Chapter 4 Blog-Racial & Ethnic Families

This chapter was filled with very interesting information and topics but I'm going to talk about the few of the topics that I found most interesting: (definitions taken from the textbook, Benokraitis)

Race & Ethnicity

1. Race- a racial group is a category of people who share physical characteristics (i.e. skin color) that members of a society consider socially important. Sociologists and anthropologists see race as a social label rather than a biological trait. Our society today has created a myth that race is indeed genetic which I've learned from another sociology class that it isn't.
   
2. Labeling- The term Hispanic is used in New York and Florida while Latino is used in California and Texas. Chicano is used to label those who are Mexican and born in the U.S. Blacks have many different labels such as colored, Negro, Afro-American, and black. And Native Americans interchange with the label American Indians.

• What I've learned about race is that I can share more similar MTDNA (Mitochondrial DNA) with an Irish Caucasian than with someone of my own race. I believe that it's true that race has become a social concept that our society has drawn up adding more complicity than needed. The book talks about the importance of diseases being heavily prevalent in certain races or groups of people. Which is true, however I think it has more to do with it than race like environment. It very well may be that it's prevalent in certain races but isn't the disease for the most part the same in almost all human beings? If I white person has diabetes and a black person has diabetes than they both have diabetes. (Of course excluding special cases.)
• I find that the difference between Hispanic labels are just different ways of calling people of Hispanic descent. I'm unsure if one would be offended in California if you called them a Hispanic instead of a Latino. Living in NY, Hispanic is the term I'm used to and I know I wouldn't be offended if someone used the label Latino. On the other hand with African American labels I know some can be very offensive. What I've found however, is that older generations use negro and it seems to be okay. But in my experience, hearing the label "negro" within younger generations some people might look at you as if using the term was uncalled for. The other version of the word, ni***, seems to be a label that's frowned upon in almost any case unless you're talking about the use of the label within the black community in different aspects such as comedy, music-rap/hip-hop, etc. It's widely known and accepted within the black community (well at least with the younger generation) that anyone outside of the black community unless they're accepted by blacks cannot and should not use the word (and some disagree with the last statement I just made).
  

African American & Latino Families

1. There are several types of family structures when it comes to African Americans according to E. Franklin Frazier in the text. These include: family with matriarchal patterns, traditional families similar to those of middle class-whites, and families of mixed racial origins. However, according to the text, since 1980 black children have been more likely to grow up with one parent, usually a mother. This stems from out-of-wedlock births, divorce, postponing of marriage, male unemployment,etc.
   
2. Gender roles- Black men are more likely to share household chores with their wives than their white male counterparts. Many men are willing to pitch in because both the husband and wife are employed. However, the book says that the division of work isn't equal (as I believe it won't ever be completely) between the husband and wife. The wife still does more work than her husband. Black couples report lower levels of satisfaction within their marriages than do white couples.
   
3. Intergenerational Families- One in five black children under the age of 15 lives with an extended family. Black unwed mothers have a high probability of living in an extended household. Teenage parents often live with their extended family in order to help raise their children. Within the black community because of these bonds, we see strong black families filled with the help of extended family members.

Latino Families

1. Gender Roles- Latino men are stereotyped as aggressive, dominant, and womanizing. However, the term machisimo has positive connotations such as courage, honor and respect. Latino women are generally responsible for the care of the home and children, however most of them do work outside the house. It's been stated in the text that if a woman holds a professional job outside the home her husband is more likely to become aggressive, dominant, etc with his wife. Both husband and wife share the some of the housework if the salaries between the two are equal or the wife earns more.
   
2. Extended Family- Many Latino families include extended family members. The extended family plays an important role within child care, housing, advise, nursing, support, etc. Mexican practice what's called "chain migration" in which family members in the U.S. find employment for those who are leaving Mexico. Grandparents are welcome to live with the family in most cases. Grandmothers care for their grandchildren most of the time when the parents are at work. However, some studies show that in low-income neighborhoods that have been affected by unemployment, drugs and diseases that social and community-based agencies are more likely to take the place of the grandparents.

Questions:

1. What do you think about race and genetics being that it's been proven (taking my word and the reading in the text) that race is indeed a social concept and not a biological one? Do you think we put too much emphasis on race in this country?
   
2. Myself as an individual, I've grown up in a traditional family similar to those of a white middle class family. How do you think or what kind of view have you been exposed to on the issue of how most African American families grow up? Do you think most grow up in poor neighborhoods? Have you been exposed to something different?
   
3. What do you think about the labeling of different races? Have you ever had an experience where someone has labeled your race and you've felt offended? Have you ever experienced or seen tensions within a race on what others outside that race should refer to those individuals as?

Answer as many as you like, at least one please! :)