ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines the state of racial and ethnic inequalities, beginning with material resources such as income, occupations, and wealth and discusses cultural and symbolic resources. The system of inequality that developed between the races during the heyday of slavery up to the Civil War was essentially a caste system. In Race and class forces collide in the phenomenon of colorism. “‘Colorism’ is the discriminatory treatment of individuals falling within the same ‘racial’ group on the basis of skin color. Wealth inequality between Blacks and Whites has been perpetuated since early in US history, beginning with slavery, by governmental policies that prohibited Blacks from beginning certain kinds of businesses or entering particular markets. The experience of mobility and the process of attainment vary between races. Attempts to anchor an adequate explanation for racial inequality in biology have been numerous and have also been widely criticized.