Introduction
Racism, race and ethnicity are critical concepts in social structure that have been studied widely. Race for instance has played a great role in everyday interactions and many sociologists have been keen to study why, how and what have been engendered by these interactions. In sociology racism, race, and ethnicity carry distinct and dissimilar meanings. To understand their sociology perspective it is critical to understand their concepts as elaborated in this essay.
According to Raub (720), an ethnic group can be defined as a social group of people sharing common culture, for instance; common religion, common language, common practices, norm, customs and history. Raub (720) further states that ethnic group possesses awareness and a common cultural bond. It does not plainly exist because of a common cultural or national origin but develop because of a unique social and historical experience that forms the basis of the group’s ethnic distinctiveness.
Similar to ethnicity, race and racism is primarily though socially structured category. Andersen and Howard (43) explain that a race is a group of people that is treated discretely in the society due to particular characteristics. Gupta (19) indicates that people are segregate as a race because of their cultural or biological characteristics that are labeled inferior by the majority and normally powerful groups within a society. In keeping with Gupta (21) a race a race is in most cases singled out for unfair and differential treatment. Gupta (21) further argues that it is not biological characteristics that are used to define racial groups but how certain group of people has been treated socially and historically. Gupta (21) also states that it is the society that assigns people to various racial grouping i.e. white, black not because of scientific factors or facts but because of judgment and social practice. This practice is what is referred to as racism.
Work cited
Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard F. Taylor. Sociology: understanding a diverse society. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2008. Print.
Gupta, Tania. Race and racialization: essential readings. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2007. Print.
Raub W., Buskens V., & Frey V. The rationality of social structure: Cooperation in social dilemmas through investments in and returns on social capital Original Research Article. Social Networks, Volume 35, Issue 4, October 2013, Pages 720-732
