“Big-time Socs, all right,” I said, a nervous bitterness growing inside me. It wasn’t fair for the Socs to have everything. We were as good as they were; it wasn’t our fault we were greasers…. I felt the tension growing inside of me and I knew something had to happen or I would explode”. -Chapter 3, P.47, Publisher: speak
Basically this section of the chapter is describing how the Socs made the greasers feel lower than themselves because when it came to pretty ladies or having the more elegant things in life, the Socs were always one step ahead of them. Ponyboy felt that that kind of life was unfair and that he and Cherry really bonded and Bob, the Soc, ruined his chance of getting to know her better. This relates to race because although they were ethnically different, they were socially different and on two separate economic levels that was differentiated within the community. Ponyboy and the greasers were like black people in the late 20th century where they were allowed to do certain things but to an extent and the Socs were like whites where they were allowed to go where ever they want because they had money and they had recognition and basically power and Cherry had the fear of being with a greaser because he did not meet her societal standards. Race in this context was like the fair of being seen with people that they were not suppose to be with. The stigma of being with someone less than them was crucial to their reputation and Cherry made that clear that Ponyboy was less than she was.