Race as a Social Construct

Race as a Social Construct
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April 23, 2021
One of the main ideas in sociology is that the concept of ‘race’ is socially constructed. Like concepts like gender, culture, and other delineations within groups of individuals, the race is considered to be defined by the socially accepted norms in society regardless of whether it is based on observable and objective delineation criteria. Accordingly, in this article, I choose Indians as an example of how race is socially constructed. I choose the Caste System of Indians due to my personal knowledge about how stratification and other means of delineation are created between these groups of individuals.
One of the main exemplifications that race is socially constructed is the idea of stratification. According to Newman (2016), stratification is when individuals belonging to a single group are grouped into hierarchical rankings regardless of whether there is an observable and objective difference between them. Accordingly, this idea of stratification could be seen in Indians (or at least devoted Indians today), which are divided into various classes such as Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and the untouchables.
Notably, it could be seen that all of these classes seem to stratify society between different levels of hierarchy. Despite the lack of any physical and observable differences between them, studies suggest that such systems were developed based on the historical and cultural beliefs that persisted in India during the Mughal empire and the time of the British colonization of the country CITATION Bay01 \l 1033 (Bayly, 2001). ...