Race: Readings on Identity, Ideology, and Inequality highlights four key aspects of race and racialization in the United States that perpetuate the concept of race and uphold the current racial hierarchy: understanding race and ethnicity, the social construction of race, white privilege, and racism and discrimination. The carefully selected readings transcend rote discussions of events that demonstrate racial inequality, and instead, focus on understanding the system that allowed such events to take place.

The first section of the anthology explores how the idea of race originated in the U.S., emphasizing how colonialism, slavery, and white supremacy supported the early formation of racial groupings. In the second section, students learn about the social construction of race and read about contemporary debates surrounding biological and social understandings of race. The third section illuminates how privilege works in the context of racism and shows who benefits from racial systems and who is at a disadvantage. The final section covers four theories that help to explain how racism manifests in our lives and how we’ve come to understand and recognize racism.

Designed to empower students to engage in meaningful dialogue and explore complex issues, Race is an ideal supplementary text for courses and programs in sociology and studies of race and racism.

Cassi Meyerhoffer is an associate professor of sociology at Southern Connecticut State University. She earned her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research and teaching interests include systemic racism, racial residential segregation, and the role of race in American policing. Dr. Meyerhoffer’s recent research has been published in Journal of Urban Affairs, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, and Sociological Forum.