'Race', Racism and Ethnicity: A Response to Ken Smith.

This article presents a response from the authors of the study "Ethnic Minorities in Britian," to the article "Race, Racism, and Ethnicity," by Ken Smith which commented on their study. In Smith's article, he argues that while objections to the concept of race are widely accepted within sociology, the study Ethnic Minorities in Britain, seems to use a concept of ethnic group that makes it indistinguishable from race. This is because, he says, the authors believe: that an ethnic group can include physical appearance as a distinguishing marker; that there are important boundaries that separate ethnic groups; and that an ethnic group membership can be based on the objective criterion of family membership rather than simply chosen by the individuals concerned. He suggests that the authors radicalizing of ethnicity indicates that they are studying a form of collectivity that has been captured by Weber in his notion of status group. The authors agree with Smith's perspective on race. His paper seems to be an unnecessary rehearsal of already well-accepted arguments. But the authors reject the suggestion that their work is racist in the pernicious sense that Smith claims. His own views about ethnic groups are muddled--in particular, he offers no firm alternative theoretical or practical approach to the definition of ethnicity on which the authors analysis have been based.