We acknowledge the myriad ways that race functions as a social construct, a fact that confuses many people given the actual consequences, privileges, and inequalities that arise from this social construction.
But what exactly does race as a social construct mean? It does not mean that race isn’t real in a social sense and that we can ignore it–an ideology that only leads to the ignoring of actual racial inequalities. Instead, acknowledging race as a social construct means acknowledging the ways that racial difference and the meanings that arise from those differences have been socially constructed.
The following articles, videos, and websites provide valuable resources to better understand this concept.
“What We Mean When We Say ‘Race Is a Social Construction” — The Atlantic — Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Race as a Social Construction” — Psychology Today — Gordon Hodson, PhD