Social Construction of Race, Gender, and Class

Social Construction of Race, Gender, and Class

Social Construction of Race, Gender, and Class

Race and class are increasingly important in the world today; yet, few sources focus on the similarities of these issues at a regional or global level. Ideologies of race were used to justify colonialism, conquest and annihilation of non-European peoples, slavery, indentured labor, fascism and Nazism. Yet, a common impression among men and women of color is that race and class issues are unique to their own particular community. Still, it is only through awareness of how these issues affect different communities that a common bond and understanding can be developed across racial, ethnic, cultural and class barriers. Both governments and media present the image of an integrated, egalitarian society, which in reality contradicts racial discrimination, and class oppression that is exercised against various minority groups. In each `integrated' and `equal' society, racial and ethnic discrimination is directly related to economic and class issues. Race, Class and Gender issues are commonly brought up. Throughout history many groups have been stigmatized not just for their race, but for their sex, and class as well. People of lower class incomes get slandered for where they live and for not having the economical means to purchase most common goods. Women have been considered the weaker sex for centuries, and currently, some of the old fashioned and ignorant theories on women being subordinate to men prevail. Before America even had a history it was busy creating a lower ethnic class for it to look down on. To work the fields and other low wage high risk jobs. To be there when a scapegoat was needed but to be as separate as could be maintained at all times. Whether you're at work and can't get a promotion because of your gender, excluded from a place because of your class or hated because of your race. No matter what you will be faced with one if these topics in your life time(Haraway, 1997).

Three important axes of global inequality are gender, race and ethnicity, and class. These inequalities are on a global scale and are found in virtually all societies. It wasn't until relatively recently, however, that a caste system developed to include race and ethnicity among class and gender. “Race in a Race-Obsessed World suggest the United States is not very far from making color-blindness a social and political reality. The color-blind or race neutral perspective holds that in an environment where institutional racism and discrimination have been replaced by equal opportunity, one's qualifications, not one's color or ethnicity, should be the mechanism by which upward mobility is achieved. Color as a cultural style may be expressed and consumed through music, dress, or vernacular but race as a system which confers privileges and shapes life chances is viewed as an atavistic and inaccurate accounting of U.S. race relations”(Gallager). I do not think that there will ever be a color blind united ...