"Your Blues Ain't Like My Blues": Race, Ethnicity, and Social Inequality in America

Abstract

Introduction Our charge is to reflect on the study of social inequality in sociology. The breadth of this assignment is virtually overwhelming, encompassing as it does the wide range of hierarchical systems and relationships in society based on factors as varied as social class, gender, race, education, ethnicity, age, income, language, and region to name but a few indicators. To make the task more manageable, we restrict our attention to racial and ethnic inequality. Interestingly, as we reviewed the research record, evaluated key statements and anticipated future directions in the study of race and ethnicity, we found ourselves led inexorably to consider connections across and between the various hierarchical systems operating in modern society. It became apparent that race and ethnic inequality reflected, and were in turn reflected in, the broader reality of social inequality in modern society. However, while we recognize the interconnections between race/ethnicity and other stratification systems in society, we also recognize the unique significance, status, and power of race/ethnic identity as anchor or master factors in the U.S. system ofracialized social inequality. America's unique racial and ethnic reality was shaped by a history that included the enslavement of Africans, the conquest of Indians and Mexicans, the exploitation of Asian and other nonwhite labor, and pastand continuing racial/ethnic discrimination. More generally, a fundamental aspect of the American experience (and some would argue, the American character) has involved commitment to, embrace of, and engagement with the philosophy of White Supremacy (Takaki 1990; Mills 1997; Lubiano 1998; Zia 2000). Wace and ethnicity are socially constructed identities that vary across time, space, situation, and perception. It is this particular quality that introduces ambiguities into the debate on the