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Running head: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE 1
The Social Construction of Race
Tatiana Jimenez
California State University, Sacramento
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE 2
The Social Construction of Race
It is upon popular agreement among social scientists that race is indeed a social construct.
By stating this, it means that us as humans have created a distinction between races and does not
have a basis in the biological makeup of humans. The debate of whether race is socially
constructed or has its beginnings in the biology of humans, has become much more of a modern
phenomenon than ever before. Thus, this brings into consideration the question of why this is so.
Why is it that social scientists insist on the social and historical construct of race, rather than it
being biological? The reasonings are far more complex than one could even start to fathom.
First, one must look into the varying definitions of race in our society, as well as the
historical context behind the term. According to Omi and Winant (1994), challenging the way of
thinking about the origins and distinctions of human species, started when European explorers
arrived at the New World, only to discover people who looked different than themselves. In turn,
this also started to bring about many questions on whether the Europeans would still be able to
consider everyone in the same category of mankind. Basically, one of the very first definitions
and variances of race started with the arrival of Europeans to the New World. Since the
Europeans made the discovery of the Natives, who not only looked, but behaved entirely
different than that of their own people, it raised an alarm in their usual way of thinking. Thus,
according to the Europeans, the definition of race meant that those who looked different than
them were to be thought of as “racially distinct” people.
Once the Europeans were able to define the Natives as being “racially distinct” and
established how they viewed them, they were then able to implement social policies among the
Natives. It began by bringing religion and God into the discussion of race and those who looked
different than them. Omi and Winant state, “Arguments took place over creation itself, as
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE 3
theories of polygenesis questioned whether God had made only one species of humanity
(“monogenesis”)” (Omi & Winant, 1994, p. 56). This became the fundamental reasoning as to
why the Europeans viewed themselves as children of God and at a higher standard than the
Natives, because they were not seen as people of God. Therefore, since religion played a
prominent role in the lives of the Europeans, this meant a great deal to them and provided the
basis needed for the treatment and policies of the Natives. The Europeans interpretation of their
differences, were viewed in how they treated the fellow Natives. It was their decision that in
order to make the distinction known to the world and God, that they removed the very own
property of the Natives, denied any form of political rights and even went as far as enslaving and
exterminating these people. As a result, this began a ripple effect that perpetuated into the views
of race in today’s modern world. Thus, building on to the notion that race is indeed part of a
