Race and Ethnicity

1
Race and Ethnicity

• Definition and Application

2
The Social Roots of Racism

• Physical markers are used to distinguish groups
  and create inequality based on race.
• Different social conditions among superordinates
  and subordinates create behavioral differences
  between them.

3
The Social Roots of Racism

• Perceptions of behavioral differences get
  embedded in culture as racial stereotypes.
• Racial stereotypes reinforce the use of physical
  markers to distinguish groups.

4
Key Questions

• What constitutes an ethnic group?
•  How do we define, identify and locate an ethnic
  group?
•  What is the significance of ethnicity in
  Canadian society?

5
Ethnic groups

• Ethnic groups can be identified by their cultural
  distinctiveness.
• There is general agreement that culture is the
  principally identifiable characteristic

6
Culture Defined

1. Systems of ideals and ideas,
2. Ways of thinking
3. Plans or recipes for behaving in any group of
   people,
4. Passed down from generation to generation."

7
Minority Status

• Ethnic groups are often referred to as cultural
  minorities.

8
Minority situation

• Integration and Suicide
• Durkhiem, for example, noted that when a group is
  in a minority situation the elements of group
  life become more pronounced. Less chance of
  Suicide

9
Cultural Bonds

• Some common bonds that unify ethnic groups
  include
• Language, religion, folkways and mores, styles of
  dress, foods,occupational specialization, social
  values, aesthetic standards

10
Theodorson and Theodorson1975

• Modern Dictionary of Sociology define ethnicity
  as a group with-
• 1. A common culture
• 2. A sense of identity which exists as a sub-
  group in a larger society.
•   3. Differential of cultural characteristics
  from members of the host society.
•  

11
What is an ethnic identity

• A.     An ethnic group shares a common ancestry
• B.      An ethnic group shares common norms,
  values and traditions (insiders)
• C.      An ethnic group is considered to be a
  group by those who do not share the first two
  elements (outsiders)

12
Heterogenious/Homogenious Contexts

• Ethnicity then becomes more significant in North
  America than Europe. Why?   
• Because in Europe, ethnicity is usually not a
  sub-group of the larger society.

13

• Nation and ethnicity are less differentiated in a
  culturally homogeneous societies.
• Ie. French in France, Italian in Italy 

14
Prejudice

• Prejudice refers to an unsubstantiated negative
  prejudgement of individuals or groups because of
  their ETHNICITY, race or RELIGION

15
Discrimination

• Discrimination is the exclusion of individuals or
  groups from full participation in society because
  of their ethnicity, race or religion
• Prejudice (an attitude) and discrimination
  (behaviour) are usually linked, but they are
  distinct phenomena.

16
Forms of Discrimination in Canada 

• Overt, Structural and Covert

17
1. Blatant or Overt-

•  
• To arbitrarily deny opportunities to members of
  ethnic groups whose qualifications are equal to
  members of the dominant group.

18
2. Structural Discrimination

• The impersonal perhaps unintentional
  operation of the Canadian social system.
• Unequal reward and opportunities

19
 3. Legislative discrimination

• -Phased out after WW2 I.e Internment camps
• Yet until mid 1960's, some of Canadian
  immigration laws were racist.
• E.g. policies regarding aboriginal peoples have
  historically been paternalistic.

20
4. Cultural Discrimination -

• Operates through the expectations of the dominant
  culture and its attempts at conformity in public
  life. 

21
Cultural Discrimination

• Those groups whose attributes (symbols,
  artificates, cultural practices) that deviate
  most markedly from the dominant group are the
  most severely discriminated against

22
Cultural Discrimination

• Ethnic groups that approximate the dominant
  ethno-cultural model in appearance, religion,
  lifestyle symbols etc. the more open and
  accessible are the institutions of society.

23
Myths About Immigrants

• Taking over the country
• Uneducated
• Stealing Jobs
• Uncultured
• Not to be trusted 

24
South/Asians Toronto

• -Immigrants from South/Asia are taking over the
  country.
• -people from Asia -East Indian, Pakistan, China,
  Korea ect. are overrunning the country pretty
  soon there will be no white folk.
•  Xenophobia

25
Xenophobia

• Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of that which is
  foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or
  foreign people.
• The term is typically used to describe a fear or
  dislike of foreigners or of people significantly
  different from oneself.

26
Myths

• -Immigrants are uneducated- NO- immigrants are
  more likely than non-immigrants to have a
  university education.

27
Daniel Bell 1975

• Canada is one and at same time
• Uni-cultural
• Bi-cultural
• Multicultural

28
Canada

• Multidimensional in terms of ethnic patterns
• Uni-cultural-British, Anglo Saxon Dominance 1763
• Bicultural-French and English Charter groups
  1963-1968
• Multicultural-since 1972 Official..

29
Canadian Uniculturalism

• Canada was never a melting pot Anglo Dominance
  combined with racism and nativism.
• Postwar immigration, however, went far to change
  this.

30
BR and Fr. Origins

• Of this population of about 22.4 million, nearly
  one-half (46), or about 10.3 million, reported
  only British Isles, French and/or Canadian ethnic
  or cultural origins.

31
British ancestry.

• The largest proportion - 21 of the total
  population aged 15 years and older - was
  comprised of those of only British ancestry.

32
Other Europeans.

• The next largest proportion of Canada's
  population was comprised of the descendants of
  other Europeans.
• About 4.3 million people, or about one-fifth
  (19) of those aged 15 and over, had only
  European ancestry (other than British and French
  origins).

33
Non-European descent

• People of non-European descent accounted for 13
  of the population aged 15 and over,
  or 2.9 million.

34
Mixed ethnic heritages

• In addition, 22 of the population aged 15 and
  over, or 4.9 million, reported other mixed ethnic
  heritages, or did not know their ethnic ancestry.

35
Canada Ethnic History in Brief

• Contact 1608-1763
• 350,000 Natives vs. 5000 Europeans
• Wilderness, Fur Trade
• Champlain, ie. Penetang
• Some trade, much claiming

36
Pre-ConfederationTwo Solitudes

• Plains of Abraham
• La Survivance
• Upper Canada 55 English and 35 French. Lower
  Canada 85 French 15 English.

37
Post-Confederation/Western Settlement

• 1867-1939
• Anglo-centric Orange Order predominant.
• Influx of Russian, Ukranian, Chinese
• Chinese, Italian, Jewish in urban centers
• prejudice and discrimination

38
Post World War Two

• Restrictions lifted
• More Italian, Jewish, Greek, Northern European
• Italians 731,000, Germans 1.3 million, 385,000
  Scand.
• Diversity in Population/Conformity and
  Assimilation govt policy

39
Establishing the Mosaic

• 1960s
• Introduction of the Points System
• Immigration less Anglo-centric
• Bi Bi Commission, Multicultural Official in
  1972.

40
Refocusing current

• Refocusing the Cultural Mosaic
• Three levels of immigration -points, family
  reunification, refugee status
• Increasing numbers of visible minorities South
  Asia, Caribbean and Asia
• 250,000 immigrants per year

41
Immigration

• Immigration is an important way of attempting to
  understand majority/minority relations in a
  country.

42
Anthony Richmond

• Enhanced by the increasing amount of immigrants
  since WW2 (Richmond,1982)
• Canada has been described as a salad bowl
• Immigrants are working hard to carve out their
  place...
•  

43
Acculturation not assimilation

• .To adjust to Canada's two dominate groups.
  French and English.
• These groups serve as reference groups to many
  immigrant groups.

44
Assimilation and Acculturation

• The two ends of the continuum of what happens to
  ethnic groups are  
• . Assimilation
• 2. Acculturation
• 3 ... Maintenance of group identity and cohesion
  within the larger society. (ethnic ghetto) 

45
Vertical Mosaic

• John Porter (1965) -Uniculturalism
• A controversial thesis-Canadas emphasis on
  cultural pluralism hinders minority groups
• Creates ethnic ghetto cultures restricting
  mobility
• A functionalist thesis

46
Revisionists

• Include Peter S. Li
• Gordon Darroch
• Ethnic communities carve out their own
  occupational avenues for success.
• Canada is primarily a class society-Marxist
  thesis.

47
Subtle discrimination

• Examples of this subtle discrimination included
  being passed over for promotion, assigned
  unpleasant tasks, being stereotyped, and being
  excluded from the "inner circle" of the workplace

48
Evelyn Kallen (1974)

• KALLEN, Evelyn and KELNER, Merrijoy. 1983.
  Ethnicity, Opportunity ..... Toronto Polite
  Racism and Marshmallow Politics, Currents
  Readings in Race ...

49
Polite Racism

• Visible minority men and women still face
  "polite" racism when job hunting.

50
Covert Racism

• Racism is more covert today- US and Canada.
• Focus group participants said that racism is a
  "hidden thing" in the workplace, and many were
  convinced that they had been victims of subtle
  forms of racism.

51
Subtle discrimination

• Examples included
• Passed over for promotion,
• Assigned unpleasant tasks,
• Being stereotyped,
• Being excluded from the "inner circle" of the
  workplace

52
Polite racists.

• They maintain a number of fixed ideas about
  people, usually based on some insufficient or
  erroneous information such as Asians are passive,
  Chinese are bad drivers, Jews are Greedy, Native
  people are lazy.

53
Polite racists. (Kallen, 1974)

• A study conducted in 1978 showed that people are
  16 somewhat racist and 33 percent somewhat
  racist. 51 percent of management in 199 large
  companies (N50) held negative views of people of
  colour. (Henry and Ginsberg, 1978)

54
Trudeau claimed in 1971

• Although there are two official languages,
  there is no official culture."
• Since 1971, 200 million dollars has been spent
  promoting multicultural ideals, social
  integration and racial harmony

55
Trudeau Quote

• "There cannot be one policy for Canadians of
  British origin or French origins, another for
  originals and yet a third for all others. (1971)

56
R.C.B.B. 1963-1969

• The Royal Commission on Bi-lingualism and
  Bi-culturalism revealed the growth of a new
  current in Canada by the other Canadians'.
•  Multicultural Act-an afterthought?

57
(No Transcript)
58
Visible minority men and women still face
"polite" racism when job hunting. One focus group
participant said "I've called about jobs and had
people say 'come down for an interview,' yet when
I get there, I get the feeling they are surprised
to see that I'm black because I sound like the
average guy on the telephone. They've said 'Oh,
the job has just been filled,' or during the
interview they'll say that I'm overqualified or
ask me questions like 'Are you sure you want to
work at this type of job?' Ethnic Origin In
Canada1991

•  
• Ethnic Origin Total Responses Percentage
• Canadian 8,806,275
  30.9
• English 6,832,095
  23.9
• French 5,597,845
  19.6
• Scottish 4,260,840
  14.9
• Irish 4,260, 840
  13.2
• German 2,757,140
  9.7
•  Iitalian 1,207,475
  4.2
•  Aboriginal 1,101,955 3.9
• Ukrainian 1,026,475 3.6
•  Chinese 921,585
  3.2
•  Dutch 916,215
  3.2
•  Polish 786,735
  2.8
•  South Asian 723,345 2.5
• Jewish 351,705
  1.2
•  Jamaican 188,770
  0.7

59
Assimilation vs. Cultural Distinctiveness

• The two ends of the continuum of what happens to
  ethnic groups are
•  
• 1. Assimilation
•  
• 2. Maintenance of group identity and
  cohesion within the
• larger society.
•  
•  

60
The cultural pluralist

• Today we will look at some theoretical concepts
  that relate to the struggle of cultural pluralism
  
• Many immigrants who favour maintenance of their
  own identity have no desire to adopt the
  lifestyle of the host country.
•  

61
Reference Groups-assimilation vs. distinctiveness

• Very often they view the host country in terms of
  expediency and look forward to making money and
  going home.
• With these groups, the reference group is drawn
  from their own ethnic history and not from the
  dominant culture.
• Immigrant groups who favour assimilation, on the
  other hand, look to the host or dominant culture
  as reference groups.

62
Minorities in Transition

• The culture of a minority group in transition is
  referred to as a hybrid culture.
•  
• Containing norms that are traditional as well as
  some values of the dominant culture.

63
Canadian Family

• The Canadian Family in an Urban Setting
•  
• Elkin (1964) suggests that there is not one
  Canadian Family.
• It is too heterogeneous, with its diverse ethnic
  religious and occupational groupings.
•   

64
Italian Family

• In Italy, the family is a source of moral
  authority and community values.
• A person's worth is determined by his/her ability
  to promote the economic prosperity of the family
  and to preserve the chastity of women in the
  family.
•  

65
 Italian Canadians in Toronto

• The first handful arrived in the 1880's and
  1890's settling in the Ward area bounded by Young
  and University college and Queen they lived in
  ramschackled housing. 
• They were often a transient group working for the
  railway or mining in Ontario bush.

66
Formative Stage

• Numbers grew as they formed networks for incoming
  Italians to pass on information about housing,
  and financial aid in case of sickness and death.
• Population-
• The numbers were about 14,000 in 1913.
•  

67
Maintenance Stage

• During the Second World War about 500 were
  rounded up and interned in Toronto. Times were
  very difficult for the Italian community until
  following the war when the "enemy alien"
  designation had been lifted in 1947.
• Throughout the Second World War many Italians
  were inturned and lost their posessions.
•  

68

• In the 1950's the Italian community began to grow
  such that protests by unionists, politicians and
  the general public were made to stem the tide of
  immigration.
•  
• Through the 1960's the Italian community was
  largely responsible for building the
  infra-structure of Toronto.

69

• As a result, the group has moved northward to
  suburbs like North York. The star claims that "
  more recent neighbourhoods of choice in bedroom
  communities like Woodbridge "symbolize a
  collective distancing from there humble
  beginnings".
•  

70
Italians Now Urban

• The majority of Italian Canadians are found in
  urban centres like Toronto and Montreal. The
  small number of works on Italians are
  contradictory.
•  
• On the one hand, Jansen(1971) found that Italian
  immigrants in Toronto were ocupationally,
  residentially and linguistically segregated and
  had minumal contacts beyond their primary groups.
• Similar patterns were reported by Boissevain
  (1976)

71
Socialization

• The contradictions may be partly the product of
  differential socialization practices between
  Italian males and females.
• There "stricter, more protective practices
  towards females."
•  
• It is also reported that first generation
  Italians have unrealistically high expectations
  for their children which often leads to conflict.
   
• Sturino reports that gradually Italians will see
  a blending of old and new family patterns.
•  

72
Familiaria

• "At three levels of kinship of nuclear family,
  family circle, and kindred, elements from a
  peasant past were merged with an urban present.
  The kinship patterns can neither be referred to
  as Canadian nor Italian".
•  
• Sturino sees the emergence of an entirely new
  family form which represents a departure from
  concepts used to describe some other ethnic
  groups like stability and change.

73
Institutional Completeness

• The circumstances for Italians in Montreal have
  been very different from those of the Jewish
  community.
• Large scale immigration for Italians took place
  following WW2.
•  
• Second only to British as a minority in the
  province.
• Despite some institutional completeness there has
  been some question of the cohesiveness of
  Italians in that city.
•  
• Scholars like Clifford Jansen and Bossovian have
  found that Italians are "individualistic members
  of some future Italian community" They are
  unwilling to participate in or contribute
  financially towards community organizations.
•  
•  
• Italians are a distinctive community but they are
  not held together through formal organization.
•  
• Italians focus their ethnicity on kinship,
  neighbourhood, work and residence.
•  
• Because of this focus there is more chance for
  intergroup conflicts among Italians.
•  
• Notably absent from the Italian community are
  voluntary associations aimed at immigrant
  adjustment.
•  
• Just as the Jewish organizational style tends
  towards formal institutions the Italian is
  informal.

74

• Ukrainian Canadians
•  
•  
• Hobart examined attitudes towards family size,
  marital roles, and childbearing among a sample of
  three generations in Edmonton and surrounding
  rural communties.
•  
• The pattern of the first generation closely
  reflects the native country while the third
  generation closely approximates the ideal typical
  English-Canadian family small in size, maternal
  employment, egalitarianism in marital and
  parent/child relationships, values supportive of
  divorce and intermarriage and weak kinship
  orientations.
•  
•  
• However, since concrete data on first generation
  Ukranians is scarce, intergenerational
  comparisons are problematic and speculative.
•  
• Ukrainians-A Third Force
•  
• -Paul Yuzyk in 1964 in his maiden speech to the
  Canadian Senate spoke of the emergence of a third
  force in Canadian society.
•  
• -the third force he was referring to was the
  other minority groups that were emerging in
  Canada.
•  
• -the Royal Commission on Bi-lingualism and
  Bi-culturalism revealed the growth of a new
  current in Canada by the other Canadians'.
•  
• -Canada by the 1960's, was becoming a
  multi-cultural society.

75
Myths

• -Immigrants come over and sap the welfare system.
  NOT. Immigrants are only slightly less likely
  to participate in the labour force 76.4 compared
  to 77.7.
• -However, among young people-able
  bodied-immigrants had a higher labour force
  participation rate at 95.3 compared to 94.8
  among non-immigrants.
•  Immigrant men earn more than non-immigrant men
  although the same is not true for women.
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
• Lecture 5 Canadian Immigration Policy
•  
•  
• Immigration is an important way of attempting to
  understand majority/minority relations in a
  country.
•  
• Herberg distinguishes seven periods in Canadian
  immigration.
•  

76
 Visible minority men and women still face
"polite" racism when job hunting. One focus group
participant said "I've called about jobs and had
people say 'come down for an interview,' yet when
I get there, I get the feeling they are surprised
to see that I'm black because I sound like the
average guy on the telephone. They've said 'Oh,
the job has just been filled,' or during the
interview they'll say that I'm overqualified or
ask me questions like 'Are you sure you want to
work at this type of job?' Ethnic Origin In
Canada1991

•  
• Ethnic Origin Total Responses Percentage
• Canadian 8,806,275
  30.9
• English 6,832,095
  23.9
• French 5,597,845
  19.6
• Scottish 4,260,840
  14.9
• Irish 4,260, 840
  13.2
• German 2,757,140
  9.7
•  Iitalian 1,207,475
  4.2
•  Aboriginal 1,101,955 3.9
• Ukrainian 1,026,475 3.6
•  Chinese 921,585
  3.2
•  Dutch 916,215
  3.2
•  Polish 786,735
  2.8
•  South Asian 723,345 2.5
• Jewish 351,705
  1.2
•  Jamaican 188,770
  0.7