SOCI 2510 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14 - Race and Ethnicity: Canadian Multiculturalism Act, Visible Minority, Cultural Assimilation
Document Summary
Both race and ethnicity are not only matters of difference but also of dimensions of social of inequality. The terms race and ethnicity are often used imprecisely and interchangeably. People may classify one another racially based on physical characteristics such as skin color, facial features, and hair texture and body shape. The striking variety of physical traits found today also in the migration: physical characteristics once common to a single place (such as light skin or curly hair) are now found in many places. Although we think of race in terms of biological elements, race is a socially constructed concept. A t one level, different categories of people (cid:858)see ph(cid:455)si(cid:272)al t(cid:396)aits diffe(cid:396)e(cid:374)tl(cid:455)(cid:859), fo(cid:396) e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ple (cid:396)esea(cid:396)(cid:272)h shows that white people rate black subjects as darker in skin tone then black people do. Also, some people specially biracial and multiracial people define themselves and are defined by others differently, depending on the setting.
