Question

Thinking about the social contexts that you have grown up in and are currently in, how might social context impact our perceptions of race, class, and gender?

Answer 1

• How we think, discuss, or see things when it comes race, class, and gender depends on our experiences. Recently, Penner and Saperstein (2013) find that survey interviewers sometimes classify the same person in a different racial group over time, depending on their other social statuses. Women are more likely to be reported as Black if they have received welfare. Having been incarcerated makes men more likely to be perceived as Black, but a suburban residence leads interviewers to identify people as white. (The effects are small, but statistically significant.)
• I have been brought up in an Asian culture,and the society that I live still consider gender differences despite major changes in terms of women working and being independent,including myself but still the family environment is traditional in the sense,that people still worry about a girl not getting married at the "right" age,still restrictions exist on staying out late as a girl and many such cultural values. Even though the perceptions have changed about gender,about woman empowerment,class differences but still the Asian culture and society have its pre-conceived notions very much intact. Class differences still exist when families have to get their children married. Even though I have been brought up in a fairly liberal indian family but these perceptions do exist in my family as well since we all have to fit into the society.
• The relatives and friends also have an influence on our perceptions as well. Thes differences of race,colour,socio economic status,gender would minimze but not fade away. Asian cultures anyway consider family values and the role of women in family important so this perception would always colour our judgments and opinions. The social environment that I have been brought up in and still living in it does hold this values and perceptions at the core.Parents and even people in general still are obsessed with fair skin and slim girls.