Social Construction of Difference

Allan Johnson's article discusses how various forms of difference in American society are socially constructed. He begins his argument by referring to a comment made by American novelist James Baldwin who once suggested that there in reality were no blacks or whites, but only the perceptions of blackness and whiteness.

Johnson and Baldwin do not reject the physiological differences people may have, but Johnson's powerful argument suggests that there are social meanings we attach to our physiological differences which have become more significant in our lives. And that is the essence of social construction. A "white" person is not simply someone with a white complexion of the skin, but in our society we attach a whole set of characteristics and behavioral traits that we presumably believe belong to a white person. It is this premise that allows many people to say that certain and certain groups...
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