Overview of Race Conflict Theories

Placid Tankie

Race is a term that can be defined using many different ways within the society. In the United States of America, for example, research indicates that white people “looks” black people as having a darker skin color than black people normally have (Hills, 2002). In addition, the meaning and importance of race does not only varies from place to place, but also changes over time. For example, today, the Census Bureau allows people to describe themselves using different racial category which include six single race options and fifty-seven multiracial categories (U.S. Census Bureau 2012). People can classify each another racially based on their physical characteristics such as skin color, facial structures, body structures, and hair texture. George Riter (2003), define race as a socially constructed category of people who share a common biologically traits that member of a society consider important.

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According to Loveman (1999), in her article titled Is”Race”Essential? outline Eduardo Bonilla-Silva ideology and explanation about the limitations on the study of racial phenomena. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva showed that racial phenomena can be better understood if it is considered as a structural theory of racism. According Loveman (1999), Eduardo Bonilla-Silva identified several limitations of the existing approaches toward racial phenomena including the narrow way racism was considered by sociologists as opposed to systematic and rational, contemporary structure, both overt and covert behavior. The article also stipulates that Eduardo Bonilla-Silva believes that the structural theory of racism based on the concept of radicalized social system can be used to overcome the limitations of racial phenomena in order to improve the understanding of the causes, mechanism, and consequences of racial phenomena. According to Loveman (1999), Eduardo Bonilla-Silva concept of improving the understanding of racial phenomena was based on confounding categories, reifying race, and analytical distinction between race and ethnicity.

In addition, Loveman (1999) demonstrated in her work that the theoretical frame work proposed by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva in order to improve the understanding of the meaning of race and the consequences of racism related to the structural theory of racism was undermined by the different concepts Eduardo Bonilla-Silva used. These include: confounding categories, reifying race, and analytical distinction between race and ethnicity. Loveman (1999) and other sociologists agree with Eduardo Bonilla-Silva about the importance of improving our understanding on racial phenomena, but argued that his structural theory of racism was not the best analytical frame work for understanding the meaning of race and its consequences on the society. Furthermore, these sociologists demonstrated that in order to understand how race shape social relation in the society, race should not be considered as a category of analysis, but race should focus on the processes of boundary construction, maintenance, and decline which is a comparative sociology of group making that was built on Weberian concept of social closure (Loveman, 1999).

More ever, the view of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva on racial phenomena was supported by other researchers such as Omi and Winant. These two sociologists defended the ontological condition of race based on the circular definitions and essentialist reasoning. In addition, their argument for a distinction between race and ethnicity was based on a particular reading of U.S. history rather than on any analytical foundation. Furthermore, Omi, Winant, and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva never define racial category without referencing to race. Mean while Loveman (1999) and other sociologists like Wacquant argued that this analytical pitfall of referencing to race in the definition of racial category can be avoided successfully by considering race as a category of analysis in order to gain analytical study of race as a category of practice.Adopting this analytical frame work which focus on the processes of group making and categorization of essentializing schemas. Generally, one can explore to what extent a particular essentializing vocabulary is related to a particular form of social closure and its consequences. Therefore, it becomes a question to what extent, systems of classification, stratification, and social injustices can be supported by ideas that race can be distinct from those informed by a discourse of ethnicity or nationality (Loveman, 1999).

Again, conflict of race occurs when the majority group of the society feels that the different cultures, morals, and values of the minority group causes deviance to the society. The conflict perspective is a frame work for building theory that looks society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and changes. The race-conflict theory sees the society as an inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories. The race-conflict theory is in accordance with the content of race because it highlights how race factors are linked to inequality in terms of several factors such as education, power, money, and social prestige. For example, the United States of America, which has people from different countries worldwide, is considered as the land of opportunity and freedom, and it is also a country that is considered notorious for racial discrimination. From the beginning of this country, just like men have power over women, white people have numerous advantages over people of color, including higher income, more schooling, better health and longer life expectancy. Racism has been one of the most important issues that the society have been facing and fighting for the past decades. Currently, racism has declined, but it is still an important issue that needs to be addresses always. Although removing racism from the world will caused a lot of sacrifices and suffering, I hope that people will be able to overcome racism, and live in a world where they do not care about an individual skin color or nationality.

References

Hill, Mark E. “Race of the Interviewer and Perception of the Skin Color: Evidence from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality.” American Sociology Review. Vol. 67, No.1 (Februrary 2002): 99-108.

Loveman, Mara. “Is ‘Race’ Essential?” America Sociological Review: Vol. 64, No.6 (December 1990): 890-98.

U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Employment Statistics.” National Occupation Employment and Wage Estimate.” 2012. Available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm