# Race and ethnicity: categories, identities and comparable counts — Study worksheet [Study guides](https://unireadinglist.com/guides/race-and-ethnicity/) [Course topic: Race and Ethnicity](https://unireadinglist.com/subjects/sociology/#course-race-ethnicity) Sources checked: 2026-11-04 Study route and exercise: University Reading List editorial project. A and B below are invented self-declared cultural affiliations, not biological populations or real ethnic groups. The packet does not measure prejudice, discrimination or the causes of a real group’s circumstances. ## Choose your starting point - [ ] Begin with cultural assumptions Use Kennedy to examine cultural framing and the difference between individual experience and institutional patterns. - [ ] Clarify concepts Use Kivisto/Croll for race/ethnicity, prejudice/discrimination and inclusion. - [ ] Study historical formation Use Omi/Winant after introductory sociology to examine the US-specific relation between racial meanings and institutions. ## Compare the three books ### Beyond Race: Cultural Influences on Human Social Life Vera Kennedy · 1 · 2018 Free cultural foundation Choose it when: You want an accessible route into cultural assumptions and social relations. Use another route when: You need a complete account of all racial histories or an advanced racial-formation argument. Selected reading: Use the named culture, identity and intergroup-relations discussions with the classification packet. Limits and trade-offs: A broad cultural perspective should not turn structural processes into individual attitudes alone. #### Try before choosing Separate the people’s declared sets from the institution’s single-code rule. Check your work: P5’s two affiliations exist in the packet even when only A is recorded. Your notes: ________________________________ [Official free reading](https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Sociology/Cultural_Sociology_and_Social_Problems/Beyond_Race_-_Cultural_Influences_on_Human_Social_Life_%28Kennedy%29) [Book record and access options](https://unireadinglist.com/subjects/sociology/beyond-race-cultural-influences-kennedy/) ### Race and Ethnicity: The Basics Peter Kivisto; Paul R. Croll · 2012 Conceptual introduction Choose it when: You need clear distinctions before interpreting evidence. Use another route when: You need one detailed national history or an advanced theory monograph. Selected reading: Read chapters 1–3 on definitions, prejudice/discrimination and intersecting inequalities. Limits and trade-offs: Different concepts require different evidence: counts alone do not identify discriminatory treatment. #### Try before choosing Explain what the table can show about coding and what it cannot show about prejudice. Check your work: An unequal or changing count is not by itself a measured motive or mechanism. Your notes: ________________________________ ISBN: 9780415773744 [Book record and access options](https://unireadinglist.com/subjects/sociology/race-and-ethnicity-the-basics/) ### Racial Formation in the United States Michael Omi; Howard Winant · 3 · 2014 Racial-formation theory Choose it when: You have race/ethnicity foundations and US historical context. Use another route when: You need a first definition or a universal template for every society. Selected reading: Read the selected third edition’s discussions of racial formation and racial projects, alongside its historical framing. Limits and trade-offs: The US case must not be silently generalized to all contexts or current conditions. #### Try before choosing Ask who sets the priority code and what the code makes administratively visible. Check your work: Identify a classification mechanism without attributing an unrecorded intention or treating identities as fixed essences. Your notes: ________________________________ ISBN: 9780415520317 [Book record and access options](https://unireadinglist.com/subjects/sociology/racial-formation-in-the-united-states/) ## Check your preparation ### Must categories be mutually exclusive? Your notes: ________________________________ ### Which denominator is appropriate? Your notes: ________________________________ ### Does a count show a biological group? Your notes: ________________________________ ## A six-step study plan - [ ] Record the definitions Selected reading: Concept introduction: chapter 1. What to do: Write affiliation, code, person and selection as separate fields. Check your work: Do not collapse identity into one administrative code. Your notes: ________________________________ - [ ] Reproduce both maps Selected reading: Kennedy with packet. What to do: Assign all six people under each period’s rule. Check your work: P5 changes representation, not declared affiliation. Your notes: ________________________________ - [ ] Audit totals Selected reading: Definitions and evidence. What to do: Compute person counts, selections and memberships. Check your work: Seven selections come from six people. Your notes: ________________________________ - [ ] Check comparability Selected reading: Racial-formation lens. What to do: Identify who changed the rule and which trend claim it affects. Check your work: Do not infer that the category itself grew in a comparable measure. Your notes: ________________________________ - [ ] Hold the rule fixed Selected reading: Follow-up. What to do: Recount the complete entering/leaving population. Check your work: A composition change is distinct from a continuing person changing affiliation. Your notes: ________________________________ - [ ] Write a bounded interpretation Selected reading: All three routes. What to do: Report the measure, rule and population with a limit. Check your work: Do not invent prejudice, hierarchy or motives from these counts alone. Your notes: ________________________________ ## Worked exercise: The same six people produce a growing category Complete fictional declared sets, unchanged across periods: P1=\{A\}, P2=\{A\}, P3=\{B\}, P4=\{B\}, P5=\{A,B\}, P6=\{none\}. Period 1 assigns one code: A if A is present, otherwise B if B is present, otherwise O. Period 2 records every declared affiliation, using O only for none. The institution alone changes this coding rule; no person enters, leaves or changes declaration. Count both periods and assess “B membership grew”. Assumptions: The six records are the entire population for this exercise. O means no listed affiliation, not a third biological or cultural group. A/B are fictional and overlap is permitted. No outcomes, attitudes or real demographic facts are supplied. Your notes: ________________________________ ## Change an assumption: Now hold the rule fixed and change the population Use the period-2 multiple-affiliation rule for both comparison points. Initially use the original six. At the later point P2 leaves and new P7=\{B\} enters. Complete later population: P1=\{A\}, P3=\{B\}, P4=\{B\}, P5=\{A,B\}, P6=\{none\}, P7=\{B\}. Continuing people keep their declarations. Your notes: ________________________________ ## Before moving on - Choose readings by cultural framing, conceptual clarity and historically located theory. - Reproduce a classification map and distinguish memberships from selections. - Separate rule changes, population composition and person-level changes. ## Answer and interpretation ### Must categories be mutually exclusive? Only if the rule makes them so. A multiple-affiliation table may count the same person in A and B. ### Which denominator is appropriate? People for a person-membership percentage; selections for a share of all selections. Name the estimand before dividing. ### Does a count show a biological group? No. Here categories are declared affiliations interpreted through explicit coding rules; no biological inference is licensed. ### The same six people produce a growing category 1. Period 1 codes are A,A,B,B,A,O, so A=3, B=2, O=1 and six mutually exclusive codes. P5’s B affiliation is suppressed by the priority rule. 2. Period 2 has A=3, B=3, O=1: seven selections but six people because P5 appears twice. B membership among people is 3/6=50%; its share of selections is 3/7, a different quantity. 3. The old B code rate 2/6 and new B membership rate 3/6 do not use the same rule. Their difference records a classification change, not a new affiliation among these unchanged people. Sum of person-membership percentages can exceed 100% because categories overlap. B’s recorded count rises 2→3 while all declared affiliations and people stay fixed. A comparable population-growth conclusion is not supported. The full mapping explains both the extra selection and the visibility change. Test the result: Reconstruct P5 explicitly; do not divide B by seven and call it the proportion of people. Neither code rule reveals anyone’s motive or biological essence. ### Change an assumption: Now hold the rule fixed and change the population 1. Initially under this common rule A=3, B=3, O=1 among six people. Later A=2, B=4, O=1, again seven selections among six people. 2. B person-membership rate changes from 3/6 to 4/6, an increase of 1/6, or about 16.67 percentage points, under a fixed definition and denominator size. 3. The change is composition: P2 left and P7 entered. None of the five continuing people changed affiliation. Calling it an individual conversion from A to B would contradict the supplied person-level histories. A comparable B membership-rate increase is now present in this toy population, attributable here to the supplied entry/exit composition. It does not show changes among continuing people, a real migration mechanism or discrimination. Test the result: Use person identifiers as well as totals. Constant population size does not mean the same people; multiple selections still do not create a seventh person. ## Common mistakes ### Code becomes identity An institutional category can omit a declared affiliation. ### Selections become people Overlapping counts need a stated denominator and estimand. ### Composition becomes conversion Track continuing, entering and leaving people before explaining a trend. ## Sources and edition checks - [Kennedy: official author-attributed open text](https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Sociology/Cultural_Sociology_and_Social_Problems/Beyond_Race_-_Cultural_Influences_on_Human_Social_Life_%28Kennedy%29) Kennedy’s open cultural text is a starting route, with individual credits and licence notices to respect. - [Kivisto/Croll: publisher first edition](https://www.routledge.com/Race-and-Ethnicity-The-Basics/Kivisto-Croll/p/book/9780415773744) The 2012 first edition distinguishes definitions, prejudice/discrimination and intersecting inequalities. - [Omi/Winant: selected third edition](https://www.routledge.com/Racial-Formation-in-the-United-States/OmiWinant/p/book/9780415520317) The selected 2014 third edition is explicitly US historical analysis; its classification lens is not evidence of a particular motive in the invented institution. 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