Race And Ethnicity Definition Sociology

The sociology of race and ethnicity is a large and vibrant subfield within sociology in which researchers and theorists focus on the ways that social political and economic relations interact with race and ethnicity in a given society region or community.

Race and ethnicity definition sociology. These people are socialized to think of themselves as a distinct group and others regard them as such. Census divides people into five racial categories. Just like race ethnicity is also used as a method of identification. Sociologists define race as a concept that is used to signify different types of human bodies.

Racial categories are broader than ethnic categories. Unlike ethnicity race is based on physical traits that are inherited such as skin color and facial features. In this context ethnicity refers to the shared social cultural and historical experiences stemming from common national or regional backgrounds that make subgroups of a population different from one another. While there is no biological basis for racial classification sociologists recognize a long history of attempts to organize groups of people based on similar skin color and physical appearance.

Because of the problems in the meaning of race many social scientists prefer the term ethnicity in speaking of people of color and others with distinctive cultural heritages. Sociologists define race as a vast collectivity of people more or less bound together by shared and selected history ancestors and physical features. The official journal of asa s section for racial and ethnic minorities sociology of race and ethnicity publishes the highest quality cutting edge sociological research on race and ethnicity regardless of epistemological methodological or theoretical orientation. In evaluating this definition the emphasis must be placed on selected.

Race and ethnicity defined the term race refers to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant meaning that people treat other people differently because of them.