History of Race and Racism: A Sociological Perspective Essay

This essay provides a critical response to the history of race, drawing from lectures and readings on the subject. The author explores the evolution of racism, highlighting how societal divisions based on race and nationality have categorized people as 'others.' The essay discusses the concept of covert racism in the UK, particularly in employment, and examines how psychological prejudices influence biased systems. It connects the topic of racism to the author's degree in culture and society, emphasizing the continued prevalence of racism despite advancements in civilization. The author agrees with the depiction of covert racism in various sectors and highlights the impact of white supremacy. The essay references key scholars and studies to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of the complexities of race and racism in the modern world. The essay concludes by emphasizing the politicization of race and its complications worldwide.

Running Head: HISTORY OF RACE
History of Race
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1HISTORY OF RACE
Racism as a topic of discussion is as old as time for the history of racism is embedded in
the evolution of the races crossing boundaries in the hope of finding better and sustainable
condition only to find themselves categorized as ‘others’. According to Bonilla-Silva, racism is
the product of the society dividing people on the basis ‘races’, solely on the basis of nationality
and regions they migrated or immigrated the most pivotal example being the tribal people of
Africa who emigrated to America became the ‘Blacks’ immigrants (Bonilla-Silva 2015).
The lecture validates my thought on racism as a concept which is derived from the idea
that race is not merely a societal concept but is a scientific fact which has been proved by
different genetic researches. Colonization and war is one of the major causes of migration.
However, the scientific researches make it all the more complicated for it negates the division on
the basis of societal and national but shows the differences due to the climatic structure of a
place. The fact that race is not something which has been invented by the society but ‘racism’ as
a concept is the creation of society and the recognition of which is the major crisis of the society
we live in (Bonilla-Silva 2015). The races and their identity cannot be refused to be
acknowledged but its theory that puts one race as superior to others or is considered to be the
measuring scale of the superiority or inferiority of other races is the negative aspect.
The subject of racism has no doubt evolved in the United Kingdom but the identification
of the new form racism which is referred to as ‘covert racism’ by Bonilla-Silva and has been
rampant in the societal structure especially in the employment sector. The US system though
claiming to be democratic is still observed to be one of the most biased political systems where
the judicial system itself shows a more critical way of an approach based on the color of the
individual (Winant 2015). This is due to the psychologically embedded prejudice which
complies that the Caucasian or the White races is superior in all sense and has even been

2HISTORY OF RACE
supported by theorists. The racism in the UK is not limited to the color only but has also slipped
into the prejudice against interracial families and are judged by their names. I completely agree
with the depiction of the covert racism being present and breathing in the different branches
where the employment sector is the most extreme (Yudell et al 2016). Several studies show the
discrimination faced by colored men and women in a workplace is more than ‘white’ candidates.
The connection of racism to my degree on culture and society is vastly connected as the
topic of racism and races though claimed to have been washed by the cleansing agent of
civilization and education is still prevalent and undermines the life of people graded as the
‘others’ and marginalized by people who consider themselves to be culturally superior to them.
The degree itself is a study into the psychology of the structural construct of the society and
racism is the product of it and is being in the most dangerous of the phase where the White
Supremacists have found the way to steer clear of the blame. The lectures bring to light the
hidden flaws which are claimed to be hidden but is vividly visible through the eyes of the
researchers where even the scientific studies fall short in examining the deficit of the division
which has been created (Kang, Plaks and Remedios 2015). The differences in the races are
present and cannot be denied the politicization of the concept yet leads to the complications
which are being faced throughout the world.
References
Bonilla-Silva, E., 2015. The structure of racism in color-blind, “post-racial” America.

3HISTORY OF RACE
Kang, S.K., Plaks, J.E. and Remedios, J.D., 2015. Folk beliefs about genetic variation predict
avoidance of biracial individuals. Frontiers in psychology, 6, p.357.
Winant, H., 2015. The dark matter: Race and racism in the 21st century. Critical
Sociology, 41(2), pp.313-324.
Yudell, M., Roberts, D., DeSalle, R. and Tishkoff, S., 2016. Taking race out of human
genetics. Science, 351(6273), pp.564-565.