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Race and ethnicity
Race and ethnicity
| The essay allows for in-depth scholarly research on a topic in race and ethnicity. Essays are intended to develop research skills including the organisation of material, and the development of a coherent well articulated argument/position, substantiated with evidence. Essay Topics 1. Distinguish between ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’. Some sociologists argue that ‘race’ is no longer a useful classification, that it produces racism. Drawing on sociological and anthropological theories, argue for or against this proposition. 2. Outline what is meant by ‘ethnic identity’. Using ONE ethnic group as a case study, argue against or in support of the primordialist OR instrumentalist/constructivist models of ethnic identity. 3. Formulated in the 19th century by eminent European scientists, eugenic theory was widely taught in schools, universities and largely accepted as ‘fact’. By the 20th century, and largely due to the Nazi’s use of eugenic theory as a justification for genocide of the Jewish race and social ‘inferiors’, eugenics had became a dirty word. In the first part of the essay, explore the impact of eugenic theory in regards to Indigenous race relations in Australia or another country. In the second part of the essay, examine concerns that the ‘new’ eugenics is somehow linked to scientific racism. 4. Orientalism is a 1978 book by public intellectual Edward Said. The book is a critical study of the cultural representations of the Western perceptions and depictions of the ‘Orient’, that is ‘Eastern’ Asian and Middle Eastern cultures. In the book, Said establishes a binary between the ‘Occident’ and the Orient which, he argues led to the creation of the ‘Other’. Drawing on Said’s theory, analyse how the process of ‘Othering’ has been applied to Western perceptions of people in Middle Eastern or Asian countries, and its association with racism. 5. Modernists believed in the 19th century that the world could be improved by human intervention and achievement and that this meant colonising “other less intelligent and able peoples”.Explore how the process of colonisation has affected ONE racial or ethnic Assessment criteria: Essay structure including quality of introduction and conclusion (5%) Focused response to essay topic; quality of response (5%) Evidence of appropriate sociological research on topic Complexity of theoretical engagement with topic, including application of sociological concepts/theory (5%) Creativity and originality, including case study and self-expression (5%) Quality of argument, and use of evidence to support an argument (5%) Referencing including full reference list-minimum SIX academic sources- and proper in-text referencing using APA (5%) Demonstrate appropriate academic literacy, including spelling, grammar, and written expression (5%) |
Question 4: introduction. If you went ahead with this question and used any of this paragraphs, this would be without the 5 pages asked to write. Thank you
Since the publication of Edward Said’s Book Orientalism 20 years ago, scholars have criticized as well as praised his work. The main thought in his study is that there is a clear division between East and West otherwise known as ‘orient’ and ‘occident’, and how the occidents have tried to represent the orients, projecting and distinguishing between the two forming an ‘otherness’ Although Said wasn’t the first to explore this matter his was the most convincing. He states Colonialism and imperialism to be a major reason for this, it was used not just as a form of overtaking a nation and expanding its colony but also simultaneously to express dominance and to objectify and categorise it according to their own interests. His motive in writing this piece was his experience as a disheartened Palestinian in the west. Even though he was raised a Christian, he understands his culture is heavily influenced by Islam. Being not biased he doesn’t hesitate in defending the religion from how it is distorted, especially by the western media. According to Said Muslims are publicized as a threat, covered from head to toe and are possible oil suppliers or potentially a terrorist. While the book ‘Orientalism’ mainly focuses on Islam, his arguments have been acknowledged and extended by other scholars to other Asian countries such as India and China.
Said’s damning critique of the Western disfiguration of the “Orient,” his insistence on understanding aesthetic works in social and political contexts, and his conception of contrapuntal reading made a lasting contribution to modern literary theory.
Published in 1978, Said’s Orientalism is a touchstone of twentieth-century literary criticism. Its radical exposé of Eurocentric universalism laid the foundations for postcolonial theory. Said argues that Europe colonized the East not only economically, but also discursively and cognitively. Just as the raw materials of the East were appropriated for Western use, so also the detail and texture of Eastern life were absorbed into stereotypical categories that served a useful function in the West’s concept of itself. Rather than be a world known for itself, the East became the West’s “other,” a comparative entity that confirmed Western assumptions of superiority. If the West was industrious, rational, and modern, the East was lazy, emotional, and traditional. Drawing on Foucault’s description of discourse, Said paid special attention to the way Western scholarship created a discursive Orient, a body of knowledge that categorized the worlds of the East and subsumed their myriad differences into one totalizing and highly stereotypical picture.
For many people across the globe, race and ethnicity, in addition to gender (and, increasingly, in many contexts, sexual orientation), help to define our individual and collective identities, our social worlds, our personal dreams, and our shared visions. Race is a shorthand for how we live and what we value and what we look like. The concept of race can be considered in both cultural and political terms. In that regard, race has been used to create a dividing line between those who were white and those who were non-whit and to determine who would and would not have political rights.
As Robert Jensen explains in chapter 3, whites are in privileged positions in most sociopolitical contexts- so much so that their race and/or ethnicity is often perceived to be non-existent. In this way, ‘race’ is ‘seen’ by those who possess the dominant racial characteristics wholly in terms of ‘otherness’. Those from non-white races are deemed to be a less significant ‘other’.
Categorizing people (and compelling) people to define themselves accordingly) is a means of exercising power and control over them. While differences between and among humans is reflected in evidence from ancient times, it is not surprising that, as Europeans began to explore the globe and encounter persons who looked, spoke and acted differently from themselves, and from what they understood to be ‘normal’, there was increased discussion of classification. Thus, an ‘ideology of race’ took shape in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, such that the mixing of common understanding and scientific evidence opened the door for widespread abuses on the basis of race. The most notable classification of race was by anthropologist Johann friedrich Blumenbach, who, in 1775 created a racial classification system that divided human into 5 races, Caucasian, mangolian, Malayan, negroid and American.
Many ethnic groups were named by colonizers. In a postcolonial world, many ethnic groups retain their colonized ethnic designations, while some shed them for more self-determined ethnic group titles. (Burma, now called Myanmar, and the Burmese people, provide a recent example).
On the one hand, the extent of media technologies coverage has the effect of solidifying certain race-related norms, such as perpetuating the notion that light and white is ‘right’ when it comes to dominating standards of beauty. On the other hand, it allows groups to produce and circulate artistic creations that lend themselves to a more positive valuation of one’s racial group. The style of animation known as anime, which originated in Japan- whose popularity spread from east and southeast asia, and eventually throughout the western world-is one prominent example.
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