The Social Construction of Race

“Unemployment, imprisonment, and other life events can change what race those around you perceive you to be.”

“Stanford sociologist Aliya Saperstein discusses her research showing that the perception of other peoples’ race is shaped by what we know about them…Race is a social construction, not just in the sense that we made it up, but in that it’s flexible and dependent on status as well as phenotype.”

 

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Why police so often see unarmed black men as threats

Click here to read about how subconscious bias helps contribute to the many racial disparities in law enforcement, and how better police training can help overcome this implicit bias.

Police arrest a protester in Ferguson, Missouri.

Black Friday brawl videos are how rich people shame the poor

You’ll notice producers from a variety of television programs — “Good Morning America,” Fox News, CNN — all asking for permission to use the video on their broadcasts, because they know this type of shopper-on-shopper violence is a huge draw. Mixed in with those, perhaps unsurprisingly, are a bevy of comments comparing the shoppers to animals, or savages, or making horrifically offensive racist comments.

…this kind of gawking shows how our lurid interest in these stories is connected to issues of class and race in America.

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Hey Donald Trump: Japanese internment was paranoid and racist

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he’s not sure if he would’ve supported or opposed Japanese internment during World War II.

He told Time Magazine that he “hates the concept of it,” but added: “War is tough. And winning is tough. We don’t win anymore. We don’t win wars anymore.”

To be clear, Japanese American internment is almost universally considered one of the most egregious things the United States has done to an entire ethnic group

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