Race still exists

 In The Essential Social Fact of Race, Bonilla-Silva makes the distinction between race and ethnicity.  He states that race is a social construct based on hierarchy.  Moreover, race is linked to history and is assigned to us externally whereas ethnicity is “a matter of self-assertion.”  Simply put, our race is given to us by someone else and our ethnicity is how we define ourselves.  With that said, it’s interesting how much of an impact race has on our lives when we have no control over it.  For instance, African Americans were treated poorly because of their race.  Because they weren’t white, they were seen as inferior and uncivilized, which is why people thought that slavery was okay.

I also think it’s crazy that people believe that race no longer exists.  Just because people choose not to talk about it doesn’t mean it’s not there.  Just because we have a black president now doesn’t mean that we can erase history and start off on a clean slate.  Race still exists; We are just living in a colorblind society.  We need to take affirmative action in order to eliminate race because history does have a way of repeating itself.  Therefore, instead of pretending like it didn’t happen or it no longer exists, we need to talk about it.  It’s only when we are forced to look at the issue at hand can we actually do something about it.