ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand the key characteristics of and the dynamics of science, and how they contributed to the eugenics movement and modern-day racism. It analyses the uses of race in genomic science. The chapter provides an understanding of the sociological approach to race and ethnicity. It examines how scientific understandings of race/ethnicity have changed over time, beginning with an introduction to the science of sociology. The chapter looks at how sociologists have studied race and ethnicity, and how their perceptions have evolved from the study of racial inequality to an interest in race privilege. It deals with a look at the most recent theoretical perspectives on race, racial formation theory, the white racial frame, and critical race theory, among others. Scientific findings carry more validity than opinions that are based on casual observations. This is because science practices a commitment to specific methods, agreed-upon ways of observing and analyzing the social world.
