This encyclopedia offers a comprehensive look at the roles race and ethnicity play in society and in our daily lives. Over 100 racial and ethnic groups are described, with additional thematic essays offering insight into broad topics that cut across group boundaries and which impact on society.

As the population of older Americans grows, it is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Differences in health by racial and ethnic status could be increasingly consequential for health policy and programs. Such differences are not simply a matter of education or ability to pay for health care. For instance, Asian Americans and Hispanics appear to be in better health, on a number of indicators, than White Americans, despite, on average, lower socioeconomic status. The reasons are complex, including possible roles for such factors as selective migration, risk behaviors, exposure to various stressors, patient attitudes, and geographic variation in health care. This volume, produced by a multidisciplinary panel, considers such possible explanations for racial and ethnic health differentials within an integrated framework. It provides a concise summary of available research and lays out a research agenda to address the many uncertainties in current knowledge. It recommends, for instance, looking at health differentials across the life course and deciphering the links between factors presumably producing differentials and biopsychosocial mechanisms that lead to impaired health.

This engaging reader introduces students to the topics and themes that frame the study of race in the United States. Newly organized into seven major thematic parts, the book begins with basic concepts and then moves on to explore social structural and institutional analyses of race and ethnicity. Its 40 articles (21 of which are new) have been selected for their importance as well as for their accessibility to undergraduate readers. Part I examines how race is socially constructed. Part II explores how historical patterns of inclusion and exclusion have established the realities of racial and ethnic inequality today. Part III examines belief and ideology, including racial stereotypes, prejudice, forms of racism, and how they are influenced by popular culture. Part IV includes articles on racial identity and how race plays out in everyday life. Part V looks at the overlapping systems of race, class, and gender inequality. Part VI examines patterns of racial inequality in five major institutions: work, families and communities, housing and education, health care, and criminal justice. Part VII concludes the book by looking at large-scale contexts of change, ranging from individual to societal-level change. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

In their later years, Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not in equally good-or equally poor-health. There is wide variation, but on average older Whites are healthier than older Blacks and tend to outlive them. But Whites tend to be in poorer health than Hispanics and Asian Americans. This volume documents the differentials and considers possible explanations. Selection processes play a role: selective migration, for instance, or selective survival to advanced ages. Health differentials originate early in life, possibly even before birth, and are affected by events and experiences throughout the life course. Differences in socioeconomic status, risk behavior, social relations, and health care all play a role. Separate chapters consider the contribution of such factors and the biopsychosocial mechanisms that link them to health. This volume provides the empirical evidence for the research agenda provided in the separate report of the Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life.

Race and Society: The Essentials explains the basic theories and concepts related to the sociology of race and ethnicity, covering topics such as prejudice and discrimination, immigration and assimilation, structural and institutional racism, privilege, intersectionality, color blind-racism, interracial relationships, multiracial families, biracial/multiracial identities, and indigeneity. It is designed to provide a foundation for students so they can have productive and necessary discussions about race, racism, and privilege and understand how to move towards a more racially just society. Unlike many texts for this course, it does not contain chapters on individual racial and ethnic minorities or on race within the context of social institutions. Perfect for instructors who assign other kinds of materials for their race/ethnicity courses (research monographs, journals articles, published anthologies, scholarly and trade books), or for shorter courses, this text will provide students with a solid theoretical and conceptual grounding in the field.

Adapted from Joseph F. Healey and Eileen O’Brien’s bestselling Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class, this brief and accessible text presents a unified sociological frame of reference to help students analyze minority-dominant relations in the U.S. Diversity and Society: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender, Fifth Edition explores the history and contemporary status of racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., including differences between the experiences of minority men and women. In addition, the book includes comparative, cross-national coverage of group relations.