Transcript Henslin11e_Essentials_Ch09_PPT_edt

Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth
Approach, 11e
James M. Henslin
Chapter 9
Race and Ethnicity
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
LO 9.1 Laying the Sociological
Foundation
• Race: refers to supposed biological
characteristics that distinguish one
group of people from another.
• Ethnicity, refers to cultural
characteristics.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
LO 9.1—Race: Myth and Reality
•
•
•
•
•
Reality of Human Variety
The Myth of Pure Races
The Myth of a Fixed Number of Races
The Myth of Racial Superiority
The Myth Continues
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
What “race” are these two Brazilians? Is the child’s
“race” different from her mother’s “race”? The text
explains why “race” is such an unreliable concept
that it changes even with geography.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
LO 9.1—Minority Groups and Dominant
Groups
• Not Size, But Dominance and
Discrimination
• Minority groups are people who are
singled out for unequal treatment and who
regard themselves as objects of collective
discrimination.
– sociologists refer to those who do the
discriminating as the dominant group
because this group has the greater power and
privilege.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Assumptions of race-ethnicity can have unusual consequences.
In this photo, Ethiopian Jews in Gondar, Ethiopia, are checking
to see if they have been given a date to immigrate to Israel.
Because Ethiopian Jews look so different from other Jews, it
took Israeli authorities several years to acknowledge that the
Ethiopian Jews were “real Jews” and allow them to immigrate.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
LO 9.1—Ethnic Work: Constructing Our
Racial-Ethnic Identity
• Ethnic Work, refers to activities
designed to discover, enhance, or
maintain ethnic and racial
identification.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
As some groups do ethnic work, they
produce a mythical long-lost heritage, as in
this photo of “1500s Spanish” that I took in
St. Augustine, Florida.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Many European Americans are involved in ethnic
work, attempting to maintain an identity more precise
than “from Europe.” These women of Czech ancestry
are performing for a Czech community in a small town
in Nebraska.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Many Native Americans
have maintained continuous
identity with their tribal
roots. You can see the
blending of cultures in this
photo taken at the March
Pow Wow in Denver,
Colorado.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Cinco de Mayo celebration is used to recall
roots and renew ethnic identities. This one was
held in Los Angeles, California
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
LO 9.2 Prejudice and Discrimination
• Learning Prejudice
• Individual and Institutional Discrimination
– Home Mortgages
Prejudice is an attitude, and discrimination is an
action.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
LO 9.3 Theories of Prejudice
Sociological Perspectives
–Functionalism, stresses the benefits
and costs that come from
discrimination.
–Conflict Theory, looks at how the
groups in power exploit racial–
ethnic divisions in order to control
workers and maintain power.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
LO 9.3 Theories of Prejudice
– Symbolic Interactionism, stresses that
the labels we learn affect the ways we
perceive people. Labels create selective
perception; that is, they lead us to see
certain things while they blind us to
others.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The United States is the most
racially– ethnically diverse
society in the world. This can
be our central strength, with
our many groups working
together to build a harmonious
society, a stellar example for
the world. Or it can be our
Achilles heel, with us breaking
into feuding groups, a
Balkanized society that marks
an ill-fitting end to a grand
social experiment. Our reality
will probably fall somewhere
between these extremes.
© 2015, 2013, 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.