SYNERGY BETWEEN RACIAL DIFFERENTIATION AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN HUMAN SOCIETIES

Rasak Bamidele

Department of Sociology and Psychology

Fountain University Osogbo,Osun State.

E-mail: delerasak@yahoo.co.uk

ABSTRACT

It is impossible in the present environment to ignore the role of ideas about Skin colour in shaping and determining the social and political relations of societies all over the globe. During the past two decades theoretical and political debates have raged over the status of race and racism as social and analytical concepts. There has been much debate about why the notion of race is still widely used in both popular and social scientific discourses when it is widely accepted that ‘races’ as such do not exist. This has reached the stage when some writers argue vehemently that the notion of ‘race’ must be bracket every time it appears in social scientific discussion. This paper examines skin colour and social differentiation in human society. The analysis is intended to provide the basis of a theoretical framework for analyzing contemporary form of racism and the social relations that arises on the basis of racial categorization.

Key words: Race, Minority group, Social Stratification, Social Differentiation, Skin Colour and Social Inequality.