up or history of a person. New evidence reveals the absence of genes specific to black or white or other racial groups that supports the new idea.
There are a number of motivating factors for early Americans to construct race and racial categories. The main motivating factor was the need to control the people of one race over the other. In this regard, the early Americans wanted to control and exploit certain communities. For instance, the black community was oppressed because of their skin color being linked to race. The focus of developing racial classification in this regard was to exploit these communities based on the categories made. Secondly, race and racial categories was developed by the early Americans to support the political gains of the majority white. The majority white politicians took on the opportunity to classify people into racial groups to gain political mileage at the time. This approach was used to make it easier for them to control the people tagged to come from the minority racial groups (Figueroa, 2012). Thirdly, economic reasons were also a major motivation on the account that categories were created to facilitate slavery where slaves worked in the farms. The black community became major victims to this form of racial categorization.
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The approach that matches closely to the new definition of race in contemporary America is the “melting pot” view, which argues that immigrants should assimilate to American culture. In this approach, the American cultures are the practices seen with the majority white. Under this view, there is need for other cultures to melt and pave way for one culture-the American culture (Brown, 2001). This view matches closely to the decision of race as a social construction where it is expected that race would be defined according to the socialization that different members of the American society practice.
Conclusively, I support the multiculturalism approach to racial categorization, which recognizes that as American community, we share many things, but need to accommodate the differences that may exist in the ethnic communities within the society. I support this view for acknowledges the need for diversity. As an American society, we are diverse and the differences in the cultural practices should not be used as scapegoats to divide the people. Instead, there would be the need to define the American society as one while accommodating the cultural diversities of its people.
References
Brown P. (2001). The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States. New York: Prentice Hall.
Figueroa, P. (2012). Education and the Social Construction of 'Race' New York: Routledge.
