Sociologists enjoy, but don't always observe, a verbal distinction between the sociological and the social. Lexically-disadvantaged others simply pursue the psychological analysis of the psychological or the historical assessment of the historical. Yet, a clear separation of conceptual approach from its subject target is crucial. Discipline-specific conceptual reconstructions must supersede prevailing social constructions of reality, if scientific explanation is to transcend common sense. This issue is explored through a critique of the sociology of “race” relations and its more recent focus on “Whiteness” studies, both of them social constructions which, like Trojan Horses, intrude social biases that blunt the analytic edge of sociological probes into vital facets of power disparities.
Bash, Harry H.1979. Sociology, Race and Ethnicity: A Critique of American Ideological Intrusions Upon Sociological Theory. New York, NY: Gordon and Breach.
2.
——. 1995. Social Problems and Social Movements: An Exploration into the Sociological Construction of Alternative Realities. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books.
3.
——. 1998. “A Scatter of Sociologies: Vertical Drift and the Quest for Theoretical Integration in Sociology.” Pp. 537—65 in The Living Legacy of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber: Applications and Analyses of Classical Sociological Theory by Modern Social Scientists, edited by Richard Altschuler.New York, NY: Gordian Knot Books.
4.
——. 2000a. “Dominant Group.” Pp. 326—327 in Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, vol. 1, edited by Carl L.Bankston III.Pasadena, CA: Salem Press .
5.
——. 2000b. “Racial vs. Ethnic” Pp. 843—844 in Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, vol. 3, edited by Carl L.Bankston III.Pasadena, CA: Salem Press.
6.
Blumer, Herbert.1954. “What is Wrong with Sociological Theory?” American Sociological Review19(1):3—10.
7.
Brace, C. Loring.2005. `Race' is a Four-Letter Word: The Genesis of the Concept . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
8.
Butterfield, Herbert.1961. The Origins of Modern Science. New York, NY: Macmillan.
9.
Cox, Oliver C.1965. “Leadership among Negroes in the United States .” Pp. 228—71 in Studies in Leadership, edited Alvin W. Gouldner.New York, NY: Russell & Russell.
10.
Cox, Oliver Cromwell.1959. Caste, Class and Race. New York, NY : Monthly Review Press.
11.
Dore, Ronald Philip.1961. “Function and Cause.” American Sociological Review26(6):843—53.
12.
Hughes, Everett.1945. “Dilemmas and Contradictions of Status.” American Journal of Sociology50(5):353—59.
13.
Kuhn, Thomas S.1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
14.
Lenski, Gerhard E.1954. “Status Crystallization: A Non-Vertical Dimension of Social Status.” American Sociological Review19(4):405—13.
15.
Mannheim, Karl.1936. Ideology and Utopia. New York, NY: Harcourt.
16.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels .1932. Manifesto of the Communist Party. New York, NY: International Publishers.
17.
McIntosh, Peggy.2002. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack .” Pp. 97—101 in White Privilege, edited by Paula S. Rothenberg.New York, NY: Worth Publishers
18.
Mills, C. Wright.1959. The Sociological Imagination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
19.
Montagu, M. F. Ashley.1964. Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race . Cleveland, OH: World.
20.
Myrdal, Gunnar.1944. An American Dilemma. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.
21.
Omi, Michael and Howard Wiinant.1991. Racial Formation in the United States . New York, NY: Routledge.
22.
Roediger, David R.1999. The Wages of Whiteness. London : Verso.
23.
Rose, Peter L.1968. The Subject is Race. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
24.
Schutz, Alfred.1963. “Common Sense and Scientific Interpretation of Human Action.” Pp. 302—46 in Philosophy of the Social Sciences: A Reader, edited by Maurice Natanson.New York, NY: Random House.
25.
Simmel, Georg.1950. The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Translated and edited by Kurt H. Wolff.New York, NY: Free Press.
26.
Thomas, William I. with Dorothy Swaine Thomas.1928. The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
27.
Weber, Max.1958. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Translated, edited, and with an Introduction by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills.New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
