Racism and Ethnicity

Abstract

While sociologists reject the Idea of naturally occurring biological races, they are interested in the ways in which ideas and beliefs about ‘race’ are important sources of Inequality and identity. The aims of this chapter are to question the concepts of ‘race’ and ‘race relations’ and explain and illustrate the concept of ‘recialization’ and ‘racialized’ inequalities, It also considers how ‘racial’ inequalities relate to inequalities of class and gender considered in the previous chapters. This chapter should help you understand:

• the distinctions between ‘race’ and ethnicity and ‘race relations’ and ‘racialized relations’

• What sociologists mean by racism and new racism

• Some of the major theoretical approaches that have been developed to examine ‘race’ and ethnicity

• How the idea of racialized inequality can be applied to the example of Britain