"The term came into common usage during the 16th century when it was used to refer to groups of various kinds, including those characterized by close kinship relations."
Exploration of how race and ethnicity intersect with political power structures.
Concept of Race: Understanding the historical and social constructions of race and how it has impacted societies and individuals.
Ethnicity: Understanding the concept of ethnicity and its relationship with race, identity, and culture.
Prejudice and Discrimination: Recognizing the forms of prejudice and discrimination that exist and their impact on individuals and groups.
Theories of Racism: Understanding the different theoretical approaches to racism from biological, cultural, and structural perspectives.
Intersectionality: Recognizing the intersection of various social identities such as race, gender, class, and sexuality and understanding how they interact to create unique experiences of oppression and privilege.
Institutional Racism: Understanding the institutional structures that perpetuate racism and how they impact individuals and communities.
Racial Inequality: Recognizing the disparities in access to resources, opportunities, and power that exist between racial groups.
Colonialism and Postcolonialism: Understanding the impact of colonialism on race relations and the legacy of colonialism in contemporary societies.
Immigration and Multiculturalism: Understanding the relationship between immigration and multiculturalism, and the role of immigrants in shaping the cultural landscape of a society.
Social Movements: Recognizing the role of social movements in promoting equality and social justice and understanding their impact on race relations.
Globalization and Transnationalism: Understanding how globalization has impacted race relations and the emergence of transnational communities.
Critical Race Theory: Understanding the critical race theory and its use in analyzing the role of race in law, policy, and society.
Ethnic Conflict: Understanding the causes and consequences of ethnic conflict and the role of institutions and social movements in resolving it.
Identity Formation: Understanding the process of identity formation and the role of race and ethnicity in shaping individual and group identities.
Race and Gender: Understanding the intersection of race and gender and the unique experiences of women of color.
Stereotypes and Representation: Recognizing the impact of racial stereotypes and media representation on individuals and society.
Socialization: Understanding the role of family, peers, and society in socializing individuals into racial and ethnic identities.
White Privilege: Understanding the concept of white privilege and its impact on race relations and society.
"By the 17th century, the term began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits, and then later to national affiliations."
"Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society."
"While partly based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning."
"The concept of race is foundational to racism, the belief that humans can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another."
"Social conceptions and groupings of races have varied over time, often involving folk taxonomies that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits."
"Modern scientists consider such biological essentialism obsolete, and generally discourage racial explanations for collective differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits."
"Scientists around the world continue to conceptualize race in widely differing ways."
"While some researchers continue to use the concept of race to make distinctions among fuzzy sets of traits or observable differences in behavior..."
"Still others argue that, among humans, race has no taxonomic significance because all living humans belong to the same subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens."
"Since the second half of the 20th century, race has been associated with discredited theories of scientific racism."
"Race has become increasingly seen as a largely pseudoscientific system of classification."
"Race has often been replaced by less ambiguous and/or loaded terms: populations, people(s), ethnic groups, or communities, depending on context."
"Its use in genetics was formally renounced by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2023."