Blog 5

Race and Ethnicity have two different meanings but we tend to throw them together when addressing people. “Race is associated with biology, whereas ethnicity is associated with culture” https://www.livescience.com/33903-difference-race-ethnicity.html. As humans we have made race based off of appearance and skin color. However, there’s not too many genetic differences between people from different places besides skin color. “Ethnicity is the term for the culture of people in a given geographic region.” This all includes the language, religion and heritage in the ethnic group that are religiously practiced, which forms the ethnic group. As you can see race and ethnicity are different from each other but somehow as the world has evolved we’ve confused the true definitions. If a woman identifies herself as Japanese-American, ethnically she would be Japanese. Although, she may not practice the same traditions as her Japanese ancestors and instead practice American traditions, she might just call herself American.

One thing that stood out to me is the different social and financial advantages that only certain races have. Usually, people with lighter skin colors have more of a social advantage. Majority of the European/white race have more of a financial advantage in today’s society. The reason behind racial discrimination has a lot to do with the history of the U.S., and heritage of ancestors. Wealth between social groups is not evenly distributed and race has much to do with it. Being white in the U.S. comes with many advantages and perks in this society that most non-whites do not have. Non-whites in this country generally have less education and wealth based off those advantages that the whites and light skinned have. Not to say that being a part of another ethnic group or race you won’t have success, but that it will be harder to achieve that success. Pierre Bourdieu, explains that social reproduction and cultural capital are the reasons behind these inequalities between races. Social reproduction is the inherited social class status that has been passed down to generation to generation. Cultural capital is the effect of social reproduction because the generations that have been in a high social class in the past, pass down social advantages that allow certain people to have an easier route to a comfortable life.