Table Of ContentRecognizing
Race and Ethnicity
SECOND EDITION
Recognizing Race and Ethnicity
Power, Privilege, and Inequality
Kathleen J. Fitzgerald
Tulane University New Orleans
First published 2017 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2017 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Every effort has been made to secure required permissions for all text, images, maps, and other art reprinted in this volume.
A CIP catalog record for the print version of this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-5056-1 (pbk)
Designed by Linda Mark
Brief Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part 1: Thinking About Race
1 Taking Account of Race and Privilege
2 White Privilege: The Other Side of Racism
3 Science and the Sociology of Race
Part 2: A Sociological History of US Race Relations
4 Emergence of the US Racial Hierarchy
5 Race Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries
6 Race Relations in Flux: From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter
Part 3: Institutional Inequalities
7 Education
8 Economic Inequality and the Role of the State
9 Crime and Criminal Justice
10 Race in the Cultural Imagination
Part 4: Contemporary Issues in Race/Ethnicity
11 Arenas of Racial Integration: Interracial Relationships, Multiracial Families,
Biracial/Multiracial Identities, Sports, and the Military
12 A Postracial Society?
Glossary
References
Index
Expanded Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part 1: Thinking About Race
1 Taking Account of Race and Privilege
Chapter Learning Outcomes
The Significance of Race
Box 1.1 Race in the Workplace: Diversity Training in Higher Education
Resisting Race
Understanding Race as a Social Construction
Box 1.2 Racial Justice Activism: Eracism
Box 1.3 Global Perspectives: The Social Construction of Race in Latin America
Demographic Shifts in the United States
Racial Identities, Racial Ideologies, and Institutional Racism
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
2 White Privilege: The Other Side of Racism
Chapter Learning Outcomes
The Social Construction of Whiteness
Box 2.1 Global Perspectives: Constructing Whiteness in Brazil
White Privilege
Box 2.2 Race in the Workplace: White Teachers Making Meaning of Whiteness
Ideologies, Identities, and Institutions
Box 2.3 Racial Justice Activism: Tim Wise on White Identity and Becoming a
Racial Justice Activist
Challenging White Privilege
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
3 Science and the Sociology of Race
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Scientific Racism
The Sociology of Race
Box 3.1 Racial Justice Activism: The Activism of W. E. B. Du Bois
Current Research into the Sociology of Race
Box 3.2 Race in the Workplace: Sociologist Joe R. Feagin’s Research on Race,
Racism, and Privilege
Box 3.3 Global Perspectives: Global Critical Race Feminism
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
Part 2: A Sociological History of US Race Relations
4 Emergence of the US Racial Hierarchy
Chapter Learning Outcomes
The Emergence of Race
Sociological Perspectives on Racial/Ethnic Inequality
European Contact with Native Americans
Slavery in the United States
Box 4.1 Race in the Workplace: White Slavery
Box 4.2 Racial Justice Activism: The Abolitionist Movement
The Unique Exploitation of Mexican Americans by Whites
Gender, Sexuality, and Race
Resistance
Box 4.3 Global Perspectives: The Haitian Revolution
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
5 Race Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on Intergroup Relations
From Reconstruction to Jim Crow
Box 5.1 Racial Justice Activism: Ida B. Wells and the Antilynching Movement
Nativism and the Era of Exclusion
Box 5.2 Race in the Workplace: Sleeping Car Porters: Racial Subordination and
Opportunity
Chapter Summary
Box 5.3 Global Perspectives: White Australia Policies
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
6 Race Relations in Flux: From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on Social Movements
The Civil Rights Movement
Box 6.1 Racial Justice Activism: Bob Zellner
Box 6.2 Global Perspectives: Gandhi, Nonviolent Protest, and the End of British
Rule in India
Box 6.3 Race in the Workplace: Community Action Programs: Race, Place, and
Activism
Native American Activism
Mexican American and Chicano Activism
Asian American Activism
Late 20th- and Early 21st-Century Activism
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
Part 3: Institutional Inequalities
7 Education
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on Race and Education
Box 7.1 Race in the Workplace: Investigating Whiteness in Teacher Education
A History of Race and Public Education in the United States
Box 7.2 Global Perspectives: Aboriginal Education in Australia
Contemporary Issues of Racial Inequality in Education
Box 7.3 Racial Justice Activism: Teaching Tolerance
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
8 Economic Inequality and the Role of the State
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on Economic Inequalities
Box 8.1 Race in the Workplace: The Workplace Project Benefits Latinos
Race and Social Policy
Box 8.2 Racial Justice Activism: Operation HOPE: From Civil Rights to Silver
Rights
Box 8.3 Global Perspectives: Whiteness in International Development Programs
Residential Segregation
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
9 Crime and Criminal Justice
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on Crime
Racial Inequality in the Criminal Justice System
Box 9.1 Race in the Workplace: Diversity Training in Police Departments
Box 9.2 Racial Justice Activism: The Equal Justice Initiative
The Era of Mass Imprisonment
Linking Race and Crime in the Public Consciousness
Box 9.3 Global Perspectives: Postapartheid Police Accountability in South Africa
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
10 Race in the Cultural Imagination
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on Race and Popular Culture
Racial Imagery in Film and Television
Box 10.1 Global Perspectives: The Effect of Television and the Dismantling of
Apartheid
Box 10.2 Race in the Workplace: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Racial Imagery in New Media
Subordinate Group Resistance
Box 10.3 Racial Justice Activism: Rock Against Racism
Race and Public History
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
Part 4: Contemporary Issues in Race/Ethnicity
11 Arenas of Racial Integration: Interracial Relationships, Multiracial Families,
Biracial/Multiracial Identities, Sports, and the Military
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on Racial Integration
Interracial Intimacies: Relationships, Families, and Identities
Sports and Race
Box 11.1 Global Perspectives: International Sports Boycotts of South Africa
Box 11.2 Racial Justice Activism: Athletes Against Racism
Racial Integration and the Military
Box 11.3 Race in the Workplace: Addressing Race the Army Way: Defense Equal
Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI)
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
12 A Postracial Society?
Chapter Learning Outcomes
Sociological Perspectives on the Future of Race
Race, Racial Inequality, and Whiteness in the Political Sphere
Immigrants and the Racialization of Anti-Immigration Sentiment
Box 12.1 Global Perspectives: Immigration Challenges in Europe: A Failure of
Multiculturalism?
Box 12.2 Racial Justice Activism: Campaign to Eliminate “the I Word”
Hate Crimes and Hate Groups
Box 12.3 Race in the Workplace: Fighting Hate—The Work of the Southern Poverty
Law Center and Race Forward
Reparations
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts, Personal Reflections, Critical Thinking Questions, Essential
Reading, Recommended Films, Recommended Multimedia
Glossary
References
Index
Preface
WHEN THE FIRST African American president, Barack Obama, was elected in 2008, many
political pundits erroneously declared the United States to be “postracial.” As President Obama
is finishing his second and final presidential term, race remains a central cleavage in American
society, and the racial divide may be starker than ever. Perhaps the most glaring evidence of
this are police shootings of unarmed black men. When I completed the first edition of
Recognizing Race and Ethnicity in the summer of 2013, George Zimmerman had just been
acquitted in the shooting death of unarmed African American teenager Trayvon Martin.
Martin’s killing and Zimmerman’s acquittal inspired the emergence of an online campaign,
#BlackLivesMatter, which became a traditional campaign the next summer after the killing of
seventeen-year-old African American Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson
in Ferguson, Missouri. Months of protests followed that shooting. The three years since have
witnessed dozens more killings of unarmed African American men by police, over a hundred
in 2015 alone, many caught on cell phone video and widely shared on social media. The most
recent, as of this writing, are Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in
Minnesota. This new edition necessarily focuses attention not only on the extrajudicial
shootings of black men by police officers but also on the mobilization and activism of the
Black Lives Matter movement, which seeks to draw sustained attention to these killings and
hold police accountable for their actions.
In addition to the widely covered shootings and protests, the Republican presidential
nominee for 2016, Donald Trump, is using race/ethnicity explicitly for political leverage,
specifically using the age-old tactic of xenophobia to successfully generate votes. He referred
to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “criminals,” made anti-Semitic and antiblack
comments, and campaigned on building a giant wall along the US-Mexico border, deporting
the estimated eleven million undocumented immigrants already in the country, and banning
the immigration of Muslims. Ku Klux Klan member David Duke thanked Trump for creating a
climate that was welcoming to views like his when he announced his intention to run for a
Louisiana Senate seat in July 2016. This new edition thus covers the racialized political rhetoric
that exploded in the summer of 2015 and continues unabated.
The second edition of Recognizing Race and Ethnicity also significantly expands the global
race/ethnicity discussions. In addition to the “Global Perspectives” boxes found in each
chapter, this text explores France’s official policy of color-blindness; global white supremacy,
specifically with an exploration of eugenics policies in Brazil; decolonization movements in the
1960s; police violence in Brazil; a global focus on the war on drugs; Dutch slave history; the
globalization of hate groups; and the current racialization of immigrants and the expansion of
anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly pertaining to Syrian immigration to the US.
Expanded attention to intersectionality is also a key feature of this new edition, including a
look at new research on black women’s mobilization against sexual violence, which was the
foundation of civil rights movement mobilizing throughout the South; new research on
interracial same-sex intimacies; an expanded discussion of gender and incarceration; and a
discussion of the violent victimization of LGBTQ people, with LGBTQ people of color
disproportionately targeted. Additionally, the text has been thoroughly updated with the most
current statistics, the latest sociological research on race/ethnicity, and an expanded discussion
of C. Wright Mills’s sociological imagination and the usefulness of this perspective for studying
race/ethnicity.
The second edition of Recognizing Race and Ethnicity maintains its seminal focus on white
privilege, critically examining how whites historically and currently benefit from the existing
racial order, and the social construction of race/ethnicity. The new edition retains the expanded
theoretical discussion that includes an exploration of critical race theory, the white racial
frame, color-blind racism, the diversity ideology, and intersectionality, moving beyond the
more traditional functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives on
race/ethnicity. Race is presented through a sociohistorical lens to facilitate students’
understanding of the social construction of race. This text shifts the discussion of social policies
from a narrow focus on a few social policies that are perceived as race-related, such as
affirmative action, to an understanding of the historical racialization of the US welfare state
overall. Topics of interest to students, including biracial/multiracial identities, multiracial
families, and the intersections of race and sports and race and popular culture continue to
make this text particularly relevant to their lives and provide opportunities for thought-
provoking class discussions. Finally, each chapter contains boxed inserts that focus on racial
justice activists and organizations, helping students to understand the ongoing mobilization
and activism to end racial inequality.
Kathleen J. Fitzgerald
July 28, 2016
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition
I WOULD LIKE TO first thank my students. Over the many years of my career, from
Columbia College to Tulane University, you have been an amazing and ongoing source of
inspiration, especially when it comes to the topic of race/ethnicity. Thank you for your
questions, candor, and good humor, for keeping me on my toes and for allowing me to keep it
real in the classroom.
I would also like to acknowledge the amazing work being done by scholars in the sociology
of race/ethnicity across the country. One of the privileges of being asked to do a second
edition of a textbook is having the opportunity to survey the latest scientific findings in the
field. I was able to include a lot of the best work here, and I wish there was room for more.
The work being done in our field gives me cause to be hopeful about our country and race
relations at this otherwise unhopeful time, not because the research is providing us with
overwhelming evidence of racial progress (it isn’t) but because we are asking the right
questions.
Thanks go out to Westview Press as well. The team at Westview has been wonderfully
enthusiastic about this project from the beginning, and for that I am truly appreciative. I hope
you will agree, they put out a good-looking book!
Finally, my eternal thanks go to my wonderful husband, partner, and fellow sociologist,
Tony Ladd. I couldn’t ask for a better person to bounce ideas off of and to take the world in
with. In addition to being my constant sounding board, he was always passing new research
on to me that pertained to this topic, always with the phrase, “This has to go in your book!”
Not only is this a better book because of him, but I am a better person!
REVIEWERS
We would like to thank the following peer reviewers for their time and comments toward
making this a better book:
First Edition
Hazel Arthur, Lipscomb University
Keith Mann, Cardinal Stritch University
Vivian L. Carter, Tuskegee University
David G. Embrick, Loyola University Chicago
G. Reginald Daniel, University of California, Santa Barbara
Second Edition
Taylor Cedric, Central Michigan University
Karyn McKinney, Penn State Altoona
Kyle Anne Nelson, University of Northern Colorado
Bobby Potters, University of Indianapolis
Kathleen J. Fitzgerald, PhD
Tulane University
July 2016
