I responded to Part I: Sorting By Color: Why We Attach Meaning To Race. The first reading is discussing how racism developed, the second discusses the racial formations created as a result and the third discusses how the theoretical perspectives view race and ethnic relations. Racism is everywhere. You can't go anywhere in today's society without bumping into some form of racism. Race is a social group based on the physical differences of skin tone, hair texture, and facial features. The differences contribute to our uniqueness and humanity. Because people can be grouped by any number of physical differences (height, foot size, resistance to certain diseases), race is no more significant than any other trait. But that is so far from the truth. In today's society people of different races get abused physically, verbally, emotionally and so on. If someone is of a different race than you, that gives you no right to put them down, hurt them, or make them feel lesser than you, nor do they have the right to do that to you. .
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English racism is defined as: 1. A belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this. 2. Antagonism towards another race. As stated by Sociology in Our Times racism is described as: An organized set of beliefs about the innate inferiority of some racial groups, combined with the power to transform these ideas into practices that deny or exclude equality of treatment on the basis of race. In the book Racism, Robert Miles quotes Wellman when he says, "A racist is someone who defends, protects or enhances social organization based on racial disadvantage. It is determined by the consequences of a sentiment, not its surface qualities. White racism is what white people do to protect the special benefits they gain by the virtue of their skin colour." (Wellman 1977, 52) .
Until the 1930's Negroes were believed to be inferior to white people.
