Race, Culture and American Society

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Race, Culture and AmericanSociety
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All of the World Is a Stage

• Saturday Reader

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Identity

• Who are WE really?

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US Census

• American is changing everyday. She is becoming
  more colorful, has more accents, and is
  older. Check out census.

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Who is a minority

• Minority Group
• Minority status has more to with wealth and
  power.
• Using Wagley and Harris (1958) there are 5
  characteristics of minority
• The members of the group experience a pattern of
  disadvantage or inequality.
• The members of the group share a visible trait or
  characteristic that differentiates them from
  other groups.
• The minority group is a self-conscious social
  unit.
• Membership is the group is usually determined at
  birth.
• Members tend to marry within the group.

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More

• Ethnic minorities use cultural characteristics

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• Racial minorities use physical characteristics

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Races
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What is it -- Race

• It is an isolated, inbreeding population with a
  distinctive genetic heritage (Harris, 1988, p.
  98)
• What does this mean?
• What are some distinctive characteristics of
  various races?
• Are they unique only to that race?
• Therefore, what can we say about race?

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Ethnicity

• Membership is a subgroup within an environment
  dominated by another culture.
• Minority groups identified primarily by cultural
  characteristics such as language or religion.
  (race, ethnicity, etc.)
• It is an an aspect of social relationship
  between agents who consider themselves as being
  culturally distinctive from members of other
  groups with whom they have a minimum of regular
  interaction. It can thus be defined as a social
  identity (based on a contrast vis-à-vis others)
  characterized by metaphoric or fictive kinship
  (Yelvington, 1991168). http//folk.uio.no.geith
  e/Ethnicity.html

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Gender
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Gender

• What is it about men?
• What is it about women?

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Explorations

• Male traits

• Female traits

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Some Definitions

• Prejudice
• Is the tendency of an individual to think about
  other groups in negative ways, to attach negative
  emotions to those groups, and to prejudice
  individuals on the basis of their group
  membership.
• Individual prejudice has two parts
• Cognitive (thinking)
• Affective (feeling)
• A prejudice person thinks about other groups in
  terms of stereotypes which are generalizations
  that are thought to apply to group members.

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Four Concepts in Dominant-Minority
Relations Level of Analysis
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More Definitions

• Discrimination
• is the unequal treatment of a person or person
  based on group membership.
• Ideological Racism
• A belief system that asserts that a particular
  group is inferior it is the group of societal
  equivalent of individual prejudice.
• Institutional Discrimination
• Is a pattern of unequal treatment based on group
  membership that is built into the daily
  operations of society, whether or not it is
  consciously intended.

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Assimilation and Pluralism

• Is resistance futile?

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What is

• Assimilation
• is a process in which formerly distinct and
  separate groups come to share a common culture
  and merge together socially. Differences in
  among groups decrease.
• Pluralism
• exists when groups maintain their individual
  identities. Groups remain separate and cultural
  and social differences persist over time.

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Types of Assimilation

• Melting Pot is where groups come together and
  contribute in roughly equal amounts creating a
  common culture and a new, unique society.

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• Questions
• Is this true of the US?
• Why or Why not?
• What is distinctive about US culture and society?
• Who are the biggest contributors?

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Another type -- dominant in praxis

• In the US
• Americanization or Anglo-conformity
• Assimilation in the US was designed to maintain
  the predominance of the British-type
  institutional patterns created during the early
  years of American society. In this systems
  immigrants and minority groups are expected to
  adapt Anglo-American culture as quickly as
  possible.

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Milton Gordon

• He developed 3 stages of assimilation.
• Acculturation
• Integration
• Secondary level
• Primary level
• Intermarriage

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Gordons Stages of Assimilation Stage Process

• 1. Acculturation (cultural assimilation)

• The group learns the culture, language, and value
  system of the dominant society.

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Gordons Stages of Assimilation Stage Process

• 2. Integration (structural assimilation)
• At the secondary level
• Public, impersonal
• At the primary level
• Interpersonal, intimate

• Members of the group enter that public
  institutions of the dominant society
• Members of the group into into cliques, clubs,
  and friendship groups of the dominant society.

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Gordons Stages (cont.) Stage Process

• 3. Intermarriage (marital assimilation)

• Members of the group intermarry with members of
  the dominant group on a large-scale basis.

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Pluralism

• Cultural pluralism
• Groups have not acculturated and each maintains
  it own identity. The groups might speak
  different languages, practice different
  religions, and have different value systems.
• Structural pluralism
• Cultural differences are minimal but the groups
  occupy different locations in the social
  structure. The has many of the same cultural
  practices as the dominant group but they maintain
  separate organizations.

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Multiculturalism

• This stresses mutual respect for all groups and
  celebrates the multiplicity of heritages that
  have contributed to the development of the United
  States.

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Sources

• 2. Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender by Joseph
  Healy, (3rd edition).
• Race http//www.providence.edu/polisci/rep/
• What is race - Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender
  by Joseph Healy, (3rd edition).
• http//www.beijing-2008.org/eolympic/ztq/Download-
  photos/Ethnic20Minorities20support20Beijing's2
  0Bid.jpg
• http//www.network-democracy.org/social-security/b
  b/adss/images/minorities_1a.gif
• Gender - http//www.manchester.edu/users/facstaff/
  DKMonaco/photos.html
• Prejudice et al Race, pp. 25-28
• Borg pictures - http//www.geocities.com/Area51/Va
  ult/7900/BORGCUBE.htm

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Sources

• http//www.calstatela.edu/exed/aclp/images/aclpcov
  er04.jpg
• http//www.chamberlainsd.org/images/Photos/boydanc
  er.gif
• http//www.americanembassy.org.cy/armstr.jpg
• http//www.wethepeople.gov/neh/images/culture-cove
  r.gif
• http//www.osia.org/public/images/ellisisland.jpg
• http//www.austinitalians.org/aiflogow.jpg
• Race, Ethnicity etc.