RACE AND ETHNICITY - Winthropfaculty.winthrop.edu/solomonj/SPRING 2012/SOCL 201/Race ethnicity... · Chapman U Race and Ethnicity. ... Rigidly conforms to cultural values ... WHITE

RACE AND ETHNICITY

CHAPTER 9

What Does Race Look Like?Race?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M6Wfavyg0U&feature=fvwrel

Chapman U Race and Ethnicityhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoVFXfsjupU&feature=related

Susan Boylehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSrAJsWvEIc&feature=related

WHAT DOES RACE LOOK LIKE?

BUSH MORPHED INTO OBAMA

OBAMA WITH HIS GRANDFATHER

OBAMA AS WHITE

RACE1. Socially constructed category of people 2. Share biologically transmitted traits3. That members of a society consider

importantTendency to think of race in biological terms but it is a socially constructed concept

FIRST U.S. CENSUS 1790Categories:Free white males over age sixteen Free white males under sixteenFree white femalesAll other free personsSlaves Only two racial categories existed in 1790:

White and Black (Negro)

1880 CENSUSPERSONAL DESCRIPTION: Color White Black Mulatto Chinese Indian

22nd federal census, in 2000, asked one ethnic and one race/ancestry question:

1. Is the person Spanish/Hispanic/Latino? No, not Spanish/Hispanic/Latino Yes, Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano Yes, Puerto RicanYes, Cuban Yes, other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino (write in group)

This census acknowledged that "race categories include both racial and national-origin groups."

2. What is the person's race? White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native (write in tribe), AsianChinese ChamorroIndian SamoansFilipino Other Pacific Islander (write in race)Japanese Other race (write in race)Korean Vietnamese Native HawaiianGuamanian

4/12 ETHNICITYA shared cultural heritagePeople define themselves as members of an ethniccategory with a distinctive identity including:Common ancestorsLanguageReligion

MINORITIESCategory of people distinguished by physicalor cultural differences that a society sets apart and subordinatesBased on:RaceEthnicityGender

MINORITIESThree important characteristics

1. Share a distinct identity2. Experience subordination3. Minorities are defined not by

numbers but by amount of power

Prejudice may target people of:• A particular social class• Sex• Sexual orientation• Age• Political affiliation• Race / Ethnicity

PREJUDICEA rigid and unfair generalization aboutan entire category of people

Prejudices are prejudgments Positive or negativePart of culture Everyone has some prejudices

STEREOTYPESAn exaggerated description applied to everyperson in some categoryExamples?

Especially harmful to minorities in the WorkplaceRacial Stereotypeshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vv0eM-

wDPk&feature=related

50 RACIAL STEREOTYPEShttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8VhHPZQmr8

TV stereotypeshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMvfEdTUO6Q&feature=related

MEASURING PREJUDICE: THE SOCIAL DISTANCE SCALE

SOCIAL DISTANCEHow closely people are willing to interact with members of some category

SOCIAL DISTANCE SCALEEmory BogardusPeople felt more social distance from some categories than others

Bogardus Social Distance Scalehttp://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/bogardus02.htm

RACISMBelief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to anotherPowerful and harmful form of prejudiceExisted throughout world historyWidespread throughout the history ofthe U.S.

THEORIES OF PREJUDICE1. SCAPEGOAT THEORYFrustration among people who are disadvantaged

SCAPEGOATPerson or category of people, typically with little power, whom other people unfairly blame for their troubles

Minorities often used as scapegoats

2. AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY THEORY

Extreme prejudice is personality traitIf person has a strong prejudice toward one minority--intolerant of all Minorities

Authoritarian PersonalityRigidly conforms to cultural values

Views moral issues=clear matters of right or wrong

3. CULTURE THEORY

Some prejudice in everyone“Culture of prejudice”

Learn (socialization) to view certain categories of people as “better” or “worse” than others

4. CONFLICT THEORYPrejudice used by powerful people tooppress othersExample: Unemployed people blameimmigrants for taking their jobs

Powerful people are to blameLower wages=more profit

DISCRIMINATION

Unequal treatment of various categories of people

Prejudice refers to attitudes

Discrimination is behavior***

MAJORITY AND MINORITYPATTERNS OF INTERACTION

1. Pluralism

2. Assimilation

3. Segregation

4. Genocide

PLURALISM

• People of all races & ethnicitiesare distinct

• Have equal social standing

ASSIMILATIONMinorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture• Food• Religion• Clothing

SEGREGATION

Physical & social separation ofcategories of people

de jure segregation (by law)

de facto segregation (in fact)

GENOCIDESystematic killing of one category of people by anotherCommon throughout historyNative Americans by Europeans Jews by NazisArmenians by Turks

Muslims by Serbs in Bosnia

GENOCIDE IN RWANDA1994 - 800,000 Deaths Beginning on April 6, 1994For the next hundred daysUp to 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia Used clubs & machetes

As many as 10,000 killed each day.

GENOCIDE IN RWANDA

GENOCIDE IN RWANDARwanda--Central AfricaTwo main ethnic groups, Hutu & Tutsi Hutus 90% of populationIn the past, the Tutsi was considered the aristocracy of Rwanda

Dominated Hutu peasants for decades

RACE-ETHNICITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Give me your tired, poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathefree,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossedto me:I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Emma Lazarus (Base of Statue of Liberty)

NATIVE AMERICANSHundreds of societies first settled theWestern Hemisphere

In 15th century--10 million

By 1900--250,000

Centuries of conflict & genocide

WHITE ANGLO-SAXON PROTESTANTS:(WASPS)

English ancestryEnglish dominant language Protestantism dominant religionUse “race” & “ethnicity” to describeeveryone but themselves

AFRICAN AMERICANS400,000 forcibly transported to U.S.

Disease and suicide killed many

Declaration of Independence did notapply to African Americans

THE 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIn 1964 Congress passed Public Law 82-352 (78 Stat. 241).

Provisions forbade discrimination on the basis of sex and race in hiring, promoting, and firing. The word "sex" was added at the last momentBy Representative Howard W. Smith (D-VA) Conservative Southern opponent of federal civil

rightsSuggested adding women rights to kill the bill

INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE--WWII

Targeted an entire group of people

2/3rds of imprisoned were Nisei (U.S. citizens)

US also at war with Germany and Italy• No comparable action taken

HISPANIC AMERICANSNumber of Hispanics in U.S. topped48,348,000 million in 2009

• Largest racial/ethnic minority in U.S.• “Hispanics” distinct populations

http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/05/26/country-of-origin-profiles/

MEXICAN AMERICANS

• Descendants of people who lived inpart of Mexico annexed by U.S.

• Most are recent immigrants

LOOKING AHEAD• Recent years have witnessedXenophobia

• Rising hostility toward foreigners

• Today’s immigrants try to blend into U.S. society

• Without completely giving up their cultures