Attached. Please let me know if you have any questions or need revisions.

SOCIOLOGY OF RACE & ETHNICITY

1

Sociology of Race & Ethnicity

Student’s name
Institution
Course
Instructor
Date

SOCIOLOGY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY

2

Sociology of Race & Ethnicity
Background to the Study
Racism is defined as people's belief that different races hold distinct abilities, qualities, or
characteristics that classify them as superior or inferior. It is recognized as an organized system
created under the ranking and categorization of racial groups to incorporate social hierarchies
(Schmid, 1996). Based on these categorizations, racial groups are consigned differential values
that imply that they all have different access to resources, opportunities, and power.
Consequently, the categorization of these ethnic groups contributes to disparities in access to
other aspects of society. Based on the historical context, power relations reinforce the racism that
often relates to society's social, cultural, and political practices. The aspect of racism may be
demonstrated at an individual or structural level. Typically, this form of racial expression
contains taxonomies that illustrate various phases of racism. Racism causes a detrimental impact
on society, as multiple perspectives assert, which facilitates the need to adopt a mechanism of
resolving the problem.
For instance, institutional racism may include the structures, policies, norms, and
practices that disproportionately accord services, materials, and opportunities to the society
based on race. Nevertheless, there exists personally mediated racism that entails prejudice and
discrimination in society. In this context, prejudice refers to the differential perspectives
concerning the potentials, intents, and motives of different individuals by race. On the other
hand, discrimination encompasses the differential actions expressed to others based on the racial
groups. This topic is fundamental to modern society as critical analysis of racism's impacts will
eradicate the problem. Besides, other communities with less exposure to sociological
perspectives may find it significant to learn ways of acknowledging others. Moreover, the study

SOCIOLOGY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY

3

can help various institutions that practice institutional racism to learn the significance of
incorporating diversity in their daily operations.
Literature Review
In a broader perspective, racism depends on socially constructed categories to allocate
resources and other privileges in the various societies. Betts and Hamilton, 2006) maintain that
racism does not focus on cultures, nativity, or American-ness but instead relies on ineradicable
differences of status, constructed from the pseudo-scientific classification of genetic and
biological characteristics to different groups based on race. Omi and Winant (2009) suggested
that American racism consists of a socio-historical and structured ideology that inspires social
practices, which establish dominance due to essentialist categories of race. From their
perspectives, racism entails perpetuating white superiority through infusing racial classes to suit
the American social institutions. The rationale for pervading these racial categories is to uphold
the policies promoting sustainability and safeguard white dominance.
Also, the scholarly work illustrates the distinct mechanism of racism in modern society.
As Omi and Winant (2009) suggested, the progressive use of racialization to assign racial
identity to social groups constitutes one of racism's mechanisms in today's society. For example,
in the past years, the United States has developed an almost new group in America...