Viewpoint on Ethnicity and Race

White, Black, Hispanic, Asian and the list goes on with the different race and ethnicity that we as individual encounter each day. In the article Mapping the Terrain, one can clearly understand the meaning of Ethnicity and Race. One will understand that ethnicity is self-defined, meaning we give our own definition of the word ethnicity. According to the author of the article, “Ethnic ties are blood ties” (page 16).Ethnicity is part of a larger group of society, and constructs a change in identities.

However, race is how other defines the meaning, which is usually linked to blood types, hair texture, and the skin color. In society today, race is a huge factor that is quickly judge when an individual makes their first appearance. Does it matter what skin color you are? Do you have better hair texture than the other? These are questions that I ponder on while reading about race in this article.

Therefore, how can the issues we have with race and ethnicity get resolve if society makes a huge problem on the appearance? Ethnicity and Race are both linked to power, but have different concepts of how other perceive the meaning. According to the author of the article, “race refers to a group of human being socially defined on the basis of physical characteristic”(page 32) In the world that we are living in today, I wonder if they will stop judging us for what they see on the outside, but the characteristic that were portray.