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Ethnicity And Symbolic Ethnicity

Decent Essays

Up to the twentieth century, Sociologists can believe that race “is characterized by its own biological makeup, separate and distinct from the others” (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 215). The three distinct racial groups are Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid. In result of having different races, it becomes important to reveal our personal ethnic group membership. Meaning, a person’s ethnicity is “a socially defined category based on a common language, religion, nationality, or some other cultural factor” (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 216). One can display their personal group membership through symbolic ethnicity or situational ethnicity. Moreover, I have shown my ethnicity through these two identities. People can show their memberships through dress, language, even through religious practices. With some being clearer than others, one can display them through symbolic ethnicity. Symbolic ethnicity is “an identity that is only relevant on specific occasions” and “does not significantly affect everyday life” (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 218). I am an Irish American and have engaged in this form of identity. Every St. Patrick’s Day, my father, my sister, and I travel out to my extended family in Spring, Texas. They happen to be our “large group of relatives” who live in either “one household or in close proximity” of each other (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 351). Even though my small family and our extended family are not super close, we still enjoy sharing our group

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