Race And Racism: A Literature Review

This week’s readings focus on the scholarly attempts to define race, race relations, and racism in the latter half of the 20th century. Solomos and Back walk readers through key literature and concepts on the topic in their introductory chapter of Theories of Race and Racism. In their overview, Solomos and Back shows that the definitions of race and racism have been continuously contested since the 1960s, when the “sociology of race relations” took off, and especially with the incorporation of feminist perspectives and colonial theories in more recent years.
Articles written by Banton, Todorov, and Cox show the “contested” nature of race and racism in the earlier times of “sociology of race relations,” as they attempt to establish a common

understanding of race, racism, and racial prejudice. First, Banton tackles the concept of “race” as he identifies different ways in which its concept was used historically—as a descent, type, subspecies, and for administrative/political uses. While “how” these different concepts of race were used differ greatly, Banton acknowledges that they are all an attempt to explain human differences in a way or another. On the other hand, Todorov and Cox focus on racism rather than race. Todorov differentiates racism as a behavior from racism as an ideology, which he labels as “racialism.” The racialist doctrine understands racial differences as biologically rooted, culturally determined, and dictating individual behaviors, and the basis of political ideals and moral judgments. Cox approaches racism not as a doctrine, but as a capitalist exploitation of peoples and its complementary social attitude.