Transcript Introduction to Sociology SOC-101

Chapter 9
Race and Ethnicity
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Race is a reality in the sense that humans do come in
different colors and shapes
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However, two of the myths regarding race are that one race is
superior to another and that a pure race exists
These myths make a difference in social life because people
believe they are real and act on their beliefs
Race and ethnicity are often confused due to the cultural
differences people see and the way they define race
Ethnicity refers to cultural characteristics that distinguish
a people
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Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Minority groups are people singled out for unequal
treatment
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They regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination
The shared characteristics of minorities worldwide are:
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Physical or cultural traits that distinguish them are held in low
esteem by the dominant group, which treats them unequally
They tend to marry within their own group
They tend to feel strong group solidarity
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Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Minority groups are not necessarily in the numerical
minority
Dominant Group
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Those who do the discriminating
They have greater power, more privileges, and higher social
status
The dominant group attributes its privileged position to its
superiority, not to discrimination
A group becomes a minority through the expansion of
political boundaries by another group
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Another way for a group to become a minority, either
voluntarily or involuntarily, is by migration into a territory
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Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Individuals vary considerably in terms of how they
construct their racial-ethnic identity
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Some people feel an intense sense of ethnic identity, while
others feel very little
Ethnic identity is influenced by the relative size and power
of the ethnic group, its appearance, and the level of
discrimination aimed at the group
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If a group is relatively small, has little power, has a distinctive
appearance, and is an object of discrimination, its members will
have a heightened sense of ethnic identity
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Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Ethnic work
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Refers to how people construct their ethnic identity and
includes enhancing and maintaining a group’s distinctiveness or
attempting to recover their ethnic heritage
The idea of the U.S. as a melting pot?
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Different groups quietly blending together into an ethnic stew, is
undermined by the fact that many people today are engaged in ethnic
work
A better metaphor would be “tossed salad”
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Figure 9.1: A Sense of Ethnicity
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Prejudice and discrimination are common throughout the
world
Discrimination
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Unfair treatment directed toward someone
When based on race, it is known as racism
It can also be based on features such as age, sex, sexual
preference, religion, or politics
Prejudice
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Prejudging of some sort, usually in a negative way
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Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Ethnocentrism
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Using one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of
other individuals or societies
Is so common that each racial/ethnic group views other groups
as inferior in some way
Studies confirm that there is less prejudice among the
more educated and among younger people
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Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Sociologists distinguish between individual and
institutional discrimination:
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Individual discrimination is negative treatment of one person
by another
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Too limited a perspective because it focuses only on individual
treatment
Institutional discrimination is negative treatment of a minority
group that is built into a society’s institutions
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Focuses on human behavior at the group level
Examples include certain mortgage lending practices and health care
availability
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Buying a House: Institutional Discrimination and Predatory Lending
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Theories of Prejudice
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Psychological Perspectives:
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According to John Dollard, prejudice results from frustration:
people unable to strike out at the real source of their
frustration find scapegoats to unfairly blame
According to Theodor Adorno, highly prejudiced people are
characterized by excess conformity, intolerance, insecurity,
heightened respect for authority, and submission to superiors
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He called this complex of personality traits the authoritarian
personality
Subsequent studies have generally concluded that people who are
older, less educated, less intelligent, and from a lower social class are
more likely to be authoritarian
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Theories of Prejudice
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Functionalists
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The social environment can be deliberately arranged to
generate either positive or negative feelings about people
Prejudice can be a product of pitting groups against each other
in an “I win/you lose” situation
It is functional in that it creates in-group solidarity and outgroup antagonism
It is dysfunctional in that prejudice destroys social relationships
and intensifies conflict
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Theories of Prejudice
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Conflict Theorists
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The ruling class benefits when it systematically pits group
against group by:
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Creating a split labor market which divides workers along racialethnic lines and weakens solidarity among the workers
Maintaining higher unemployment rates for minorities, creating a
reserve labor force from which owners can draw when they need to
temporarily expand production
Workers from different racial-ethnic groups learn to fear and
distrust one another instead of recognizing common interests
and working for their mutual benefit
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Theories of Prejudice
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Symbolic Interactionists
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The labels people learn color their perception and lead them
to see certain things and be blind to others
Racial and ethnic labels are especially powerful because they
are shorthand for emotionally laden stereotypes
The stereotypes that we learn not only justify prejudice and
discrimination, but they also lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
about it
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Figure 9.3: Global Patterns of Intergroup Relationships: A Continuum
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Fig. 9.4: Race-Ethnicity of the U.S. Population
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Where U.S. Latinos Live
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The Distribution of Dominant and Minority Groups
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Racial-Ethnic Relations in the U.S.
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The major racial-ethnic groups in the U.S. are White
European Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asian
Americans, and Native Americans
In the U.S., the dominant group is made up of whites
whose ancestors emigrated here from European
countries
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White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) were highly
ethnocentric and viewed white ethnics—the Irish, Germans,
Poles, Jews, and Italians—as inferior
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Racial-Ethnic Relations in the U.S.
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Immigrants were expected to blend into the mainstream,
speak English, and adopt the dominant group’s way of life
(Anglo-Conformity)
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It was the grandchildren of the immigrants, the third
generation, who most easily adjusted
As these white ethnics assimilated into Anglo culture, the
definition of WASP was expanded to include them
Because the English first settled the colonies, they
established the institutions and culture to which later
immigrants had to conform
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Looking Towards the Future
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As U.S. society is now in the 21st century, two issues that
will have to be resolved are immigration and affirmative
action
Immigration
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The first great wave of immigrants arrived from Europe at the
end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries
The second wave, since 1980, has brought immigrants from
around the world and is contributing to the changing U.S.
racial/ethnic mix
In some states, such as California, all minorities combined
represent the majority of the population
Many are concerned that this influx of immigrants will change
the character of U.S. society, including the primacy of the
English language
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Looking Towards the Future
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Affirmative action is at the core of the national debate
about how to steer a course in race and ethnic relations
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Some see affirmative action as the more direct way to level the
playing field of economic opportunity, while others say that it
results in reverse discrimination
There is still no consensus about the proper role of affirmative
action in a multicultural society
In order to achieve a multicultural society will require that
groups with different histories and cultures learn to accept one
another
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We must begin to examine our history and question many of its
assumptions and symbols
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Projections of the Racial-Ethnic Makeup of the U.S. Population
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Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Genocide
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The actual, or attempted, systematic annihilation of a race or
ethnic group who has been labeled as less than fully human by
the dominant group
Dehumanizing labels are powerful forces that help people to
compartmentalize—separate their acts from any feelings that
would threaten their self-concept—thereby making it difficult
for them to participate in the act
The Holocaust and the treatment of Native Americans are
examples of genocide.
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Population transfer
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The involuntary movement of a minority group
Indirect transfer involves making life so unbearable that the
minority group members leave
Direct transfer involves forced expulsion
A combination of genocide and population transfer occurred in
Bosnia (a part of the former Yugoslavia) when Serbs engaged in
ethnic cleansing—the wholesale slaughter of Muslims and
Croats, which forced survivors to flee the area
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Internal colonialism
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A society’s policy of exploiting a minority by using social
institutions to deny it access to full benefits
Slavery is an extreme example
Segregation
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The formal separation of groups
Often accompanies internal colonialism
The dominant group exploits the labor of the minority while
maintaining social distance
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Assimilation
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The process by which a minority is absorbed into the
mainstream
Forced assimilation occurs when the dominant group prohibits
the minority from using its own religion, language, and customs
Permissive assimilation is when the minority adopts the
dominant group’s patterns in its own way, at its own speed
Multiculturalism (pluralism)
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Permits or encourages racial and ethnic variation
Switzerland provides an outstanding example of this