Terry's favorite quotes from Divided By Faith by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith

A racialized society is a society wherein race matters profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships. A racialized society can also be said to be a society that allocates differential economic, political, social, and even psychological rewards to groups along racial lines; lines that are socially constructed. (pg7)

Racial practices that reproduce racial division in contemporary America (1) are increasingly covert; (2) are embedded in normal operations of institutions; (3) avoid direct racial terminology; and (4) are invisible to most whites (pg 9)

The median net worth of blacks is just 8% that of whites. (pg 13)

Because “race” is a socially constructed, it is contested and redefined... Light-skinned immigrants, originally classified as distinct racial groups, came over time and through challenge to be reclassified as white, even while maintaining some ethnic distinctives. Among dark-skinned immigrants from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the struggles to avoid being labeled “black”. We witness this process on a micro level. An influx of Somalians and
other east African immigrants into the city in whith I [Emerson] live provides occasion for contact, and I see and hear their struggle to avoid categorization as African American. On one occasion, a Somalian—far darker-skinned than the vast majority of African Americans—requested a ride from my friend, saying three times, “I am not black.” The Somalian’s assumption—that he would not get a ride if he was defined as black—was learned quickly. (pg14-15)