The Inequality of Racial Perception Theorizing how we see race

by Sims, Jennifer Patrice

• ISBN13: 9780197790960
• ISBN10: 0197790968
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2027-03-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Summary

Even though humans all over the world have a variety of physical traits, there are nonetheless assumptions about what members of various groups “look like.” Our assessment of others through physical and social cues happens almost instantaneously as part of a socially constructed process that not only classifies individuals but also functions to uphold social hierarchies around race, gender, and sexuality.

In The Inequality of Racial Perception, Jennifer Patrice Sims examines the processes and patterns of how we see race through the cognitive process of racial perception. Drawing on personal experience, experimental data, interviews, and new media analysis, Sims demonstrates how patterns of racial perception evince racial inequality at both the individual and structural levels of society. The book focuses on the experience and consequences of the perception of mixed-race people and other racial groups to develop a theory of the inequality of racial perception that highlights the importance of perceptions of physical features, like skin color and hair, alongside perceptions of gender and sexuality. Describing emerging shifts in racial perception in both everyday life and headline-breaking news, The Inequality of Racial Perception emphasizes that understanding racial perception is imperative to avoid passing on biased cognitive tendencies to the next generation and new technologies like artificial intelligence, and to strengthen the research methods that scientists use to study our social world.

Author Biography

Jennifer Patrice Sims is a sociologist whose research examines racial construction, perception, and identity, and interrogates how knowledge about race and racism is produced and disseminated. The author of four books and a dozen articles, Sims was awarded the Mid-South Sociological Association's 2020 Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book Award and the Southern Sociological Society's 2021 Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.