Transcript Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity

Inequalities of Race
and Ethnicity
Minority, Race, and Ethnicity
• Minority: group of people with physical or cultural
traits different from those of the dominant group in
society
• Five Key Features
1. Has distinctive physical or cultural characteristics
that can be used to separate it from the majority
2. Dominated by the majority
3. Minority traits are often believed by the majority
to be inferior
4. Members of the minority have a common sense
of identity with strong group loyalty
5. Majority determines who belongs to the minority
group through ascribed status
Defining Race
• Race: people sharing certain inherited physical characteristics
that are considered important within a society
• Examples: skin color, hair color, hair texture, facial features,
head form, eye color, height
• Is there a scientific basis for race?
• No such thing as a “pure” race
• Most consider racial classifications arbitrary and misleading
• Sociologists see social attitudes and characteristics related
to race more important than physical differences
• Are some physical characteristics superior?
• Only when they provide advantages for living in particular
environments
• No scientific evidence that connects any racial
characteristic with innate superiority or inferiority
Defining Ethnicity
• Ethnicity: cultural and national identity
• Ethnic minority: subculture identified by its language,
religion, values, beliefs, norms and customs
• Physical characteristics define racial minorities;
Cultural differences define ethnic minorities
• Part of the larger culture, but also separate from the
larger culture, either by choice or the majority’s
doing
• Why are ethnic minorities seen as inferior?
• Ethnocentrism
• Majority loyalty leads to beliefs of superiority
• Judgments often expressed as prejudice and
discrimination
Racial and Ethnic Relations
• Minority groups are either accepted or rejected
• Assimilation: blending of minority groups into the dominant
society
• Anglo-conformity: immigrants are accepted as long as they
conform to accepted standards; give up or suppress own
values
• Melting pot: all ethnic and racial minorities blend together
• Mixed salad: traditions and cultures exist side by side
• Cultural pluralism: desire of a group to maintain some sense
of identity separate from the dominant group
• Latinos: bilingual education, forms, church services, tv channels
• Accommodation: minority learns to deal with the dominant
culture when necessary but remains independent in language
and culture
• Amish in Pennsylvania
Prejudice and Discrimination
• Prejudice: widely held negative attitudes toward a group and its
individual members
• Based on strong emotions and difficult to change
• Racism: extreme form of prejudice that assumes superiority of one
group over others
• Discrimination is morally justified because of their superiority
• Discrimination: treating people differently based on ethnicity, race,
religion, or culture
• Avoidance, denial, attacking
• Hate Crime: criminal act motivated by prejudice
• 2012 – 5,796 hate crimes reported
• Stereotype: a distorted, exaggerated, or oversimplified image
applied to a category of people
• Sometimes used to justify unethical behavior against a group
Institutional Discrimination
• Institutionalized Discrimination: unfair practices
that grow out of common behaviors and
attitudes that are a part of the structure of
society
• Grows out of traditional, accepted behaviors
Is institutional discrimination really an
issue in the United States?
Yes!
In 2003, two sociologists performed a study in which they sent
5,000 fake resumes to 1,300 employers. Half the resumes
contained “stereotypically black names” and the other half
contained “stereotypically white names”.
The results:
For white names, callbacks averaged 1/10
For black names, callbacks averaged 1/15
A white name was equivalent to 8 years more work experience
Conclusion:
Racial discrimination is still a major feature of the labor market
Residential Segregation
• Physical separation of cultural groups based on
residence and housing
• Sorts population groups into various neighborhoods
and shapes the living environment at the
neighborhood level
• Ensures that members of the different groups will
interact less over time, which makes members of
those groups less likely to be sympathetic towards
members of other groups.
• Makes it easier for members of all groups to
stereotype other groups, and thus allows for the
creation of a stronger distinction between the us
and a them.
Chicago
Memphis
Washington D.C.
Portland
Los Angeles
Newark
Salt Lake City
New York City
Philadelphia
Detroit
Ft. Lauderdale
Buffalo
Patterns of Conflict
• Genocide: systematic effort to destroy a population
• Holocaust, Rape of Nanking, Serbia’s ethnic cleansing,
Rwanda
• Population Transfer: minority is forced either to move to a
remote location or leave the territory entirely
• Native Americans
• Subjugation: minority is denied equal access to the benefits
of society; most common
• De jure segregation: by law; racial segregation of schools
• De facto segregation: everyday practice; neighborhoods
and jobs
Theoretical Perspectives
• Functionalists
• Focus on dysfunctions
• Costs of racial inequality are extremely high
• Can foster positive self-concepts for those who feel superior
• Conflict Theorists
• Majority uses prejudice and discrimination as weapons
• Increases control over property, goods, etc…
• Different minorities see each other as competition
• Symbolic Interactionists
• We learn to be prejudiced from our family, peers, media
• Language can reflect prejudices
• Self-fulfilling Prophecy: expectation that leads to behavior that causes
the expectation to become reality
How Does RS Happen?
Redlining
• Redlining: the practice of
discrimination in mortgage
lending
• Banks mark certain
neighborhoods red on appraisal
maps
• Thereby making it next to
impossible to get a mortgage for
a home
How Does RS Happen?
Steering, White Flight, Gentrification
• Steering: agents do not show certain properties on the market
to qualified minority home seekers
• steer them to neighborhoods that have a similar racial makeup as the home seeker
• Keep white neighborhoods white
• White Flight: white families move out of the neighborhood
• a threshold is reached where a neighborhood becomes
approximately twenty-percent or more African-American,
white flight takes place
• Gentrification: urban renewal; higher income newcomers
displacing lower income residents from up-and-coming urban
neighborhoods