Chapter 10 Race and Ethnicity
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Chapter 10
Race and Ethnicity
Race and Ethnicity
Race is primarily a socially constructed category based on physical criteria.
An ethnic group is a social category of people who share a common culture.
Comparison of U.S. Census Classifications
Date White African
American
Native
American
Asian
American
1890 White
Black
Mulatto
Quadroon
Octoroon
Indian
Chinese
Japanese
1900 White Black Indian Chinese
Japanese
1910 White Black
Mulatto Indian
Chinese
Japanese
Comparison of U.S. Census Classifications
Date White African
American
Native
American
Asian
American
1920
White
Black
Mulatto Indian
Chinese
Japanese
1930 White Negro Indian
Chinese
Japanese
Filipino
Hindu
Korean
Comparison of U.S. Census Classifications
Date White African
American
Native
American
Asian
American
1940 White Negro Indian
Chinese
Japanese
Filipino
Hindu
Korean
1950
White
Negro
Indian
Chinese
Japanese
Filipino
Comparison of U.S. Census Classifications
Date White African
American
Native
American
Asian
American
1960 White Negro
American
Indian
Aleut
Eskimo
Chinese
Japanese
Filipino
1970 White Negro or
Black Indian
(American)
Chinese
Japanese
Filipino
Korean
Comparison of U.S. Census Classifications
Date White African
American
Native
American
Asian
American
1980 White Black or
Negro
Indian
(American)
Eskimo
Aleut
Chinese
Japanese
Filipino
Korean
Asian Indian
Vietnamese
Comparison of U.S. Census Classifications
Date White African
American
Native
American
Asian
American
2000 White
Black or
African
American
American
Indian
Alaskan
Native
Chinese
Japanese
Filipino
Korean
Asian Indian
Vietnamese
Ethnic Minority: Characteristics
1. Possesses characteristics regarded as different from the dominant group (race, ethnicity, sexual preference, age, religion.)
2. Suffers prejudice and discrimination by the dominant group.
3. Membership is ascribed rather than achieved.
4. Members feel a sense of group solidarity.
Debunking Society’s Myths
Myth: ◦ Minority groups are those with the least numerical representation in society.
Sociological perspective: ◦ A minority group is any group, regardless of size, that is singled out in society for unfair treatment and that generally occupies lower status in the society.
Stereotype
Reinforce prejudices and cause them to persist in society.
Racial and gender stereotypes receive ongoing support in the media.
Justify the oppression of groups based on race, ethnicity and sex.
The Salience Principle
States that we categorize people on the basis of what appears initially prominent and salient about them.
◦ Skin color, gender, and age are salient characteristics.
What becomes salient is culturally determined.
In other cultures, religion may be far more salient than skin color.
Prejudice, Discrimination and Racism
Prejudice is an attitude involving prejudgment on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Discrimination is actual behavior involving unequal treatment.
Racism involves both attitude and behavior.
Poverty among Racial Groups
The Income Gap
Forms of Racism
Traditional - Obvious, overt racism, such as physical assaults, from beatings to lynchings
Aversive - subtle, covert and nonobvious
Laissez-faire - also called symbolic racism
Colorblind - Refusing to perceive any differences between racial groups.
Institutional - The negative treatment and oppression of one racial or ethnic group by society’s existing institutions based on the presumed inferiority of the oppressed group.
Elements of Laissez-faire Racism
1. Persistent negative stereotyping of minorities, particularly Black Americans, especially in the media.
2. Tendency to blame Blacks for the gap between Blacks and Whites in socioeconomic standing, occupational achievement, and educational achievement.
3. Resistance to policy efforts that address racially oppressive social conditions and practices.
Debunking Society’s Myths
Myth: ◦ The primary cause of racial inequality in the United States is the persistence of prejudice.
Sociological perspective: ◦ Prejudice is one dimension of racial problems in the United States, but institutional racism can flourish even while prejudice is on the decline.
Theories of Race and Ethnicity
The Racial Order
Functionalism
Social stability when racial and ethnic
groups are assimilated into society
Conflict Theory Is intricately intertwined with class
stratification
Symbolic Interaction
Based on social construction that assigns
people to racial and ethnic categories
Theories of Race and Ethnicity
Minority Groups
Functionalism
Assimilated into dominant culture as they
adopt cultural practices
Conflict Theory Life chances result from opportunities
formed by intersection of class, race, and
gender
Symbolic
Interaction Form identity as the result of sociohistorical
change
Scapegoat Theory
Follows the psychological principle that aggression often follows frustration.
Argues that members of the dominant group in the United States have harbored frustrations in their desire to achieve success.
They vent their anger in the form of aggression directed toward a substitute that takes the place of the original perception of the frustration.
Members of minority groups become scapegoats.
Authoritarian Personality
Characteristics: Tendency to categorize other people
Rigidly conform
Intolerance of ambiguity
Inclined to superstition
Contact Theory
Interactions will reduce prejudice if 3 conditions are met:
1. Contact is between individuals of equal status.
2. Contact is sustained.
3. Participants agree upon social norms favoring equality.
Native Americans
Population in north America in 1492 was from 1 to 10 million.
Conquest, disease, and expulsion from their lands resulted in a population of 300,000 by 1850.
55% of Native Americans live on or near a reservation.
Highest poverty rate of all minorities and 50% unemployment among males.
African Americans
Between 20 and 100 million Africans were transported to the Americas.
The majority went to Brazil and the Caribbean, 6% went to the U.S.
Slavery evolved as a rigid caste system, also involving the domination of men over women.
After the civil war, sharecropping emerged as a new exploitative system.
The migration of Blacks to the urban north from the 1900s through the 1920s encouraged the development of political, social, and cultural action.
Latinos
Includes Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other Latin American immigrants.
Includes Latin Americans who were early settlers in the U.S.
The terms Hispanic and Latino/a mask the great diversity among the groups.
Entries into U.S. Society:
Mexican Americans through military conquest (1846-1848).
Puerto Ricans through war with Spain (1898).
Cubans as political refugees (1959).
Chinese
1865-1868, thousands of Chinese laborers worked for the Central Pacific railroad.
In 1882, the Chinese exclusion act banned immigration of laborers and intermarriage.
Hostility and exclusion resulted in the creation of Chinatowns.
Japanese
Immigration of the first generation (Issei) took place between 1890 and 1924.
◦ In 1924, passage of the Japanese immigration act forbade further immigration.
The second generation (Nisei) became better educated and assimilated.
Members of the third generation (Sansei) met with prejudice and discrimination.
During WWII, Japanese Americans were forced into relocation camps.
In 1987, legislation was passed awarding $20,000 to each relocated person and offering an apology.
Middle Easterners
Immigrants from Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran began arriving in the mid-1970s.
Like other immigrants, many experienced downward mobility and formed their own ethnic enclaves.
White Ethnic Groups
Immigration dates to the WASP immigrants from England, Scotland, and Wales.
40% of the world’s Jewish population lives in the U.S.
In 1924, the National Origins Quota Act, the most discriminatory act in U.S. immigration history, was passed.
Cultural Pluralism
Different groups in society maintaining their distinctive cultures while coexisting peacefully with the dominant group.
Examples:
◦ The Amish of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania and north central Ohio.
◦ The “Little Italys” in some U.S. cities.
Residential Segregation
Neighborhoods such as this one in Brooklyn, New York, are indicative of residential segregation.
Segregation
Spatial and social separation of racial and ethnic groups.
Minorities often live separately under inferior conditions and are given lower-class educations, jobs, and protections under the law.
Although desegregation has been mandated by law, segregation still exists, particularly in housing and education.
end
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