Race and Ethnicity: Is it a question of color?

Race And Ethnicity: Is It A Question Of Color?
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The subject of race and ethnicity is attracting a lot of attention from scholars and practitioners from different disciplines. This owes to the reality that Race and ethnicity affect people differently. It could affect our personal and professional growth, educational achievements, and the progression of future college graduates. What is the meaning of these two words? The term race could be elucidated as a collection of people who may have similarities and differences genetically. Analogously, ethnicity is defined as shared perspectives, cultural practices, and variations that differentiate characteristics of groups of people. Some of the traits used to distinguish people along ethnic lines include mode of dressing, religion, ancestry, language, and history. Unlike race, ethnic difference are not inherited, they are acquired. This paper discusses the subject of race and ethnicity by arguing that skin color is an obstacle to personal, professional, and academic growth for colored Americans.
Race and ethnicity has an effect on professional growth because the racial minority experience career obstacles because of their skin color. As an evidence of this, African Americans continuously encounter racism and disparate treatment (Cornelius, 2010). For instance, African American males believe that the changing demographics devalue their talents, experience, and education. As a result, they are left to occupy non-management positions in their professions. This negatively affects their professional growth by hindering opportunities for promotions and career development. Race and ethnicity also affect personal growth because people of color have recorded race-associated stress (Vogelsang, 2013). Such experiences affect their personal growth owing to their effect on daily activities. It is notable that a stressed individual is likely to have a low self-esteem, which in turn affects their personal growth. The racial minority record lower levels of personal growth because of stress-related stress.
It is critical that several African Americans have progressed in their careers to occupy top positions in the Fortune 500 companies. For instance, Ursula Burns was the first American woman CEO of Xerox, which is a Fortune 500 company (Cornelius, 2010). As a result, other African Americans rose through their professional ranks to occupy executive positions in Fortune 500 companies. This owes to the reality that Franklin Raines also rose in his career to become the CEO of Fannie Mae in 1998 (Cornelius, 2010). These achievements are impressive because they inspire people of color to pursue their passions with determination. Indeed, the number of colored people who occupy management positions in big organizations is growing. Nonetheless, the likelihood that people of color will occupy such positions is limited (Vogelsang, 2013). Therefore, skin color affects personal and professional growth by hindering upward mobility in the society.
Race and ethnicity affect educational achievement and the future for college students of color. This owes to the fact that the American educational system denies children and adults equal access to education. This is parti...