Race and Ethnicity Examination Questions (Essay Sample)

Name Professor Course Date Race and Ethnicity Examination Questions What does the term “race” mean; what does it refer to? The term race is a classification of people in specified groups based on their inherited physical characteristics as well as their physical appearance. The term race refers to divisions among humans based on their resemblance to one another as well as their difference based on specified traits. The term race in comparison to discrimination and prejudice is a social construct because of the unclear boundaries in its classification and definition. The United States is said to have a “three-tiered ethnic hierarchy.” What is meant by this expression? Give examples. The three-tiered ethnic hierarchy is a structure, which supplies an initial image of an ethnicity after encounters with a new society. The structure divides the people into three kinds. In the United States, race and ethnicity entail three tiers. The first example is the white European Americans or the Americans of European origin. This tier is principally made of Protestants. The second tier is other European Americans and Asians or the Euro-American Catholics, Asian Americans or Jews. The last tier is the Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans. In the instance of the first and second tiers, which include European Americans as well as the European Americans, Jews, and Asians, the tiers are least affected by ethnicity and race. In contrast, the third tier is subject to issues of race and ethnicity. For this reason, this tier faces the inability to access valuable societal resources because of its race and ethnicity. Describe and discuss two examples of violence rooted in ethnic conflict? The two examples of violence rooted in ethnic conflicts are Rwandan genocide and genocide of Yazidis in 2014. The Rwandan genocide was an ethnic based mass killing of the Tutsi by Hutu in Rwanda for a period lasting a hundred days between April and July of 1994. Between five hundred thousand and one million Rwandans, predominantly Tutsis who were minorities were killed. The violence started when the Hutu political elites and nationalists incited the Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors. The second violence rooted in ethnic conflict is the genocide that targeted the Yazidis. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant orchestrated this genocide. About five thousand Yazidis were killed in 2014 and more than two hundred thousand expelled from their native land in Sinjar, Iraq. What are some of the strategies nations may use to manage ethnic conflicts? Three strategies are effective in managing ethnic conflicts. The first strategy is de-pluralizing the society. The strategy entails attempting to achieve homogeneity through eliminating from a specified territory all but members of the dominant ethnicity because of the inherent instability in ethnically plural societies. The second strategy is legitimizing ethnic pluralism. The strategy entails recognition of the reality that diverse ethnic identities will remain permanent in societal structures hence t...