What Determines the Race and Ethnic Identity

[Name of Student]

[Course Instructor Name]

[Course]

[Dated]

The construction Of Race and Ethnicity : A Look at the Burakumin of Japan

In 1986 , Former Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone created a stir when he contrasted his own `tan 'itsu minzoku (single ethnic group ) society to America 's ethnically diverse population . Scholars have , since then asserted that Japanese society is indeed an ethnic mixture and racial discrimination does occur within Japanese society , different racial categories being the aboriginal Ainu , Okinawans , outcast burakumin and immigrants , especially Koreans who are discriminated through

phenotypical differences such as body odor

Racial discrimination , however , can best be seen through the case of the burakumin , an outcast group often compared to India 's `dalit ' or outcast `untouchables , and the Japanese use biology as a base to differentiate between their `pure ' selves and the burakumin . However , the burakumin are genetically no different from other Japanese peoples , and physically too it is impossible to distinguish- so discrimination and categorization based on genotypical and phenotypical basis is not justified or correct in any way . Aoki and Dardess point this out in a 1981 study [Kottak , 122]

What , then , are the reasons behind the utter despise shown towards this `race ? This social stratification goes back to the Tokugawa period (dated 1603-1868 . The categories ranged from the prestigious warrior-administrator classes of the samurai , farmers , artisans and merchants , the burakumin being the last in the hierarchical

Racial , genetic differences started cropping up as early as the times when early man moved out of...