ABSTRACT
Throughout the pages of this book, the focus has been on the nature of often-strained relations and competition based mainly, if not exclusively, on social definitions of race and ethnicity—concepts grounded, often as not, on misperceptions of others. The "they versus we" motif has been a constant in a volume that touched on many subjects—prejudice, discrimination, actions, reactions—all couched in a framework of a Humanistic Sociology, a sociology that demands both rigor in the assessment and analyses of social interactions and empathy for those involved. This duality underscores the entire enterprise: learning about root causes of intergroup tension and current problems; getting to know all the players, those in positions of dominance and those called minorities—and those often caught in the middle; coming to terms with one's own values while learning "to see ourselves as others see us." This last idea, succinctly conveyed in a closing stanza of the Kipling poem quoted in the beginning of Chapter Six says it all. If you cross over the sea, Instead of over the way You may end by (think of it!) looking on We As only a sort of They.
