The issue in the social sciences that I have selected to investigate is Race and Ethnicity. This
issue is important because race and ethnicity is a big large field in the social sciences and in
society. researchers and theorists focus on the ways that social, political, and economic
relations interact with race and ethnicity in a given society, region, or community. The topic
and the sociology of race and ethnicity first came about in the 19th century an american
sociologist W.E.B Du Bois was also the first African American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard is
credited with introducing and initiating the subfield in the United States with his widely known
famously taught books, The Souls of Black Folk and Black Reconstruction. While early
American sociologists focused on race and ethnicity, du Bois more so wanted them to focus on
the concepts of integration, acculturation, and assimilation, Today's sociologists focusing on
the subfield of race and ethnicity focus on areas including racial and ethnic identities, social
relations and interactions within and across racial and ethnic lines, racial and ethnic stratification
and segregation, culture and worldview and how these relate to race, and power and inequality
relevant to majority and minority statuses in society
The social science principles that apply to this issue are social norms, social institutions, and
beliefs and values. Issues of race and ethnicity can be observed through three major sociological
perspectives functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism some of the social
norms in race one of the main important ones would be racism for example in the article "Social
Norms and their Effect on Society, it says in paragraph eleven, A new KFF poll finds that the
vast majority (71%) of Black Americans say they have experienced some form of racial
discrimination or mistreatment during their lifetimes." " Another poll finds that 33% of all
Latinos interviewed have faced ethnic discrimination These racist norms such as African
Americans are lazy, Hispanics are drug dealers, Muslims are terrorists, and all Chinese people
are responsible for COVID can be very damaging to society.
Race reflects a social stigma or marker of superiority, When discrimination centers on race, it is
racism. There are two types of racial discrimination these are individual and institutional.
Individual discrimination is "unfair treatment directed against someone" Whereas,
institutional discrimination is negative systematic treatment of individuals by society through
education, government, economy, health care, etc. When people focus on racial-ethnic
differences, they are engaging themselves in the process of identity formation through structural
and institutional norms. As a result, racial-ethnic identity conforms to subjective perceptions
people have of race and ethnicity reinforcing the structural order without challenging the socio-
cultural disposition of society. Maintaining racial-ethnic norms reinforces differences, creates
tension, and disputes between racial-ethnic groups
There are plenty of social institutions first off to begin with that would be the main one The
White Social Institutions the U.S. white population is 60.4% more than any other race.
Research shows the distribution of resources and opportunities a