SOC100H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Symbolic Interactionism, Discrete Category, Paradigm Shift
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SOC100H5 Full Course Notes
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Race: a social construct used to distinguish people in terms of one or more physical markers, usually with profound effects on their lives. (pg. The sociological definition of race is the effect it has on people"s lives. We look at race from a symbolic interactionism approach, because it has to do with people"s interactions, the meaning of the physical markers they identify themselves with, and the effect these categories on people"s lives. People think of skin color, hair color, eye shape etc. when asked about race. The physical differences that set people apart, usually as a part of a discrete category. But race is not genetic differences, as all evidence suggests. Rather, sociologists, historians and geneticists believe that race is a social construct. There is no biological component of what we think of as race. A short time ago, anyone who wasn"t white was labelled black, even if they were asian or. Spanish, because they were not the dominant group.
