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Summary and Review 287

to do so. Race can be a “plus factor,” but in
the Court’s words, there must be “a meaning-
ful individualized review of applicants.”
Officials found this ruling murky. To
remove ambiguity, voters in California, Michi-
gan, and Nebraska added amendments to
their state constitutions that make it illegal
for public institutions to consider race or sex
in hiring, in awarding contracts, or in college
admissions (Espenshade and Radford 2009;
Pérez-Peña 2012).
With constitutional battles continuing
and whites increasingly feeling that they are
being discriminated against (Norton and
Sommers 2011), the issue of affirmative
action in a multicultural society is likely to
remain center stage for quite some time.

Toward a True Multicultural
Society
The United States has the potential to
become a society in which racial–ethnic
groups not only coexist but also respect one
The United States is the most racially–
another—and thrive—as they work together ethnically diverse society in the world.
for mutually beneficial goals. In a true mul- This can be our central strength, with
ticultural society, the minority groups that our many groups working together to
make up the United States would participate fully in the nation’s social institutions build a harmonious society, a stellar
example for the world. Or it can be
while maintaining their cultural integrity. Reaching this goal will require that we
our Achilles heel, with us breaking
understand that “the biological differences that divide one race from another add up into feuding groups, a Balkanized
to a drop in the genetic ocean.” For a long time, we have given racial categories an society that marks an ill-fitting end to
importance they never merited. Now we need to figure out how to reduce them to a grand social experiment. Our reality
the irrelevance they deserve. In short, we need to make real the abstraction called will probably fall somewhere between
these extremes.
equality that we profess to believe (Cose 2000).

MySocLab Study and Review on MySocLab

CHAPTER 9 Summary and Review

Laying the Sociological Foundation races there are. In the sense of one race being superior to
another and of there being pure races, race is a myth. The
idea of race is powerful, shaping basic relationships among
9.1 Contrast the myth and reality of race, race and ethnicity, and
people. Pp. 253–256.
minority and dominant groups; discuss ethnic work.
How do race and ethnicity differ?
How is race both a reality and a myth? Race refers to inherited biological characteristics, ethnicity
In the sense that different groups inherit distinctive physical to cultural ones. Members of ethnic groups identify with
traits, race is a reality. There is no agreement regarding what one another on the basis of common ancestry and cultural
constitutes a particular race, however, or even how many heritage. Pp. 256–257.