Globalization and Media's Impact on Cross Cultural Communication: Managing Organizational Change

Global Perspectives On Race And Ethnicity

Globally, definitions of race and ethnicity are based on varying factors such as heredity, genetics, and socio-economic statuses. In the United States and other nations, the issue of race and ethnicity heightens the interest of demographic realities. The two concepts remain vague, wide-ranging, and misused by many. In the literature, the concept of race is ascribed to a person’s group based on their biological and physical appearances. These characteristics are considered inherent, heritable, persistent, or predictive in nature. Yet, this notion is considered unverifiable based on scientific conjectures on pure phenotype origins and social and cultural traits. Biological blending among groups with different prototypes makes it difficult to substantiate this premise. In some countries, social and cultural traits are often used to classify race among groups with identical phenotypes (Chang & Dodd, 2001; Perez & Hirschman, 2009). For example, Brazil’s racial classifications based on skin shades vary from South Africa’s black-white-colored paradigms (Deng, 1996, 1997; Stam, 1997). Koreans and Japanese who are classified in the same racial category are considered two different “races” primarily by Japanese’s notion of blood affinities (Dikkster, 1997; Min, 1992). Racial classifications are often influenced by a group’s socio-economic status. Brazilians social-economic statuses affect racial identifications or assignments. Also, research scholars state that in the Mexican society it is difficult to distinguish between Indians and Mestizos phenotypes. However, both groups are identified by their social and cultural traits (Hanchard, 1994; Reichmann, 1999; Twine, 1998). Nutini (1997) confirms that Indians “become” Mestizos by the acquisition of social and cultural traits irrelevant to phenotypes.