Toward a Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Toward a Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Volume 1, Number 1
pages 1-9
DOI: 10.1177/2332649214562028

David L. Brunsma, Professor of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia

David G. Embrick, Associate Professor of Sociology
Loyola University, Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Megan Nanney
Department of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia

“The ideal that I visualize for SREM is that it will constantly seek to maintain and develop the highest levels of interest in, scholarly-concern about, and professional focus upon, all aspects of racial and ethnic minorities within the sociological domain.”

—Charles U. Smith, 1980 Founder of SREM

“Much more needs to be done, and I am certain that we have both tapped and untapped resources within our Section membership.”

Loretta J. Williams, 1981 Chair of SREM

Introduction

In 1981, the Chair-Elect of the Section of Racial and Ethnic Minorities (SREM) of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Loretta J. Williams, succeeding the section’s founder, Charles U. Smith, wrote in the section newsletter, Remarks (short for Racial & Ethnic Minorities Announcements Reminders Kudos Statements), about a Spring 1981 issue of Daedalus that sounded a national call for a “greater working knowledge of racial and ethnic identity issues.” Williams continues to report on the article as well as the then recent spring issue of Annals, writing, “Little is known of the myriad forms of racial and ethnic relations of other groups within the U.S. and beyond. Conceptualizations of race relations exclusively based on data and theories relating to black/white conditions in the U.S. are insufficient” (Williams 1981:1). The opening quote represents one of the clarion calls from the founding leadership of SREM to the members of an urgent need for a sociology of race and ethnicity and that SREM members have the methodological tools, theoretical acuity, and epistemological breadth to breathe it to life. SREM has served as the social and professional space for sociologists focused on issues of race and ethnicity for over 35 years now. Throughout those decades, and up until now, SREM has lacked a home to publish, debate, and build that sociology of race and ethnicity. Welcome home. Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity!…

Read the entire introductory article here.

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