How the sociology of race studies social relations

The sociology of race studies social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at every level of society, including systemic racism and other complex processes between groups. The lessons answer how race and ethnic relations shape social experience and how these relations can be understood. They connect social construction, psychological effects, political and economic pressures, and historical change.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 32 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   the sociology of race · Wikipedia · 13 min read

   In the sociology of race, race is a social construction that characterizes people based on physical traits such as skin color, facial features, and hair textures. Sociologists reject the notion that race is a biological fact and emphasize its construction through what society deems significant.

2. Read
   

   Teaching kids how battles about race from 150 years ago mirror today's conflicts · Hechinger Report · 12 min read

   During Reconstruction, enslaved people were freed, former slaves and free blacks gained citizenship rights, and black men were granted the right to vote. African-Americans made huge strides in education, entrepreneurship and political power, and historians estimate that as many as 2,000 blacks were elected to local, state and federal offices.

3. Watch
   

   PHILOSOPHY - Race: Racial Ontology #3b (Sociohistorical Theories of Race) · YouTube · 7 min watch

   David Miguel Gray of Colgate University introduces sociohistorical theories of race and the idea of socially constructed categories.

4. Book
   

   The Souls of Black Folk · Bookshop.org

   The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois includes "Of the Dawn of Freedom," where Du Bois describes the Freedmen's Bureau's attempt to address race and social conditions and argues that Black voting was necessary to secure the South's acceptance of the war's results.

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