sociology essay on race and ethnicity

Race and Ethnicity

Race is a concept of human classification scheme based on visible features including eye color, skin color, the texture of the hair and other facial and bodily characteristics. Through these features, humans are ten categorized into distinct groups of population and this is enhanced by the fact that the characteristics are fully inherited.

Across the globe, debate on the topic of race has dominated for centuries. This is especially due to the resultant discrimination meted on the basis of these differences. Consequently, a lot of controversy surrounds the issue of race socially, politically but also in the scientific world.

According to many sociologists, race is more of a modern idea rather than a historical. This is based on overwhelming evidence that in ancient days physical differences mattered least. Most divisions were as a result of status, religion, language and even class.

Most controversy originates from the need to understand whether the beliefs associated with racial differences have any genetic or biological basis. Classification of races is mainly done in reference to the geographical origin of the people. The African are indigenous to the African continent: Caucasian are natives of Europe, the greater Asian represents the Mongols, Micronesians and Polynesians: Amerindian are from the American continent while the Australoid are from Australia. However, the common definition of race regroups these categories in accordance to skin color as black, white and brown. The groups described above can then fall into either of these skin color groupings (Origin of the Races, 2010, par6).

It is possible to believe that since the concept of race was a social description of genetic and biological differences then the biologists would agree with these assertions. However, this is not true due to several facts which biologists considered. First, race when defined in line with who resides in what continent is highly discontinuous as it was clear that there were different races sharing a continent. Secondly, there is continuity in genetic variations even in the socially defined race groupings.

This implies that even in people within the same race, there were distinct racial differences hence begging the question whether the socially defined race was actually a biologically unifying factor. Biologists estimate that 85% of total biological variations exist within a unitary local population. This means that the differences among a racial group such as Caucasians are much more compared to those obtained from the difference between the Caucasians and Africans (Sternberg, Elena & Kidd, 2005, p49).

In addition, biologists found out that the various races were not distinct but rather shared a single lineage as well as a single evolutionary path. Therefore there is no proven genetic value derived from the concept of race. Other scientists have declared that there is absolutely no scientific foundation linking race, intelligence and genetics.

Still, a trait such as skin color is completely independent of other traits such as eye shape, blood type, hair texture and other such differences. This means that it cannot be correct to group people using a group of features (Race the power of an illusion, 2010, par3).

What is clear to all is that all human beings in the modern day belong to the same biological sub-species referred to biologically as Homo sapiens sapiens. It has been proven that humans of different races are at least four times more biologically similar in comparison to the different types of chimpanzees which would ordinarily be seen as being looking alike.

It is clear that the original definition of race in terms of the external features of the facial formation and skin color did not capture the scientific fact which show that the genetic differences which result to these changes account to an insignificant proportion of the gene controlling the human genome.

Despite the fact that it is clear that race is not biological, it remains very real. It is still considered an important factor which gives people different levels of access to opportunities. The most visible aspect is the enormous advantages available to white people. This cuts across many sectors of human life and affects all humanity regardless of knowledge of existence.

This being the case, I find it difficult to understand the source of great social tensions across the globe based on race and ethnicity. There is enormous evidence of people being discriminated against on the basis of race. In fact countries such as the US have legislation guarding against discrimination on basis of race in different areas.

The findings define a stack reality which must be respected by all human beings. The idea of view persons of a different race as being inferior or superior is totally unfounded and goes against scientific findings.

Consequently these facts offer a source of unity for the entire humanity. Humanity should understand the need to scrap the racial boundaries not only for the sake of peace but also for fairness. Just because someone is white does not imply that he/she is closer to you than the black one. This is because it could even be true that you have more in common with the black one than the white one.

Reference List

Origin of the Races, 2010. Race Facts. Web.

Race the power of an illusion, 2010. What is race? . Web.

Sternberg, J., Elena L. & Kidd, K. 2005. Intelligence, Race, and Genetics. The American Psychological Association Vol. 60(1), 46–59 . Web.

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Sociology of Race and Ethnicity: Meaning and Theories

The topics of race and ethnicity have often been discussed in various academic and social circles. This article covers a short description of both these concepts. Afterwards, it lists various sociological theories related to race and ethnicity such as that of double consciousness, racial formation theory, systemic racism, internal colonialism, the theory of intersectionality and finally culture of prejudice. The article then moves forward with a description of the history of race and racism. This is followed by a section on the impact of race in everyday life. Finally, the article concludes with a few words on the post-racial promise and the future of racism.

What Is Race?

The idea of race is founded upon external physical differences that various societies label significant. Historically, the meaning of race has changed from being connected to familial or national ties to becoming more concerned with superficial attributes. In contemporary times, the race is viewed as a social construction and is not identified biologically. It is used as a label to identify certain groups of people. This label has changed many times during various social eras. For example, in the 19 th century, the term ‘negroid’ was a popular reference to black people. This later evolved into ‘negro’ in the 1960s. The 21 st century sees the term ‘African American’ being commonly used in the United States (Vyain et al. 2014).

What Is Ethnicity?

The term ethnicity is used to describe shared culture – a group of people identifies with each other on the basis of similar practices, beliefs, values, language and religion. Just like race, ethnicity is also used as a method of identification. Different ethnic groups exist that emphasize various sources such as ethno-linguistic, ethno-national, ethno-racial, ethno-regional and ethno-religious (Vyain et al. 2014).

Sociological Theories: Race and ethnicity

Race and ethnicity can be examined using many theories. These are elaborated below:

Double Consciousness

The term double consciousness was a social philosophical concept originally used to refer to an inner twoness experienced by African- Americans in the 20 th century. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois introduced this term in 1903. According to Du Bois, the black people in America experienced contrasting thoughts and ideals and this sensation was a permanent part of their consciousness. The reason for such a disparity in consciousness was the racial oppression faced by them in the form of Jim Crow laws in the South and segregation in the North. Du Bois stated that American Negros led double lives, one as a Negro and the other as an American. The theoretical perspective of double consciousness is still relevant in today’s times when discussing the paradoxes of black life (Pittman 2016).

Racial Formation Theory

Michael Omi and Howard Winant coined the theory of racial formation in 1986. This perspective is popularly used by sociologists to understand the contribution of race in the development of the United States during the second half of the twentieth century. Omi and Winant defined racial formation as a sociohistorical process through which racial divisions were created and propagated. They studied the role that race played in social, political and economic institutions. Most importantly, this theory views race from both a historical and contemporary perspective. The sociologists used this perspective to provide explanations for differences among people. A racial project was a social representation of a section of society. For example, a common racial project was the utilization of race to justify income and wealth disparities in society.

Systemic Racism

Systemic racism is also called structural or institutional racism. This includes the policies and processes embedded in social institutions that exclude and disadvantage African Americans. This is a covert form of racism because inequalities in the form of discrimination in housing, health care and criminal justice are normalized. Some cases of systemic racism are also explicit. For example, Jim Crow laws in the United States and the exclusion of indigenous North American women from the universal suffrage movement (“Forms of Racism” n.d.). The Black Lives Matter protests around the world are sounding a call to end systemic racism especially in the forms of police brutality and criminal justice.

Internal Colonialism

This was an American race theory from 1950 to the 1990s. Internal colonialism developed as an ideology to explain the racial effects of isolation and poverty on native communities. This perspective was widely embraced by Blacks and Chicanos (Mexicans) to illustrate their subordinate position within the United States. These two groups lived as a colonized population within the country and saw their indigenous ways of life destroyed through slavery and military occupation. The Blacks and Chicanos fate was similar to the colonial subjects of the Third World as they suffered racism and dominance by others. Internal colonialism was most popularly adopted in the 1960s and 1970s when the Civil Rights Movement became radical (Gutiérrez 2004). The human rights activist Malcolm X was an important advocate for this theory.

Theory of Intersectionality

Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw coined intersectionality to describe the overlap and intersections between race, gender and class. This theory emerged from discussion and debates in critical race theory. Crenshaw published a paper titled ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex’ in 1989. Here she mentioned three legal cases that centred on both racial and sex discrimination. She argued that the treatment of black women as purely black or purely women was a narrow view of discrimination. Crenshaw stated that black women experienced prejudice on the basis of both gender and race and sometimes even the two together. She advocated for the treatment of black women as a group, which would help tackle the specific challenges faced by them (Coston 2019).

Culture of Prejudice

This theory outlines the concept that prejudice is embedded in every culture. Casual racist imagery is present in movies, advertisements and restaurants. Since everyone is exposed to such thoughts and images, it is impossible to trace the origins of prejudices and the extent to which they impact thought processes. There are many complications related to identifying racist behavior, as it may be subtle. Finally, this theory also looks at the interactions of racism with sexism and colonialism.

History of Race and Racism

The concept of race was created to grant legitimate power to white people to dominate over non- white people. There is a long history surrounding the construction of racism. In the beginning, religion was used as a justification for racism. In the 16 th and 17 th centuries, Christianity deemed people of color as soulless and pagan. This ideology supported the increasing trends of slavery in the United States. In 19 th century Europe, Darwin published his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’ which led to Social Darwinism. European and American genocide and colonization of native lands were supported by the theory of survival of the fittest. In 1850, Robert Knox began providing scientific evidence for racial prejudices. He compared the anatomy of white and black people and stated that people of color were intellectually inferior due to their brain texture. His findings were flawed since his conclusion was based on the study of only one man. Unfortunately, Knox’s studies contributed towards the growth of the eugenics movement. Eugenicists believed in improving the human race by encouraging the reproduction of “genetically fit” people. The American eugenics movement also inspired the Nazis and later resulted in the Holocaust in the 20 th century (“A History” 2005).

Race and Everyday Life

Racism often teaches people about the disadvantages faced by black people but fails to recognize the advantages granted to white people. This is termed as white privilege. A paper titled ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack’ was written by Peggy McIntosh on this topic. As a white woman, she identified fifty effects of white privilege that she can choose to cash in any day. For example, she noted that if she ever had to move, she could afford housing in an area that she would want to live in. McIntosh could access mass media such as newspapers and the television, and see the people of her race adequately and correctly represented. Moreover, she could always find staple foods belonging to her cultural traditions in a supermarket and when she needed a haircut, she did not have to find a special hairdresser. McIntosh also mentions that if she needed “flesh” colored bandages, she could find ones matching her skin color. Finally, she also talked about how her race never worked against her when she required medical or legal help. These are just a few examples of how daily experiences supported by their white privilege are taken lightly by white people. It is important for all those benefitting from their race, to acknowledge their privilege instead of denying it (McIntosh 2003).

Read: How to Apply Sociology in Everyday Life

Impact of Race and Ethnicity

There are three important terms when talking about the impact of race and ethnicity. These are stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination.

Stereotypes are generalizations about groups of people that don’t take individual differences into account. They tend to maximize the differences between cultures while simultaneously maximizing the similarities of a single culture. Stereotypes are harmful because they tend to create self- fulfilling prophecies. For example, if white men are often told that black men have better athletic ability, they may also perform worse than those white men with whom this stereotype is not reinforced.

Prejudices refer to deeply embedded negative attitudes towards a particular group of people. They are not based on actual experiences and rather on assumptions. Racism is an expression of both stereotypes and prejudices about the black race. White people hold the prejudice that they are superior to others and this belief is used to justify their unfair actions. For example, the Ku Klux Klan is an American white supremacist racist organization that encourages hate crime and speech against African Americans. Another example of racism and racist profiling is the disproportionately high number of black men who are victims of police brutality and criminal convictions.

Discrimination is any action undertaken based on stereotypes and prejudices about a community. There are many forms of discrimination based on race and ethnicity. In earlier times, overt discrimination through Jim Crow laws such as “Whites Only” signs was popular in the Southern states. Many business owners would also hang signs like “Help Required: Irish need Not Apply”. In contrast, covert forms of discrimination are more common today. For example, this could be in the form of a lack of access to healthcare or housing by the black community. It is important to understand that racism cannot be eradicated by simply banning discriminatory actions. Emile Durkheim called racism a social fact. This means that even if people do not act upon them, they can still continue to hold and propagate racist beliefs.

The Post- Racial Promise

There have been many instances where millennials were called “post-racial”. It was assumed that after the election of Barack Obama as the first black president, the United States had finally gotten over race. But this is a lie. One needs to look no further than social media to see the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests both in the United States and across the world. The horrifying deaths of George Floyd and many others have enraged the youth and pushed them onto the streets, even in the midst of a global pandemic. Protestors are demanding police departments be defunded and also taking down confederate statues that are in fact racist symbols. This generation voted Barack Obama into office but they must not see that as the fulfilment of a post-racial promise. They must continue to march for a better world. A world where race is recognized but not used as a unit of oppression. We must not act colorblind. Instead, we must celebrate every color equally.

A History: The Construction of Race and Racism [PDF file]. (2005). Western States Center. Retrieved from https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/Western%20States%20-%20Construction%20of%20Race.pdf

Coaston, J. (2019). The intersectionality wars. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

Forms of Racism. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aclrc.com/forms-of-racism

Gutiérrez, R. (2004). INTERNAL COLONIALISM: An American Theory of Race.  Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race,   1 (2), 281-295. DOI:10.1017/S1742058X04042043

McIntosh, P. (2003).  White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.  In S. Plous (Ed.),  Understanding prejudice and discrimination  (p. 191–196). McGraw-Hill.

Pittman, J. P. (2016). Double Consciousness. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-consciousness/

Vyain, S., Scaramuzzo, G., Cody-Rydzewski, S., Griffiths, H., Strayer, E., Keirns, N., Little, W. (2014). Chapter 11. Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter11/#section11.3 .

Arushi is a sociology and environmental studies. She is passionate about writing and researching about these two fields. She has a keen interest in social work and has collaborated with many volunteering programs in the past. Her hobbies include horse riding, trekking and painting.

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11.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

• Describe how major sociological perspectives view race and ethnicity
• Identify examples of culture of prejudice

Theoretical Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity

We can examine race and ethnicity through three major sociological perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. As you read through these theories, ask yourself which one makes the most sense and why.

Functionalism

Functionalism emphasizes that all the elements of society have functions that promote solidarity and maintain order and stability in society. Hence, we can observe people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds interacting harmoniously in a state of social balance. Problems arise when one or more racial or ethnic groups experience inequalities and discriminations. This creates tension and conflict resulting in temporary dysfunction of the social system. For example, the killing of a Black man George Floyd by a White police officer in 2020 stirred up protests demanding racial justice and changes in policing in the United States. To restore the society’s pre-disturbed state or to seek a new equilibrium, the police department and various parts of the system require changes and compensatory adjustments.

Another way to apply the functionalist perspective to race and ethnicity is to discuss the way racism can contribute positively to the functioning of society by strengthening bonds between in-group members through the ostracism of out-group members. Consider how a community might increase solidarity by refusing to allow outsiders access. On the other hand, Rose (1951) suggested that dysfunctions associated with racism include the failure to take advantage of talent in the subjugated group, and that society must divert from other purposes the time and effort needed to maintain artificially constructed racial boundaries. Consider how much money, time, and effort went toward maintaining separate and unequal educational systems prior to the civil rights movement.

In the view of functionalism, racial and ethnic inequalities must have served an important function in order to exist as long as they have. This concept, sometimes, can be problematic. How can racism and discrimination contribute positively to society? Nash (1964) focused his argument on the way racism is functional for the dominant group, for example, suggesting that racism morally justifies a racially unequal society. Consider the way slave owners justified slavery in the antebellum South, by suggesting Black people were fundamentally inferior to White and preferred slavery to freedom.

Interactionism

For symbolic interactionists, race and ethnicity provide strong symbols as sources of identity. In fact, some interactionists propose that the symbols of race, not race itself, are what lead to racism. Famed Interactionist Herbert Blumer (1958) suggested that racial prejudice is formed through interactions between members of the dominant group: Without these interactions, individuals in the dominant group would not hold racist views. These interactions contribute to an abstract picture of the subordinate group that allows the dominant group to support its view of the subordinate group, and thus maintains the status quo. An example of this might be an individual whose beliefs about a particular group are based on images conveyed in popular media, and those are unquestionably believed because the individual has never personally met a member of that group.

Another way to apply the interactionist perspective is to look at how people define their races and the race of others. Some people who claim a White identity have a greater amount of skin pigmentation than some people who claim a Black identity; how did they come to define themselves as Black or White?

Conflict Theory

Conflict theories are often applied to inequalities of gender, social class, education, race, and ethnicity. A conflict theory perspective of U.S. history would examine the numerous past and current struggles between the White ruling class and racial and ethnic minorities, noting specific conflicts that have arisen when the dominant group perceived a threat from the minority group. In the late nineteenth century, the rising power of Black Americans after the Civil War resulted in draconian Jim Crow laws that severely limited Black political and social power. For example, Vivien Thomas (1910–1985), the Black surgical technician who helped develop the groundbreaking surgical technique that saves the lives of “blue babies” was classified as a janitor for many years, and paid as such, despite the fact that he was conducting complicated surgical experiments. The years since the Civil War have showed a pattern of attempted disenfranchisement, with gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts aimed at predominantly minority neighborhoods.

Intersection Theory

Feminist sociologist Patricia Hill Collins (1990) further developed intersection theory , originally articulated in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, which suggests we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes (Figure 11.4). When we examine race and how it can bring us both advantages and disadvantages, it is important to acknowledge that the way we experience race is shaped, for example, by our gender and class. Multiple layers of disadvantage intersect to create the way we experience race. For example, if we want to understand prejudice, we must understand that the prejudice focused on a White woman because of her gender is very different from the layered prejudice focused on an Asian woman in poverty, who is affected by stereotypes related to being poor, being a woman, and her ethnic status.

Culture of Prejudice

Culture of prejudice refers to the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture. We grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice. Consider the casually racist imagery on grocery store shelves or the stereotypes that fill popular movies and advertisements. It is easy to see how someone living in the Northeastern United States, who may know no Mexican Americans personally, might gain a stereotyped impression from such sources as Speedy Gonzalez or Taco Bell’s talking Chihuahua. Because we are all exposed to these images and thoughts, it is impossible to know to what extent they have influenced our thought processes.

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10.2 The Meaning of Race and Ethnicity

Learning objectives.

• Critique the biological concept of race.
• Discuss why race is a social construction.
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a sense of ethnic identity.

To understand this problem further, we need to take a critical look at the very meaning of race and ethnicity in today’s society. These concepts may seem easy to define initially but are much more complex than their definitions suggest.

Let’s start first with race , which refers to a category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature. A key question about race is whether it is more of a biological category or a social category. Most people think of race in biological terms, and for more than 300 years, or ever since white Europeans began colonizing populations of color elsewhere in the world, race has indeed served as the “premier source of human identity” (Smedley, 1998, p. 690).

It is certainly easy to see that people in the United States and around the world differ physically in some obvious ways. The most noticeable difference is skin tone: some groups of people have very dark skin, while others have very light skin. Other differences also exist. Some people have very curly hair, while others have very straight hair. Some have thin lips, while others have thick lips. Some groups of people tend to be relatively tall, while others tend to be relatively short. Using such physical differences as their criteria, scientists at one point identified as many as nine races: African, American Indian or Native American, Asian, Australian Aborigine, European (more commonly called “white”), Indian, Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian (Smedley, 1998).

Although people certainly do differ in the many physical features that led to the development of such racial categories, anthropologists, sociologists, and many biologists question the value of these categories and thus the value of the biological concept of race (Smedley, 2007). For one thing, we often see more physical differences within a race than between races. For example, some people we call “white” (or European), such as those with Scandinavian backgrounds, have very light skins, while others, such as those from some Eastern European backgrounds, have much darker skins. In fact, some “whites” have darker skin than some “blacks,” or African Americans. Some whites have very straight hair, while others have very curly hair; some have blonde hair and blue eyes, while others have dark hair and brown eyes. Because of interracial reproduction going back to the days of slavery, African Americans also differ in the darkness of their skin and in other physical characteristics. In fact it is estimated that about 80% of African Americans have some white (i.e., European) ancestry; 50% of Mexican Americans have European or Native American ancestry; and 20% of whites have African or Native American ancestry. If clear racial differences ever existed hundreds or thousands of years ago (and many scientists doubt such differences ever existed), in today’s world these differences have become increasingly blurred.

Another reason to question the biological concept of race is that an individual or a group of individuals is often assigned to a race on arbitrary or even illogical grounds. A century ago, for example, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews who left their homelands for a better life in the United States were not regarded as white once they reached the United States but rather as a different, inferior (if unnamed) race (Painter, 2010). The belief in their inferiority helped justify the harsh treatment they suffered in their new country. Today, of course, we call people from all three backgrounds white or European.

In this context, consider someone in the United States who has a white parent and a black parent. What race is this person? American society usually calls this person black or African American, and the person may adopt the same identity (as does Barack Obama, who had a white mother and African father). But where is the logic for doing so? This person, as well as President Obama, is as much white as black in terms of parental ancestry. Or consider someone with one white parent and another parent who is the child of one black parent and one white parent. This person thus has three white grandparents and one black grandparent. Even though this person’s ancestry is thus 75% white and 25% black, she or he is likely to be considered black in the United States and may well adopt this racial identity. This practice reflects the traditional “one-drop rule” in the United States that defines someone as black if she or he has at least one drop of “black blood,” and that was used in the antebellum South to keep the slave population as large as possible (Wright, 1993). Yet in many Latin American nations, this person would be considered white. In Brazil, the term black is reserved for someone with no European (white) ancestry at all. If we followed this practice in the United States, about 80% of the people we call “black” would now be called “white.” With such arbitrary designations, race is more of a social category than a biological one.

President Barack Obama had an African father and a white mother. Although his ancestry is equally black and white, Obama considers himself an African American, as do most Americans. In several Latin American nations, however, Obama would be considered white because of his white ancestry.

Steve Jurvetson – Barack Obama on the Primary – CC BY 2.0.

A third reason to question the biological concept of race comes from the field of biology itself and more specifically from the studies of genetics and human evolution. Starting with genetics, people from different races are more than 99.9% the same in their DNA (Begley, 2008). To turn that around, less than 0.1% of all the DNA in our bodies accounts for the physical differences among people that we associate with racial differences. In terms of DNA, then, people with different racial backgrounds are much, much more similar than dissimilar.

Even if we acknowledge that people differ in the physical characteristics we associate with race, modern evolutionary evidence reminds us that we are all, really, of one human race. According to evolutionary theory, the human race began thousands and thousands of years ago in sub-Saharan Africa. As people migrated around the world over the millennia, natural selection took over. It favored dark skin for people living in hot, sunny climates (i.e., near the equator), because the heavy amounts of melanin that produce dark skin protect against severe sunburn, cancer, and other problems. By the same token, natural selection favored light skin for people who migrated farther from the equator to cooler, less sunny climates, because dark skins there would have interfered with the production of vitamin D (Stone & Lurquin, 2007). Evolutionary evidence thus reinforces the common humanity of people who differ in the rather superficial ways associated with their appearances: we are one human species composed of people who happen to look different.

Race as a Social Construction

The reasons for doubting the biological basis for racial categories suggest that race is more of a social category than a biological one. Another way to say this is that race is a social construction , a concept that has no objective reality but rather is what people decide it is (Berger & Luckmann, 1963). In this view race has no real existence other than what and how people think of it.

This understanding of race is reflected in the problems, outlined earlier, in placing people with multiracial backgrounds into any one racial category. We have already mentioned the example of President Obama. As another example, the famous (and now notorious) golfer Tiger Woods was typically called an African American by the news media when he burst onto the golfing scene in the late 1990s, but in fact his ancestry is one-half Asian (divided evenly between Chinese and Thai), one-quarter white, one-eighth Native American, and only one-eighth African American (Leland & Beals, 1997).

Historical examples of attempts to place people in racial categories further underscore the social constructionism of race. In the South during the time of slavery, the skin tone of slaves lightened over the years as babies were born from the union, often in the form of rape, of slave owners and other whites with slaves. As it became difficult to tell who was “black” and who was not, many court battles over people’s racial identity occurred. People who were accused of having black ancestry would go to court to prove they were white in order to avoid enslavement or other problems (Staples, 1998). Litigation over race continued long past the days of slavery. In a relatively recent example, Susie Guillory Phipps sued the Louisiana Bureau of Vital Records in the early 1980s to change her official race to white. Phipps was descended from a slave owner and a slave and thereafter had only white ancestors. Despite this fact, she was called “black” on her birth certificate because of a state law, echoing the “one-drop rule,” that designated people as black if their ancestry was at least 1/32 black (meaning one of their great-great-great grandparents was black). Phipps had always thought of herself as white and was surprised after seeing a copy of her birth certificate to discover she was officially black because she had one black ancestor about 150 years earlier. She lost her case, and the U.S. Supreme Court later refused to review it (Omi & Winant, 1994).

Although race is a social construction, it is also true, as noted in an earlier chapter, that things perceived as real are real in their consequences. Because people do perceive race as something real, it has real consequences. Even though so little of DNA accounts for the physical differences we associate with racial differences, that low amount leads us not only to classify people into different races but to treat them differently—and, more to the point, unequally—based on their classification. Yet modern evidence shows there is little, if any, scientific basis for the racial classification that is the source of so much inequality.

Because of the problems in the meaning of race , many social scientists prefer the term ethnicity in speaking of people of color and others with distinctive cultural heritages. In this context, ethnicity refers to the shared social, cultural, and historical experiences, stemming from common national or regional backgrounds, that make subgroups of a population different from one another. Similarly, an ethnic group is a subgroup of a population with a set of shared social, cultural, and historical experiences; with relatively distinctive beliefs, values, and behaviors; and with some sense of identity of belonging to the subgroup. So conceived, the terms ethnicity and ethnic group avoid the biological connotations of the terms race and racial group and the biological differences these terms imply. At the same time, the importance we attach to ethnicity illustrates that it, too, is in many ways a social construction, and our ethnic membership thus has important consequences for how we are treated.

The sense of identity many people gain from belonging to an ethnic group is important for reasons both good and bad. Because, as we learned in Chapter 6 “Groups and Organizations” , one of the most important functions of groups is the identity they give us, ethnic identities can give individuals a sense of belonging and a recognition of the importance of their cultural backgrounds. This sense of belonging is illustrated in Figure 10.1 “Responses to “How Close Do You Feel to Your Ethnic or Racial Group?”” , which depicts the answers of General Social Survey respondents to the question, “How close do you feel to your ethnic or racial group?” More than three-fourths said they feel close or very close. The term ethnic pride captures the sense of self-worth that many people derive from their ethnic backgrounds. More generally, if group membership is important for many ways in which members of the group are socialized, ethnicity certainly plays an important role in the socialization of millions of people in the United States and elsewhere in the world today.

Figure 10.1 Responses to “How Close Do You Feel to Your Ethnic or Racial Group?”

Source: Data from General Social Survey, 2004.

A downside of ethnicity and ethnic group membership is the conflict they create among people of different ethnic groups. History and current practice indicate that it is easy to become prejudiced against people with different ethnicities from our own. Much of the rest of this chapter looks at the prejudice and discrimination operating today in the United States against people whose ethnicity is not white and European. Around the world today, ethnic conflict continues to rear its ugly head. The 1990s and 2000s were filled with “ethnic cleansing” and pitched battles among ethnic groups in Eastern Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. Our ethnic heritages shape us in many ways and fill many of us with pride, but they also are the source of much conflict, prejudice, and even hatred, as the hate crime story that began this chapter so sadly reminds us.

Key Takeaways

• Sociologists think race is best considered a social construction rather than a biological category.
• “Ethnicity” and “ethnic” avoid the biological connotations of “race” and “racial.”

For Your Review

• List everyone you might know whose ancestry is biracial or multiracial. What do these individuals consider themselves to be?
• List two or three examples that indicate race is a social construction rather than a biological category.

Begley, S. (2008, February 29). Race and DNA. Newsweek . Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/lab-notes/2008/02/29/race-and-dna.html .

Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. (1963). The social construction of reality . New York, NY: Doubleday.

Leland, J., & Beals, G. (1997, May 5). In living colors: Tiger Woods is the exception that rules. Newsweek 58–60.

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Painter, N. I. (2010). The history of white people . New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Smedley, A. (1998). “Race” and the construction of human identity. American Anthropologist, 100 , 690–702.

Staples, B. (1998, November 13). The shifting meanings of “black” and “white,” The New York Times , p. WK14.

Stone, L., & Lurquin, P. F. (2007). Genes, culture, and human evolution: A synthesis . Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Wright, L. (1993, July 12). One drop of blood. The New Yorker, pp. 46–54.

Sociology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Earlham Sociology and Politics Pages

Resources for gce advanced level, scottish higher and access to higher education courses. i hope also that some of the more detailed documents may be useful for beginning undergraduates., “race”-ethnicity and disadvantage., russell haggar, race-ethnicity and disadvantage.

Ethnicity and Social Stratification

Click here for Ethnic group differences in health, employment, education and housing shown in the England and Wales’ Census 2021

Click here for link to excellent recent free E textbook on Ethnicity, Race and Inequality William Shankley, Tina Hannemann and Ludi Simpson [2020] See especially Chapter 6 Ethnic minorities in the Labour Market in Britain

Click here for Racism and Ethnic Inequality in a Time of Crisis: Editors : Nissa Finney, James Nazroo, Laia Beccares, Dharmi Kapadia, Natalie Shlomoo

Data on Ethnicity and the UK Class Structure are taken from the Census 2021 [which cover only England and Wales.] I hope to provide further analysis of Ethnicity and Class Structure in a future document.

Data on many of the following topics can be found via the Ethnicity Facts and Figures Series and in the following notes I make links to this series. In most cases the data relate to 2022, but I expect that the links will automatically be updated as the most recent data become available.

Ethnicity and the Population of England and Wales

Ethnicity and the UK Class Structure

Ethnicity and Employment

Ethnicity and Self-Employment

Ethnicity and Unemployment

Ethnicity, Earnings and Inactivity Rates

Ethnicity and Wage Rates

Ethnicity and Poverty

Ethnicity and Income Inequality

Ethnicity and Wealth Inequality

Ethnicity and Social Mobility

Ethnicity and Political Representation

  Click Here    for Population of England and Wales. Scroll down to Section 3 and Section 4 for further details.

Main facts and figures

according to the 2021 Census, the total population of England and Wales was 59.6 million, and 81.7% of the population was white

people from Asian ethnic groups made up the second largest percentage of the population (9.3%), followed by black (4.0%), mixed (2.9%) and other (2.1%) ethnic groups

out of the 19 ethnic groups, white British people made up the largest percentage of the population (74.4%), followed by people in the white 'other' (6.2%) and Indian (3.1%) ethnic groups

from 2011 to 2021, the percentage of people in the white British ethnic group went down from 80.5% to 74.4%

the percentage of people in the white 'other' ethnic group went up from 4.4% to 6.2% – the largest percentage point increase out of all ethnic groups

the number of people who identified as ‘any other ethnic background’ went up from 333,100 to 923,800

Click here for 50 years of international migration to and from the UK

Click here and here and here for United Kingdom Migration History

Click here and here and here and here

Ethnic Groups in the Overall Class Structure: NS SEC data from2021 Census.  

I have received 2021 Census data from the ONS on absolute numbers of ethnic group members in each of the NS SEC classes [which my great niece has then kindly converted to percentages!]  There were some technical difficulties in the conversion such that the   first link below provides rounded data, and the second link provides the full data but with the NS SEC categories organised in alphabetical order rather than in numerical order from NS SEC 1 to NS SEC 7.

Thus, you can use the first link to see the overall picture with rounded data, but you will need to use the second link if you wish to see differences of less than 1% between different ethnic groups. For example, via the first link you will see that 9% of Pakistanis and of Black Caribbeans are in NS SEC 1 but via link 2 you will see that the actual figures were 8.81% for Pakistanis and 8.52% for Black Caribbeans.

Click here For NS SEC data :  rounded percentage data  with related Excel chart

Click here for full NS SEC: percentage data to two decimal places

Some Summary Data from the 2021 Census

NS SEC One: Indian [20.06%], Chinese [19.29%] ] White Irish [18.23%]and Mixed White Asian [17.06 ethnic groups are proportionately most represented; White Gypsy/Traveller [2.52%] Bangladeshi[6.59%], White Roma [7.25%] Black Other [7.74] Mixed White and Black Caribbean [8.01%], Black Caribbean [8.52%] and Pakistani [8.81%]]are proportionately least represented.

NS SEC Two White [21.2%] Black Caribbean [20.5%] Black [18.3%] Mixed [17.8%] and Indian [17.7%] %] ethnic groups are proportionately most represented; White Gypsy/Traveller [8.2 %], Bangladeshis [9.6%] and Pakistanis [9.9%] are proportionately least represented.

It is notable that White Gypsy/Traveller, Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups are underrepresented in NSSEC groups 1 and 2 but that Black and Black Caribbean ethnic groups are underrepresented in NS SEC 1 but not in NS SEC 2.

NS SEC 6 Black Caribbean [15.7%], White British [14.8%] and Mixed White/ Black Caribbean [14.7%] ethnic groups are most likely to be in NS SEC Group 6 and Chinese [7.4%], Arabs [7.1% and Mixed White Asian [9.8%] ethnic groups are least likely to be in NS SEC group6. All other ethnic groups are represented between 9.7% and 14.6% in NS SEC 6.

NS SEC 7 White Gypsy /Traveller [14.6%], White Other [14.5%], White British [11.9%] and Black Caribbean [11.8%] ethnic groups are most likely to be represented in NS SEC Group 7 and Chinese [4.1 %], Arabs [5.7% ] and Mixed 6.4% ethnic groups are least likely to be in NS SEC group7.

It is notable that significant percentages of White British people are represented in NS SEC 6 and NS SEC 7

Ethnicity and the Approximate Social Grades: The AB, C1, C2, DE Schema .

Census data have also been used to quantify the distribution of ethnic groups among Approximate Social Grades .

Click here and here [excel] for Items which Gives ethnicity by Social Grade from 2021 Census. NB : the Excel data are not presented as percentages

Use the first link and scroll down about 40% to Ethnic Group by ASG {Approximate Social Grade]

Members of the Indian, Chinese and Mixed White/Asian ethnic groups are proportionately most likely to be in ASG AB and least likely to be in ASG DE

Members of the Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Bangladeshi, Mixed White and Black Caribbean, Other Black, Caribbean and Pakistani ethnic groups are proportionately least likely to be in ASG AB. Members of the Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic groups are proportionately most likely to be in ASG DE.

English, Welsh, Scottish Northern Irish and British Whites are proportionately the 6 th most likely to be in ASG AB and proportionately the 6 th least likely to be in ASG DE

You may use the above Excel link to calculate the relevant percentages.

Click here for Ethnicity Facts and Figures: Fulltime and Part-Time Employment By Ethnicity and scroll down to Section 3 for Percentage of 16 to 64 year olds who were in fulltime and part-time employment, by ethnicity employed, by ethnicity 2022

Scroll down to Sections 6 and 7 for Full time and part-time employment by ethnicity and gender

It is shown that ethnic differences in rates of fulltime and part time employment are small other than for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis wo are less likely to be employed full time and more likely to be employed part time than are members of other ethnic groups.[ It is also shown that, unsurprisingly in all broad ethnic groups men are more likely than women to be employed fulltime].

There are some disputes as to whether the employment prospects on ethnic minority groups have improved relative to white employment prospects as is indicated in the following two sources both of which are critical of the conclusions of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities [also known as The Sewell Report].

Click here for an item from the Economics Observatory

Click here for a similar item from the LSE Centre for Economic Performance

You may also Click here for an item which assesses the extent to which ethnic minority members are discriminated against in the labour market

Ethnicity and Self- Employment

Click here for Ethnicity Facts and Figures: Self- Employment.

Data presented here indicate that Pakistani and Bangladeshi people are more proportionately more likely to be self-employed than are members of ethnic groups. This is generally taken to be an indication of the difficulties which Pakistanis and Bangladeshis face in the UK labour market: i.e. since they are less likely to find employment, they are more likely than members of other ethnic groups to opt for self-employment as an alternative

Click here   for Unemployment by Ethnic Background [House of Commons Library Research Briefing [ August 2024 ]

The Briefing indicates that rates of unemployment have been lower for white people than for all other ethnic groups combined [ see Chart 1 page 4] but that there are also significant differences in the rates of unemployment experienced by different ethnic groups.

The Table on Page 2 of the Briefing indicates that in 2024 the White unemployment rate stood at 3.3% and the Minority ethnic group rate stood at 780% but minority ethnic group unemployment rates varied from 4.90%  for Indians to 11.1% for Pakistanis.

The Table on Page 6 Indicates that rates of unemployment are much higher for 16–24-year-olds than for other age groups and that for 16–24-year-olds, the rate of unemployment in 2023-24 varied from 10% for Whites to 27% for Blacks. Clearly a very serious issue.

Click here   for Guardian article on Black Youth Unemployment [April 2021]

The Table on Page 7 of the Briefing indicates that between April “023 and March 2024 in 2021 rates of unemployment were higher for White and Black males than for White and Black females but that among Indians, and Bangladeshis/Pakistanis male unemployment was lower than female unemployment.

Ethnicity and Inactivity Rates

The ONS provides quarterly data on the numbers and percentages of the UK population who are either employed, unemployed or economically inactive. Between May-July 2022, 75.4% of individual aged 16-64 were in employment, 3.6% of individuals aged 16-64 were unemployed and 21% of individuals aged 16-64 were economically inactive

In the Government publication Ethnicity Facts and Figures: Economic Activity Rates ,[ Click here ] a precise definition of economic inactivity is provided and it is shown that in 2022 rates of economic activity vary significantly in accordance with ethnicity. It is shown also that economic inactivity is highest among the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group mainly because of the particularly high rates of economic inactivity among Pakistani and Bangladeshi women although these rates are falling quite significantly among young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. For example, in 2022 the economic inactivity rate for Pakistani and Bangladeshi men was 19% but 48% for Pakistani and Bangladeshi women.

Click here and scroll down to Section 3 for Activity rates by Ethnicity and scroll down to Section 6 for Activity rates by Ethnicity and Gender for 2022

Click here and scroll down about 15% to Figure 2 Real Pay Gaps 2022.

These data indicate that Mixed White and Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Black African and Black Caribbean employees all received lower pay than White British employees and that White Irish, Chinese, Indian and mixed White and Asian employees all received higher pay than White British employees

Click here   for summary Guardian coverage and a full report from the Living Wage Foundation which indicate that minority ethnic workers are disproportionately paid below the “real living wage” and that 56% of a survey of 2010 minority ethnic workers “say they have experienced some form of discrimination at work”.

Click here for Poverty Data from JRF 2024 [see pages 45-52] Bangladeshis and Pakistanis are especially likely to experience poverty but rates of Poverty for Black African, Black Caribbean and Black other groups and for any other Asian groups are significantly higher than for Whites.

You may  Click Here for a recent publication from the DWP which summarises overall trends  in the distribution of income for 2018-19.

The final table from the first source provides information on the distribution of income [after Housing Costs] for 2016-19 ranging from the 1st quintile [lowest income to the fifth quintile [highest income]

Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black people are over- represented in the bottom two quintiles and under-represented in the top two quintiles. Chinese people are over represented in the bottom two quintiles but also over-represented in the top Quintile. Indian people are represented proportionately in the bottom two quintiles but over represented red in the top quintile.

Given the large size of the white British population in all quintiles is numerically inevitable but they are clearly over-represented in the highest quintile 5 and underrepresented in the lowest quintile 1

Given the relatively low incomes of ethnic minority workers one would expect these to result in ethnic inequalities in the distribution of wealth and you may Click here to see that this is indeed the case. The mean wealth holdings of White British HRPs [ Household reference person]are significantly higher than HRPs in other ethnic groups while the wealth holdings of Bangladeshi and Black African HRPs are particularly low.  Howeverr it is also notable that the mean wealth holding of Black Caribbean HRPs  is higher than that of Chinese HRPs and that the Pakistani HRP mean wealth holdoing is significantly greater than the Bangladeshi HRP mean wealth holding.

Social Mobility

Click here For Social Mobility and Ethnicity [The IFS Deaton Review]

Click here for widening participation in Higher Education

Click here for lecture: Challenging Assumptions about widening participation in Higher Education

Click here for Ethnic diversity in politics and public life (House of Commons Library Research website)