RACE AND ETHNICITY

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RACE AND ETHNICITY

• SOC 101
• Chapter 11

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The Social Meaning of Race and Ethnicity

• People often confuse the terms race and ethnicity
• A race is a socially constructed category
  composed of people who share biologically
  transmitted traits that members of a society
  consider important
• There are no biologically pure races
• A trend toward mixture

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Ethnicity

• A shared cultural heritage
• Ethnicity involves even more variability than
  race because most people identify with more than
  one ethnic background

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Minorities

• A minority is a category of people, distinguished
  by physical or cultural traits, who are social
  disadvantaged
• Are Native Americans a minority? Are women?

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What Is Prejudice?

• A rigid and irrational generalization about an
  entire category of people
• Prejudices are prejudgments that can be positive
  or negative
• Prejudice often takes the form of stereotypes,
  which are exaggerated descriptions applied to
  every person in some category

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Racism

• A powerful and destructive form of prejudice
• Racism refers to the belief that one racial
  category is innately superior or inferior to
  another

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Theories of Prejudice

• Scapegoat theory holds that prejudice results
  from frustration among people who are themselves
  disadvantaged

• Authoritarian personality theory views prejudice
  as a personality trait in certain individuals
• Culture theory of prejudice argues that it is
  embedded in culture

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Conflict Theory of Prejudice

• Proposes that powerful people use prejudice to
  justify oppressing others

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What Is Discrimination?

• An act of unfair treatment directed against an
  individual or a group

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ITS A MATTER OF ACTION, NOT ATTITUDE

• VERBALIZATION
• JOKES, COMMENTS, RACIAL SLURS
• EXCLUSION
• KEEPING PEOPLE MARGINAL
• AVOIDANCE
• NOT TRAVELING IN CERTAIN AREAS
• PHYSICAL ABUSE
• PHYSICAL ATTACKS
• GENOCIDE
• SYSTEMATIC KILLING OFF OF A GROUP

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How Are Prejudice and Discrimination Related?

• Prejudice may lead to discrimination
• Prejudice may exist but not lead to
  discrimination
• Discrimination happens and a prejudice is
  developed to justify it

• Discrimination may occur and not lead to prejudice

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Mertons Typology

• Unprejudiced nondiscriminator (all weather
  liberal)
• Unprejudiced discriminator (fair weather liberal)

• Prejudiced nondiscriminator (timid bigot)
• Prejudiced discriminator (active bigot)

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HOW ATTITUDES (PREJUDICES) AND ACTIONS
(DISCRIMINATION) WORK TOGETHER TO CLASSIFY ALL
PEOPLE
DISCRIMINATES?
YES
NO
ACTIVE BIGOT
TIMID BIGOT
YES
PREJUDICE?
ALL- WEATHER LIBERAL
FAIR- WEATHER LIBERAL
NO
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Institutional Prejudice and Discrimination

• Bias inherent in the operation of societys
  institutions, including schools, hospitals, the
  police, and the workplace
• Researchers have found that banks reject mortgage
  applications from minorities at a higher rate
  than those from white people

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The Vicious Cycle

• Stage 1 Prejudice and discrimination begin
• Stage 2 As a result, a minority is socially
  disadvantaged
• Stage 3 This is then interpreted as evidence
  that the minority is innately inferior,
  unleashing renewed prejudice and discrimination
• Cycle then repeats itself

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Functions of Prejudice and Discrimination

• Jack Levin argues that they provide benefits for
  dominant group
• 1. Displacement of aggression
• 2. Protection of self-esteem

• 3. Reduction of uncertainty
• 4. Maintenance of occupational status
• 5. Performance of unpleasant jobs
• 6. Maintenance of power

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Methods of Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination

• Persuasive communication
• Examples speeches, sermons, TV commercials

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Education

• Teach units on prejudice and discriminations in
  the schools

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Contact Hypothesis

• Intergroup contact will decrease hostility when
  four conditions are met
• 1. Equal social status
• 2. Sustained close contact
• 3. Intergroup cooperation

• 4. Social norms favoring equality

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Therapy

• Various individual and group therapies might be
  helpful in treating individuals.

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Simulation

• Providing an intense experience of discrimination
  to build empathy
• Example - Jane Elliotts eye color exercise

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Majority and Minority Patterns of Interaction

• Social scientists identify four models
• Pluralism a state in which racial ethnic
  minorities are distinct but have social parity

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Assimilation

• The process by which minorities gradually adopt
  patterns of the dominant category
• Degree of assimilation in the U.S. varies by
  category

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Segregation

• The physical and social separation of categories
  of people
• Social Distance Scale
• It may be voluntary, butit is usually imposed

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Genocide

• The systematic killing of one category of people
  by another
• Example the Holocaust

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Patterns of Interaction in the U.S.

• These four patterns have all been played out in
  the U.S. Can you think of an example of each?

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Application

• First they came for the Jews, but I did not
  speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they
  came for the Communists, and I did not speak out
  because I was not a Communist. Then they came
  for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out
  because I was not trade unionist. Then they came
  for me, and no one was left to speak out for me.
  Pastor Martin Niemoeller, victim of the Nazis
• What is Niemoellers point? Do you agree?