Transcript Sociology – Chapter 10

Unit 3: Social Inequality
Chapter 10:
Racial and Ethnic Relations
Do you know what was happening
in South Africa?
 Ever heard of Apartheid?
 Ever heard of Nelson Mandela?
History of South Africa
 All power (economic, social, political) was in
hands of 6 million whites.
 Only 15% of the population
 34 million Black, Asian, & mixed race were
under their control
 Apartheid
 Enacted by whites
 Limited access of other racial groups to housing,
education, employment, health care, legal
protection, and public facilities.
 Limited their personal freedoms…like?
 Done away with in 1990’s
 Today it is democratic, power shared among
races.
Section 1:
Race, Ethnicity, & the Social Structure
 3 racial groups according to scholars:
 Caucasoids:
 Whites, fair skin, straight or wavy hair
 Mongoloids
 Asians, yellowish or brownish skin and
distinctive folds on the eyelids
 Negroids
 Blacks, dark skin, tightly curled hair
 Can these possibly encompass everyone?
Defining important terms:
 Race:
 Category of people who share inherited
physical characteristics and whom others
see as being a distinct group
 For sociologists….
 Race isn’t determined by a set of physical
characteristics… but is based on people’s
reactions to physical characteristics.
Defining important terms:
 Ethnicity
 Set of cultural characteristics that
distinguishes one group from another
group
 Ex: national origin, religion, language,
customs, values
 Ethnic group
 People who share a common cultural
background and a common sense of
identity
 Some keep heritage stronger than others
Important questions:
 Can some races be ethnicities?
 Can some ethnicities be races?
 Are any races or ethnicities
genetically inferior than others?
 Are some groups more dominant?
 How can we tell who they are?
Defining Important Terms:
 Minority group
 According to Louis Wirth…
 A group of people who (b/c of phys
characteristics or cultural practices) are
singled out and unequally treated.
 Has nothing to do with group size.
Characteristics of minority groups
(must exhibit all of the below)
 They possess identifiable physical or cultural
characteristics that differ from those of the
dominant group.
 Group members are the victims of unequal
treatment at the hands of the dominant
group.
 Membership in the group is an ascribed
status.
 Group members share a strong bond and
sense of group loyalty.
 Members tend to practice endogamy.
Why do minority groups make
excellent scapegoats?
 1.) Easy to recognize b/c of physical
features, language, style of dress, or
religious practices
 2.) Lack power in society and may be
unlikely to fight back.
 3.) They are often concentrated in one
geographic area (easy target)
 4.) Often targets of scapegoating in the
past, so hostility already exists
 5.) They represent something the
scapegoater does not like
Section 2:
Patterns of Intergroup Relations
 Discrimination
 Denial of equal
treatment to
individuals based
on their group
membership
 Involves
behaviors
 Prejudice
 Unsupported
generalization
about a category
of people.
 Involves attitudes.
Discrimination
 Individual level and societal level
 Name-calling, rudeness, acts of violence
 Legal discrim.
 Societal; upheld by the law
 Institutionalized discrim.
 Societal; outgrowth of the structure of a society
 Which is:
 Apartheid; women in the US not voting; Jim
Crow laws; unequal access to resources
Prejudice
 Involves stereotypes
 An oversimplified, exaggerated, or unfavorable
generalization about a group of people.
 Form an image of one particular person, than apply
that image to all members of the group
 W.I. Thomas
 If we hear stereotypes enough, they might start to
be believed
 Robert K. Merton
 Self-fulfilling prophecy
 Prediction that results in behavior that makes the
prediction come true
Prejudice continued:
 For the dominant group…
 Prejudice serves as a justification for
discriminatory actions
 Once people come to believe negative claims
made against members of a minority group, they
find it easier to accept open acts of
discrimination.
 Racism:
 Belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is
naturally superior to others.
 Has been used to justify genocide and slavery
Merton – we can combine racism
and prejudice in four possible ways
PREJUDICE
D
I
S
C
R
I
M
I
N
A
T
I
O
N
YES
NO
YES
Timid Bigot:
Prejudiced person
who does not
discriminate
NO
All-Weather
Liberal:
Non-prejudiced
person who does
not discriminate
Active Bigot:
Fair-Weather
Prejudiced person Liberal:
who discriminates Non-prejudiced
person who
discriminates
See
Racism
Power
Point
Where the heck do
discrimination and prejudice come from?
 Sociology
 From our social environment & socialization
 Internalize norms
 Psychology
 Individual behavior
 Authoritarian personality
 Follow those in authority, conformist
 Product of frustration and anger
 Scapegoating
 Economic
 Arise out of competition for scarce resources
Patterns of Minority Group Treatment
 Cultural Pluralism
 Each group within society keeps its own
unique cultural identity
 Ex: Switzerland has 3 official languages
 Assimilation
 Blending of culturally distinct groups into
a single group with a common culture
and identity
 Legal Protection
 Civil Rights Act of 1964; Voting Rights
Act 1965
Patterns of Minority Group Treatment
 Segregation
 Policies that physically separate a
minority group from the dominant group
 De jure segregation – based on laws
 De facto segregation:
 Based on informal norms
 Examples?
Patterns of Minority Group Treatment
 Subjugation
 Maintaining of control over a group through force
 Slavery – most extreme form
 Population Transfer
 When minority group goes to a new territory b/c
dominant group wants them too
 Extermination
 Genocide:
 When the goal of extermination is the intentional
destruction of the entire targeted population
 Ethnic cleansing:
 Removing a group from a particular area through
terror, expulsion, and mass murder
Section 3: Minority Groups in the US:
African Americans
 More than 12% of
population
 How have they suffered
here?
 Positive gains:
 24% hold
managerial
or
professional
jobs
 35%
of whites
 41% have
middle class
incomes
African Americans:
Not so positive gains
 About half the % of Af Amers complete
college compared to whites
 Af Amer family income is about 64% of a
white family income
 % of Af Amer families below poverty level
is almost three times that of white families
 31% of Af Amers 18 years old and younger
live below poverty level
 Unemployment rate among Af Amer is
more than twice as high as the rate among
white workers
How would Barrack Obama help
African Americans in the United States?
Minority Groups: Hispanics
 US is home to more than 35
million.
 58% increase since 1990.
 Becoming the largest
minority group in the USA.
 Estimate there are 5 million
illegal immigrants – 70%
are Hispanic.
 Hold 6,000 elected offices.
 Lag behind in education and
employment.
 Ex: poverty rate is about
twice that of whites
 Very diverse minority group:
 Where they are from,
culture, etc.
Minority Groups:
Asian Americans


Variety of national backgrounds.
6 largest groups:








Chinese, Filipino, Indian,
Korean, Vietnamese, & Japanese
4% of US population
3rd largest minority group
Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

Lifted in 1940’s

44% over 25 have a bachelor’s or higher degree
 26% of whites
Immigration Act of 1924
Achieve high scores in verbal & math sections
of SAT
Income for their household is $13,000 higher
than all Americans
“Model Minority”

Japanese Interment Camps WWII
Minority Groups: Native Americans
 When Europeans first
came here, they had
100’s of tribes and
millions of people.
 What did they have to
endure?
 Disease
 War
 Destruction of their
way of life
 Reservations
 2000:
 2.5 million in
the USA
Native Americans continued:
 Face the hardest challenges of all…why?
 50% on or near reservations are unemployed.
 31% live below the poverty level.
 Rate of alcohol related deaths is 7 times higher than
general population.
 Suicide rate is 1.5 times higher than general
population.
 2nd leading cause of death 15-24 years old.
 66% 25 and older have graduated from high school,
less than 10% have graduated from college.
 1924 – all N.A.’s are citizens of USA
 1989 – Legislation passed for museum
Minority Groups: White Ethnics
 Not all white immigrants accepted with a hug:
 Ireland, Italy, France, Poland, Greece (white ethnics)
 All mostly Catholic – treated with discrimination
 Came with little money and few skills
 Didn’t speak English
 EX of discrimination:
 Catholic lynchings
 “only Americans need apply”
 Lowest paying jobs
 How did they respond?
 Assimilation!
 Banded together in ethnic neighborhoods – ghettos
 Often stereotyped as poorly educated…not so true…