Majority-Minority Relations

Very informative book and was at a decent price. Condition was excellent and came in on time.

I have used this text to teach an undergraduate sociology course, specifically because it was the only text I found that approached minority-majority relations from a sociological perspective, and not from a "humanities" perspective, (not that there is anything wrong with Humanities, but I was teaching sociology, not humanities, and not race history). Because the text is sociology, and not a compendium of racial conflicts in America, students and other readers should expect to learn new material, to acquire new concepts. This type of reading does require more time and effort than a special interest column in a newspaper. If you are looking for "edutainment," then this book is probably not for you unless you consider socioeconomics or social psychology to be entertainment. There are plenty of wonderful documentaries, history books of racial conflicts in America, and even history-based movies to fill your void if you are seeking a casual read. I would even direct you to the web site of Southern Law Poverty Center, where you can read powerful (and quick) information about current events and hate crimes. It is not an easy weekend read. But it is a set of powerful concepts to help readers understand what underlies the complex web of minority-majority relations. The book does have many asides/side-bars of important minority-majority events, (particularly in the U.S.), but it is important to keep in mind that conveying history is not the primary intent of this text, but is rather to distill sociological knowledge from history and the disciplines of sociology, economics, political science, and social psychology. If you approach the textbook from that perspective, you will NOT be disappointed. STUDENTS. This is not a textbook for a 100s-level introductory course or "survey" course. It is not going to have vocabulary lists or quiz questions at the ends of the chapters. You will find that fewer and fewer of the books for your upper-level courses will have such aids. The length of each chapter has been determined by the amount of pages Professor Farley needs in order to convey the concepts to you. Your professor might try to assign sections of chapters at a time in order to balance your load. But the book, unapologetically I believe, does not attempt to level chapters or to provide rich study aids. My recommendation would be to read each chapter once, attend class, and then re-read the chapter to really master the concepts. This takes longer. But these are powerful concepts, and they are not easy to acquire the first time through. I am not just an evening Sociology prof. I am someone who has been working in business for over 12 years, in managed care and pharmaceutical research and development, including project management, computer science, and global strategic marketing. I have an MBA. And I am also an evening law student. I can distinguish useless abstract babbling from useful knowledge. The concepts in this book are powerful an

This is the most thorough and theoretical of all the texts out there. Students that don't like to read won't like it because it is challenging material and not "dumbed down" like so many texts are (for example Shaeffer's "Racial and Ethnic Groups"). But the professor will find it quite interesting to read and so will the students who actually read it. It contains a good mix of theory, research, and examples. It is not a boring text and even contains some excellent and extensive segments from Richard Wright's "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow." One of its strengths is the organization: instead of the usual three or four chapters on prejudice and discrimination and then endless chapters one ethnic group after another, all the chapters are about an important aspect of race relations with plenty of examples from selected groups. The emphasis is on Blacks, Mexican Americans and American Indians and their relations with the dominant group. I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about learning how race relations develope and change over time. It's explanation and usage of the conflict and functionalist perspectives is the best I have seen in any text.