Summary
Contents
This unique collection brings together selections from the work that has defined our understanding of racism. Every significant contribution to the analysis of racism over the past 50 years are comprised in this one book, including extracts from Myrdal's An American Dilemma, Cox's Marxist theory, Carmichael and Hamilton's introduction of the term ‘institutional racism’ and recent textual analyses. Ordered chronologically, so that the reader can work through the narrative of changes coherently, each contribution is introduced by the editors and the whole collection is bound together by introductory and concluding chapters. The result is an unparalleled teaching and study resource. No other book presents the highlights, range and complexity of the various attempts to unravel racism, in such a comprehensive and panoramic way.
Chapter 28: The Race Relations Problematic
The Race Relations Problematic
The author takes issue with conceptual limitations regarding the approaches to understanding and defining race relations. He begins by describing briefly earlier attempts to provide an intellectual and conceptual framework for the study of race relations. Such attempts were dominated by theories stating major biological differences between racial groups and attributing, on this basis, cultural superiority to white groups. Although the term ‘race relations’ has evolved in terms of what it includes, it is still limited and confusing in its applicability. For example, the term implies that race is similar to how color and skin pigmentation are utilized in discriminatory situations. The term race relations also assumes that differences between blacks and whites are always more significant than ...
