Chapter 4
Social Identity - the part of an individual’s self-concept derived from their membership in and adherence to values associated with a culturally defined group based on social context.
This can include one’s self-concept with nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, health status, and racial & ethnic identity
many people have multiple social identities
identity likely to be influenced by contextual factors
Racial Identity - based on a perception of a shared racial history
Ethnic Identity - defined by involvement in the cultural practices and activities of a particular ethnic group and by positive attitudes toward, attachment to, and feelings of belonging to that group
Intersectionality - a theoretical framework that seeks to understand how multiple social identities, including race, gender, sexual identity & disability, among others, interact within the individual in considering numerous interacting levels of social inequality
Consideration of various social identities simultaneously. This results in unique experiences that could not be completely understood if these social identities were examined in isolation.
Race
Many definitions of race
Most commonly used racial categories are based on visible characteristics (skin color, facial features, hair texture - phenotype) along with self-identification
What do geneticists and anthropologists say?
humans are 99.9% genetically alike
most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called radical groups. There is greater variation within “racial” groups than there is between them.
Race is still a problematic concept
Despite consensus regarding the sociopolitical construction of race, it remains problematic as a concept
Inconsistency between official and legal designations and how individuals define themselves
biracial or multiracial individuals may want to identify with all groups to which they belong
Often treated as a valid construct and used as a general explanatory factor (grouping variable in studies)