Paper Example. Race, Ethnicity, and Perception

People's races and ethnic backgrounds usually play a role in how they interact and communicate with members from other ethnicities. There are a set of moral guidelines and principles that each race has and adheres to, values such as honesty, kindness, tolerance to other people within the same society, and respect for other people's opinions. When it comes to the interaction among different ethnic groups, the values that an individual has learned from his interactions with people from his background will determine and influence the nature of the new relationship. The various interactions that I have had with members of my community and people from other racial backgrounds have proven this fact. I come from the Han community, which is the largest ethnic group, not only in China but the entire world. In this paper, I will discuss how the people I know from my community, including my friends and family, perceive people from different races. I will also highlight the main things which influence their ideas about other sports, explain the ways that can assist in challenging these beliefs, and also give recommendations of what I believe the future ethnic universe should be.

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The cultural practices and traditions of the Hans influence many events in my country because a vast majority of the people are from that tribe. The beliefs and practices that my family and friends have are founded in the Han culture, and so do many other people from my tribe. In my culture, children are taught morals and values at an early age, that nurture them into becoming responsible members of society. They are trained to have respect for older people and to listen to their elders and obey them, as well as the importance of honesty and practicing exemplary behavior. These children then grow up knowing the required ethical standards to practice in society, and these teachings influence the type of relationships that they build with others.

In my family, we were all brought up following the cultural practices of our ethnic tribe, meaning that even amongst ourselves; we practiced the values and beliefs that our traditional teachings contain. We would show gratitude to others, were kind to one another, and promoted the general well-being of other family members, sharing equally in periods of pain and happiness. Previous research has reported on structural changes in Chinese families. However, questions remain as to whether/how social change has influenced family and gender values and how this differs across generations, regions, and gender in China. Drawing on 2006 data from the China General Social Survey, we find that values pertaining to filial piety are traditional, whereas patrilineal and gender values are less traditional. Historic events/policies provide the context for how social change can shape differential generational, geographic, and gender perspectives. Our hypothesis that generation, region, and gender associations will differ across the various ideational domains is confirmed. We find significant interaction effects in how generation and geography differ by gender in patrilineal, filial piety, and gender values; and higher education erodes patrilineal and traditional gender values but enhances filial piety. Such findings indicate that family values should be understood in the specific sociocultural contexts governing Chinese families across time and place. Because of this interaction and cultural influence, my family tends to approach people from different racial backgrounds with the same attitude.

We expect that moral standards of kindness, honesty, integrity, and tolerance are universally applicable, even to other ethnicities. The way I see my friends also perceive people from different tribes reiterates this point. They show similar characteristics in behavior toward others. Whenever I see my friends and family interact with members of other races, the cultural practices of my community guide most of their judgments, an adult of a different ethnicity is accorded the same level of respect as would be bestowed by a young person to an older member of my tribe.

Cultural influences from my tribe have also had an impact on the personalities of my friends and family. People from the Hans tribe are characterized by their welcoming and generous temperaments, partly because the culture holds an emphasis on promoting the well-being of other members of the community. Therefore, whenever my friends and family encounter members of different ethnicities or talk about them, there is usually a heightened interest to know other cultures and interact with them.

Religion also plays a big part in the daily lives of the Chinese people. Among the different religions present in China, Taoism is commonly practiced and is also my family's religion. Taoism contains values and teachings that have shaped the beliefs of the members of my family have on other races. Taoism encourages people to be compassionate to each other and to allow a person to live in the present. Most East Asian legal traditions were heavily influenced by Chinese thought and statecraft, which can be traced back at least 3000 years. Confucianism, which made familial duties a central feature of all social obligations, had a formative impact on both the Chinese and the Korean legal orders. Japan was also heavily influenced by the Chinese legal system, but was more selective in its adoption of those models, because of the fragmented nature of the Japanese political order. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, East Asia came under heavy Western influence and all legal systems were ultimately reformed on Western models, leaving few formal traces of the previous legal order. These teachings have impacted the way my family is accommodative of people's cultures.

Other religions might have their own doctrines and constitutions that are not similar to the religion being practiced in my family. Categorization of the followers of a specific religion is caused by information on practices that go contrary to the teachings of Taoism, such as religions that promote radicalization. My family might exercise caution when associating with races being associated with ills such as violence. These religious-based perceptions demonstrate the influence on religion on the cultural beliefs that shape people from different regions.

Geographic regions that people come from, as well as the social activities they are used to, shape the various cultures present in the world. People from my community in China are very hardworking and diligent. We believe in paying attention to every aspect of life, putting prominence on the nurturing process so that the results of their hard work are precise. This culture has been propagated by the environment around China, which is conducive for people to be diligent workers and engage in robust economic and social activities. For this reason, members of my family are usually slow to complement or even interact with people who come from regions that are prone to hostile undertakings and a fragmented cultural heritage.

Influences of Perception

It is important to note that ethnic perceptions can happen in the context of an entire community, and it plays out through social interactions between people of different races. These notions frequently rely on people making observations, according to their various cultural definitions of what is morally acceptable behavior. I have mentioned earlier that the varied cultural and religious beliefs that characterize different racial groups play a crucial role in how people perceive each other. People from my Han culture, for instance, are alleged to be conservative due to the teachings and practicing of a spiritual, harmonious, honest, and courteous lifestyle. They will, therefore, look for these ethics when evaluating other races, embracing the values that are conforming to what Taoism represents and disagreeing with those that do not.

The level of education that an individual has attained will determine how they regard members belonging to other tribes. The education system usually brings together students from multicultural backgrounds, and for several years, these students are exposed to cultures that are different from theirs. Each student represents the tribe they come from, and it makes them appreciate their heritage, as well as accommodate lifestyles that do not necessarily comply with theirs. This study examined the magnitude of the associations between four worldview dimensions based on Douglas and Wildavsky's (1982) cultural theory of risk (egalitarianism, individualism, hierarchism and fatalism) and environmental risk perceptions. A meta-analysis of 67 effect sizes from a pooled sample of 15,660 respondents revealed that individuals who scored higher on egalitarianism perceived more environmental risks ( r=.25), whereas individuals who scored higher on hierarchism and individualism perceived fewer environmental risks ( r=-.18 and-.17, respectively). Fatalism and environmental risk perceptions were not significantly related ( r=.03). Moderator analyses using an expanded set of 129 effect sizes found that effect sizes varied significantly as a function of hazard type, worldview measure, and study location. Our results are broadly consistent with cultural theory's claim that cultural worldviews are potentially important determinants of environmental risk perceptions, although the magnitudes of these effects appear to be quite modest.