Perceptions on Race, Ethnicity and Discrimination

Before the input and reading, my thought and perceptions about race, ethnicity and prejudice were somewhat vague. I know in general what these terms meant and could give examples of what I thought each one entailed.

After learning more, I have found that race as a concept is extremely complex. I was under the assumption that ‘race’ was the term for the physical variations of people in the world, depending on their roots. However, now I know that ‘race’ is almost dismissed by scientists and scholars as they do not think there is any basis for the concept. On the other hand, many people would argue that race has meaning for some people. So it is more of a social concept that people hang onto.

I thought previously that a person’s ethnicity was a ‘proper’ term to describe their cultural and geographical background. I have now learned that it is in fact an entirely social in meaning. It is used in society to describe differences in people based on culture. People also associate certain ethnicities with particular characteristics (which could be inaccurate perceptions). I also found out that sociologists prefer to use the term ‘ethnicity’. This is because ‘race’ is sometimes linked to incorrect scientific facts.

I had a pretty good idea of what discrimination and prejudice were as they are terms I have heard lots about. What I didn’t entirely know, was the distinctive difference between the two. I knew that prejudice was a person having certain thoughts about others based on word of others or the media. I found that the line between this and discrimination was that to discriminate is to act or behave in a particular way towards others based on how you think. So I see now that, essentially, prejudice is a thought and discrimination is an action. I saw examples of this on the Padlet resource. There were articles about events that had happened and I was able to see how certain aspects were discrimination as opposed to prejudice. It was also clear that those who had certain opinions about groups of people saw no flaw in their views. With the example of a Scottish lawyer who was accused of plotting the recent attacks in Barcelona. People blamed him based on the fact that he is a Muslim. He received abuse for apparently planning the attacks when the fact of the matter was that he just happened to be in Barcelona that day. I was able to understand better why people reacted in this way. It was because an aspect common in prejudice is being reluctant to look at the actual facts and to try and see other perspectives or opinions.