Chapter 6: Race and Ethnicity

Race was first used at the beginning of the twentieth century to refer to any "geographical, religious, class-based, or color-based grouping." (Taylor & Whitaker, p.99.) In the words of Mukhopadhay and Henze (2003), "The concept of race is a cultural invention, a culturally and historically specific way of thinking about, categorizing, and treating human beings." (p.673). This makes the identity of culture on of choice and can change. Language, religion, styles of clothing, and foods can all be used to identify a persons ethnic group. The book points out that an actual blood relationship does not determine an ethnicity, but instead as a part of a group that entertains a certain belief, physical type, or customs, or many things combined. I loved the part of the chapter that dealt with children's perception of cultures, and that they might associate skin color with various daily activities because they don't fully understand culture. The book recommends to respond to the child's question instead of ignoring it. The issue of racial identy starts to become more predominate during adolescence when they start to question who they are. The book also recommends that teachers should provide students with "positive affirming experiences." (p.102). This should also occur with White children. it was stated in the text that "while Blacks have often been labeled disadvantaged, Whites are rarely labeled advantaged." (p.103). I disagreed with the section that brought up the health problems of Black people versus White. Taylor and Whitaker stated that Black people have a higher risk of dying from heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and hypertension. It attributed this to the linkage between blood pressures and encounters with bigotry. However it failed to mention that African Americans have the highest rate of obesity which would have a greater chance of accounting for this. Lastly I liked the quote in the text from the mother that said, "'If you're a nobody... It doesn't matter what color you are" (p.104) as a response to a child's questions of who he is.