Race is a Social Construction

Last week in Sociology, we learned about race. However, although race was something I had been aware of, while growing up, I never realized that race was a social construction. I had always thought that race was an actual thing. I learned that race was something that society had molded us into thinking was an actual real concept. Race isn't something that can biologically be defined. However, we look at people and we say that they are white, black, asian, or hispanic. For example, Rihanna is from Barbados, but since she has dark skin and dark hair, I thought she was black. It's funny that if my classmates hadn't told me that she was from Barbados, I would've thought she was black until I was told by someone else! Also, even though Barack Obama's mom is white and his dad is from Kenya, he is referred to as black. What makes him more black than white? If he really is equal parts black and white, then why do people say that he's black? It's because people generalize others and put them into individual categories depending on what they've been taught to believe growing up.