Chapter 10: Race and Ethnicity

1. Chapter 10: Race and Ethnicity

2. Race and Ethnicity • What is race? • A category of people who have been singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis of real or alleged physical characteristics such as: skin color, hair texture, eye shape, or other attributes • Sociologists emphasize that race is a socially constructed reality • In fact, most humans are practically identical (genetically) to each other, so classifying by race is overwhelmingly phonotypical (or only skin deep) • Ethnic groups • An ethnic group is a collection of people distinguished, by others, or by themselves, primarily on the basis of cultural or nationality characteristics • Such as Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, Italian Americans, etc. • They all share five main characteristics • Cultural traits, community sense, ethnocentrism, ascribed membership, and territoriality

3. Dominant and Subordinate Groups Dominant Groups Subordinate Groups • A group that is considered to be advantaged, and has superior rights in a society • In the U.S.; whites with European ancestry (particularly males) • A group whose members are disadvantaged and subjected to unequal treatment by the dominant group • In the U.S.; persons of color, women, and most immigrants • Most members of subordinate groups regard themselves as being subject of collective discrimination

4. Prejudice • A negative attitude based on faulty generalizations about members of selected racial and ethnic groups • Prejudice can be positive or negative • From the Latin “prae-judicium,” meaning “before judgment” • Stereotypes and racism • Stereotypes:Overgeneralizations about the appearance, behaviors, or other characteristics of members of particular categories • i.e. the misunderstandings of Native American culture, portrayed in college and professional mascots • Racism:A set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices that is used to justify the superior treatment of one racial or ethnic group, and the inferior treatment of another racial or ethnic group • Can be overt or subtle (blatant or inferred); overt would be derogatory remarks, subtle would be implying a certain race is “better suited” or “natural” in positions like sports or leadership

5. Frustration-aggression hypothesis • Scapegoat:A person or group that is incapable of offering resistance to the hostility or aggression of others • Often blaming a minority group for societal problems, or a focal point for their frustrations • According to Symbolic-Interactionists; prejudice is a learned behavior • Children growing up do not have a frame of reference for prejudice. Being praised for, or encouraging, certain jokes or remarks reinforces prejudice • Theodor W. Adorno and the authoritarian personality • Prejudiced individuals tend to enforce excessive conformity, submissiveness to authority, intolerance, insecurity, a high level of superstition, and rigid, stereotypic thinking • Social distance • The extent to which people are willing to interact and establish relationships with members of racial and ethnic groups other than their own • Some groups are identified as more desirable among various ethnic groups Keep in mind that a prejudice is an attitude, whereas discrimination is taking action Theories and Measuring of Prejudice

6. Discrimination • Involves actions or practices of dominant-group members (or their representatives) that have a harmful impact on members of a subordinate group • Prejudiced attitudes do not necessarily lead to discriminatory behavior • Genocide is the deliberate systematic killing of an entire people or nation

7. Sociological Perspective on Race • Symbolic-Interactionist • Contact hypothesis • Contact between people from divergent groups should lead to favorable attitudes • Functionalist • Assimilation • A process by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups become “absorbed” into the dominant culture • Can occur at various levels; such as, cultural, structural, biological, and psychological • Conflict • Economic stratification of races and classes, particularly caste and class based discrimination • Others include internal colonialism, split-labor-market theory, and gendered, racial, and social theories • *Critical Race Theory* • Derived from ideas of civil rights leaders • Racism as an ingrained feature of society that affects everyone’s daily life

8. Racial and Ethnic Groups in the U.S.

9. References and Acknowledgements Sociology In Our Times (Seventh Edition) By: Diana Kendall Notes incorporated By: James V. Thomas, NIU Professor (Emeritus) Formatted By: Jacob R. Kalnins, NIU student Pictures Incorporated Clip Art (PowerPoint: 2007) Google Images: Sociology In Our Times