1. Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
Many of the broad statements that I’ve made about gender inequality also apply to issues of race and ethnicity—power, privilege and property have been, and continue to be, distributed unequally.
Also, the racial and ethnic categories in which we put so much stock are—like gender—the products of cultural meanings, not biology or even geography.
Before getting into the topic of race and ethnicity,I think it’s important to remind you that much but not all work done in this subfield of sociology remains under the broader heading of social stratification. In other words, for many sociologists, the study of race (especially) is primarily the study of unequal access to power, prestige, and property based on racial groupings.
Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race

2. “What are you?”
As we begin to talk about ethnicity and race, one thing that is increasingly clear is that, at least to some degree, most of us are actually a mix. This chapter begins by sharing anecdotes about students at the University of Maryland who openly address this issue—specifically as regards race—as members of the Multiracial and Biracial Student Association. This group embraces the multiple backgrounds of its members, and seeks to increase awareness of the reality that “race” is not nearly as clear-cut as we typically assume. Members also find strength in this group that takes pride in acknowledging where they come from.

3. The big issues Understanding what we mean by ethnicity and race
The importance of historical context
Trends in global migration
Being “ethnic” (nonwhite) in the U.S.
How ethnicity and race affect everyone
There are many important issues we could cover in terms of ethnicity and race, but for starters, I’ll focus on these:
We need to really know what we mean when we use the words race and ethnicity.The two are certainly connected in many ways, but they are not one and the same.
We need to put current issues revolving around race and ethnicity into their historical context. There is no way to get a full picture of what is happening today without knowing what came before.
I will introduce you to some of the most important trends in global migration: What is changing? What remains the same? Who is going where?
Once we have a sense of these underlying issues, I will talk about what it means to be “ethnic” in the United States today. Mostly this term is used (incorrectly) to refer to those who are not white, and it is in this vein that I will pursue “ethnicity.”
And finally, we need to recognize that whether we are white, black, Latino, Asian, some combination, or something different, the way our society handles—or doesn’t handle—ethnicity and race affects us all.

4. Race and ethnicity are complicated
Is the child of a biracial couple (black and white) black or white? Mixed?
Is Judaism a religion or an ethnicity? Both?
Race and ethnicity are terms used every day but rarely explored.
What are race and ethnicity? What is the relationship between the two? What do we call someone who has parents of different races or ethnicities? What groups count as ethnic groups, as opposed to something different?
[Give students time to discuss.]
The words race and ethnicity are part of everyday language, but they are often used without much precision. What I want to do to get us started is to clarify just what sociologists mean when they discuss race and ethnicity. 4

5. Defining ethnicity
Ethnicity refers to the distinct cultural norms and values of a social group.
Characteristics of ethnic groups include (to varying degrees):
Shared history
Religion and culture
Kin or ancestry
Sense of shared destiny
Language
We’ll start with ethnicity. The word ethnicity comes from the Greek ethnos, which means nation. This term was meant to refer to those with a common national ancestry and culture. The term ethnicity itself is relatively new—dating to middle of the twentieth century—and has a somewhat looser definition, but it certainly rests on the original Greek. Ethnic groups are those that share a set of distinctive norms and values, and ethnicity is the word we use to describe those groups.
What are the main characteristics of ethnic groups? [derived from Anthony Smith’s The Ethnic Origins of Nations]
– Shared history
– Shared religion and culture
– Common kin or ancestry (real or imagined)
– Sense of shared future or destiny
– Common language
Sometimes a connection to a shared homeland (usually not the place where the group currently resides) is also considered one of these characteristics.
It is important to recognize that different groups concern themselves more or less with each of these aspects of ethnicity. 5

6. Ethnic options
Recent research: because of intergroup marriage, for many whites living in the United States, ethnicity has become a choice.
For many, ethnicity is largely opted out of altogether.
For nonwhites, opting out of ethnicity is not a choice.
What this implies, and correctly so, is that not all ethnic groups are structured in some precise, formulaic way. For some groups, religion and culture are the most significant tie; for others, it is a shared history of triumph or tragedy; for others still, it is a shared language that unites people in the face of some other group. Another way of thinking about this is to say that there are ethnic groups based largely on religion, on race, on nationality, on language, or even on shared interests.
In the United States, one thing that has happened in the face of our ongoing national conversation about diversity is that we often see ethnicity as only being a factor for nonwhites. Sure, some of us claim Irish or Jewish or German or Italian ancestry, but by and large, we treat ethnicity as something reserved for racial minorities. One result of this is that for whites, ethnicity has become, according to the sociologist Mary Waters, optional. That simply means that whites have the choice to pick up ethnicity when it suits them: for holidays, parades, or for much more meaningful associations. We do not see the ethnicity of the dominant group, only of the nondominant ones.
For nonwhites, whose racial identity is worn on their skin, among other places, there is no choice: they are categorized as having a particular racial and ethnic identity, whether they care to adopt it or not. Ethnicity is, in these cases, too frequently used as a tool of discrimination or power wielding.

7. Defining race
Race refers to an externally imposed system of social categorization and stratification.
No true biological races exist; rather, human groups must be placed on a continuum.
Typically, race refers to some set of physical characteristics granted importance by a society.
Race is socially constructed.
I’ve suggested that, in certain cases, race is a special case of ethnicity. I believe that is correct, but for now, I also want to talk about race on its own terms.
What is race? Race is a form of social categorization, imposed by those with power, based on some physical characteristic that is given meaning by a society. Characteristics like skin color, eye shape, thrust of the jaw, and hair color have all been used to categorize those of certain “racial” groups. In reality, there are no biological races. There is as much variation within so-called racial groups as between them, which tells us that human groups exist on a continuum, not in three or four distinct racial categories. Race, then, is socially constructed.
It is imperative to point out here that these categories are not harmless. Rather, racial categories are defined by those with the power to organize societies and are used to construct often rigid systems of stratification. Think about the slave South in the United States, about apartheid in South Africa, or about racial discrimination, which continues in the world’s most developed societies even today. 7

8. Racialization
The actual imposition of some racial schema on society is called racialization.
The process involves both formal and informal inequities, including segregated schools and businesses, along with differentiated rights.
These inequalities shape the lives of all those in the racialized society.
Racialization is the term we use to describe the process of imposing a racial system on a society. This happens through both formal and informal channels.
The formal paths to racialization include passing laws and enacting social policies that differentiate rights and responsibilities based on race. Can you think of some of these? Possible answers include limiting access to stores, seating, and other public spaces; writing anti-miscegenation laws; formal exclusionary policies from social groups, and so on.
Informal paths include social prejudice and discrimination via exclusion, violence, and the threat of violence. Can you think of other informal ways racialization is carried out?
As you can see, racialization affects the lives of everyone living in the society. For some it means unearned rights and privileges, and for others, undeserved hardship and difficulty, and even danger.

9. Racism
Racism is a form of prejudice and/or discrimination based on physical differences.
There are many layers of racism
Individual consciousness and behavior
Ideologies of supremacy
Institutional racism
Another way of thinking about the effects of racialization is to consider racism. We all have a sense of what racism is, but again, it’s important to map it out as clearly as possible.
Racism is a multi-layered phenomenon. There is active racism, which involves acts of discrimination, whereby people are disadvantaged directly as a result of their race by individuals or groups. There are ideologies of supremacy in which members of one racial or ethnic group order their lives in part with the assumption that their group is simply better—superior—to others. This could lead to active racism, or it could simply reside in the consciousness of individuals. Finally, there is institutional racism, which is particularly difficult to identify and remedy. This is a kind of racism that exists in the very structure of society, the assumptions built into corporate and legal policies, and the ways that groups interact. Institutional racism is often less the result of overt, individual racism than an acceptance of the system of racial stratification already in place and of the status quo.

10. Concepts related to racism
Prejudice
Discrimination
Stereotypes
Scapegoats
Minority groups
In defining racism I’ve used a few terms that need to be better defined. Let me start with prejudice and discrimination. Does anyone know the difference between these two terms? Prejudice is holding preconceived ideas about people (individuals or groups) based on some characteristic; it may be positive or negative. Discrimination is actually acting on those ideas in a negative way, such that it disadvantages members of the group. It is possible to be prejudiced but not discriminate, and vice versa. Someone who does both is what we would likely call a racist.
Stereotypes are sets of ideas that we believe describe some category of people. These are usually fairly rigid and difficult to change. Scapegoats are groups of people that are blamed for problems. Can you think of any examples of either of these contexts? Think, for example, about the Salem witch trials as an example of scapegoating. Or think of the academic success of Asian students as an example of stereotyping.
Finally, let’s define minority groups. Sociologically, when we use the term minority group we are referring to power, not just numbers. In other words, all groups (racial, ethnic, religious, etc.) other than the dominant group (again, think power) are minority groups.

11. Colonialism and racism
We must consider history when working to understand racism today.
Modern racism goes back to the history of the European colonization of much of the world.
The colonizers had strongly ethnocentric attitudes of racial supremacy.
Now that you have a better sense of what race and ethnicity are, along with some of the related vocabulary and processes, let’s move on to a bit of history. How did we get where we are regarding race, racialization, and ethnic conflict?
To understand racism today, we have to go back at least as far as the colonial era. Beginning in the fifteenth century, the European powers—at that time England, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France—set out to acquire all the world had to offer. They did this by colonizing much of the globe: the Americas, much of Asia, South Africa, North Africa, Australia As they settled in these places in an effort to bring glory and riches to their home countries, a relationship of racism and drastic inequality developed. The colonizers had strongly ethnocentric attitudes of racial superiority, sometimes based on quasi-scientific racism, that allowed them to dehumanize and exploit the natives. 11

12. Colonialism and racism
Those ideologies of racial superiority led to a sometimes paternalistic form of racism, linked to developing scientific racism.
Long-standing cultural narratives of white and black—good or purity and evil or impurity—combined with scientific racism helped to deepen and then perpetuate racialization.
Undergirding this pragmatic, exploitative relationship were cultural narratives defining white as pure and good and black (or dark) as evil and bad. Such stories, deeply held and supported by romanticism and scientific racism, helped perpetuate racialization in the colonies. The natives were evil and/or subhuman and needed the strong hand of the colonizers to see the light and to live correctly. It was this guise of helping the natives that is referred to as paternalism.
As you might guess, and in fact, as you know at least from American history, the natives were less than appreciative.

13. Models of ethnic coexistence in the United States
Assimilation
Melting pot
Multiculturalism
Segregation
Problems: both segregation and aggressive assimilation have led to ethnic conflict
But not every situation of ethnic/racial coexistence has to be so harsh and unlivable as the colonies once were. In fact, with the colonies now nation-states themselves, they too must figure out how to deal with diversity. What I’m going to do now is quickly go over four modern models of ethnic coexistence that have been or are being tried somewhere in the world. I’ll talk about them in the context of the United States.
Broadly speaking, assimilation is a model of coexistence that requires those outside the dominant group to conform to dominant group norms and leave their own group’s culture and practices behind. The melting pot is a model that claims that everyone will continue to change as more and more groups are brought into the mix. Multiculturalism, based in large part on earlier models of cultural pluralism, seeks a society in which all groups are respected and maintained within a unified political and economic framework. Finally, there is segregation, which is, of course, antithetical to coexistence, but has been tried and re-tried in strongly racialized societies.
The first three of these approaches have pros and cons, which we can certainly discuss. The big problems can come from overly aggressive versions of assimilation—wherein minority groups feel coerced rather than invited in—and from segregation. Both of these possibilities have led to horrible periods in world history.

14. Studying migration Trends in global migration today: Global diasporas
Acceleration
Diversification
Globalization
Feminization
Transnationalism
Global diasporas
Part of what leads to ethnic diversity is, of course, global migration. Let’s spend a few minutes, then, thinking about the major trends in migration today, which have shifted dramatically in more recent years.
First off, there is more migration now than ever before. Second, immigration flows have diversified such that countries now receive immigrants from more countries than used to be the case. Third, people now enter and leave more countries than in earlier times. Not everyone is headed to the same one or two countries, and ease of movement has opened the door to more globalized migration. Fourth, women now make up a larger proportion of migrants, as they have become an increasingly important component of labor markets. Unfortunately this includes their often-forced participation in global sex trafficking. Finally, there is the shift toward transnationalism, wherein migration flows are not entirely permanent; people, money, and communication allow people to be in more than one place and have a less rigid, more flexible sense of home.
Another ongoing topic in the study of migration is that of global diasporas. Diasporas are cases where some ethnic group has been forced to vacate its homeland and its members have scattered around the world. Even so, they have maintained some sense of group identity and feel connected to others, even those who live very far away. The two most frequently discussed diasporas have been the African Diaspora and the Jewish Diaspora.

15. Global migration since 1973
Here you get a good glimpse of migration patterns over the past 40 years.

16. Racial Ethnic Populations in the U.S.
Infographic exercises:
What percentage of the U.S. population consists of racial and ethnic minorities (i.e., nonwhite, non-Hispanic)?
How many people classify themselves by two or more races?
How many people do not choose to classify themselves using the racial/ethnic categories traditionally provided?
Which racial/ethnic group makes up only 4.3 percent of the population?
Which racial/ethnic group(s) include more than 15 million people?
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census 2011f.
Note: This map is not geographically representative of population distribution. 16

17. Racial Ethnic Populations in the U.S.
63.7%
WHITE
(NON-HISPANIC)
196,817,552 people
16.3%
HISPANIC OR LATINO
50,477,594 people
12.6%
AFRICAN AMERICAN
38,929,319 people
4.8%
ASIAN
14,674,252 people
2.9%
TWO OR MORE RACES
9,009,073 people
0.9%
AMERICAN INDIAN
AND ALASKA NATIVE
2,932,248 people
0.2%
NATIVE HAWAIIAN AND OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDER
540,013 people
0.2%
SOME OTHER RACE
676,733 people
Note: This map is not geographically representative of population distribution.
SOURCE: U.S Bureau of the Census 2011. 17

18. Race in U.S. history—Slavery
From early colonization on, racialization has been part of the story of the United States.
Africans were brought as slaves in huge numbers: nearly 4 million by 1780.
Their responses to slavery varied from rebellion to passivity to cultural development to hostility.
With abolition, life for former slaves did not change quickly or evenly.
As you are well aware, race has been, and continues to be a significant part of the American story. In the earliest days of what is now the United States, African slaves were brought here in huge numbers—nearly 4 million by It was, especially in the southern colonies, and then states, their hard work that supported the growth of the plantation economy. Slaves were separated from their families, sold at open markets, and forced to live and work for owners who thought of them as less than (or at least less) human.
This situation provoked a variety of responses among slaves, including outright rebellion and hostility, to passivity, to development of a uniquely African American culture, and occasionally, however counterintuitively, to close ties with owners.
After the Civil War, which was fought primarily for economic and political reasons, most blacks expected abolition to utterly change the social structure. While it did in certain ways, the changes were uneven, slow, and in other ways, lacking altogether. Many rights that we take for granted today—like voting, equal opportunity, and equal education—were denied to former slaves, and to all blacks living in the United States, for many years to come.

19. Race in U.S. history—Immigration
1820–1920: over 30 million immigrants came to the United States voluntarily, mostly from Europe
Not all European groups were equally welcomed, nor were Asian immigrants.
In 1924 the National Origins Act was passed, restricting immigration.
In 1965 that law was rescinded and today’s immigration patterns began.
Immigration has also been, and continues to be, a significant part of the American story. Slaves, of course, are different from immigrants as they did not come to this country voluntarily. But immigrants who did choose to come here, seeking opportunities, freedom, and prosperity, often faced the experience of racism, too.
Before 1880, most immigrants were from Northern and Western Europe, and mostly from the colonial powers. The biggest exception here was the large flow of Irish immigrants in the middle of the nineteenth century. After 1880, immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to arrive, and this was none too pleasing to those already here. The Irish, the Slavs, the Greeks, the Italians, Eastern European Jews, the Poles—all of these groups were racialized and seen as inferior to the largely Protestant establishment.
It was late in the nineteenth century that the United States also saw a significant influx of, first, Chinese, and then Japanese, immigrants. These groups came mainly to work as cheap labor out West, and they too were treated with blatant prejudice and hatred.
It was, in fact, the very high numbers of these less-than-welcome immigrants just after the turn of the century that led to a highly charged campaign to restrict immigration. This campaign succeeded in 1924 but was reversed more than forty years later, in 1965.

20. Race in U.S. history—Civil rights
Until the 1960s, African Americans had few legal rights or protections.
1954: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
1950s: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr.
1964: President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law
There remains some question about the success of the civil rights movement.
Beginning in the 1950s and culminating with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the United States waded through a very difficult period of coming to terms—or for some, not coming to terms—with the combination of a racially and ethnically diverse population, laws that discriminated against many groups, a Constitution that required equal protection, and a powerful white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture that resisted change.
Two national organizations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League, began working toward black civil rights earlier in the century, but the real turning point came with the famous case in 1954 of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. That was the case that gave us a hallmark phrase still pointed to today, that separate social institutions, in this case schools, are “inherently unequal.”
The 1950s also brought us such important civil rights figures as Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks. Over time, through boycotts, sit-ins, and marches, including the well-known 1963 March on Washington, civil rights began to make headway. Though there were many Americans at that time who strongly resisted (and some who still do today), Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which legislated against school segregation and discriminatory voting requirements, among other issues.
There are those who wonder how successful that period, and that law, have been in promoting racial equality. Surely we continue to have an unequal society, but significant changes have also come to pass. Barack Obama’s presidency illustrates those changes, but it does not mean that racism is gone or that the need to continually examine where we are in terms of equality has passed.

21. Latinos in the United States
Latinos, or Hispanics, are not a single, unified group aside from their shared language.
The three main groups in the United States all have very different histories:
Mexican Americans
Puerto Ricans
Cuban Americans
The studying of Latinos in the United States is an incredibly broad field. Why is this so? In large part it is because we are talking about people from Mexico, seven Central American countries, twelve South American countries, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Spain. In reality, the primary unifying point for those we often call Hispanic—which literally means those from Spain or with a relationship to Spain—is the use of the Spanish language. The idea that people with roots in any of these twenty-four places are part of one, single ethnic group remains somewhat controversial. There are those who favor it for reasons of creating a large, strong group of people with shared interests and related cultures. There are those who oppose it because it seemingly wipes out the distinctions that exist between the many groups. Time will tell how much Latinos become a unified bloc and whether they come to truly constitute a meaningful ethnicity.
The three largest groups of Latinos here in the United States are Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans. 21

22. Latinos in the United States
Today there are increasing numbers of Central American immigrants.
Latinos now make up a larger percentage of the population than African Americans, with approximately 15 percent versus 12 percent (as of 2008).
In recent years there have been increasingly large numbers of immigrants from Central America as well. Also, Latino populations are more spread out. It used to be that they were relatively confined to the Southwest and to California and Florida, but today, states like North Carolina and Illinois also have large and growing Hispanic populations.
The growth of the Latino population in the United States is most readily seen in the census data that shows that they now outnumber African Americans as a percentage of the total U.S. population. 22

23. Asians in the United States
Like Latinos, Asians do not comprise a single group of people.
The largest groups in the United States include Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos, though there are sizeable populations of other groups.
According to recent data, Asians now make up the largest share of recent immigrants to the U.S. (Pew 2012)
As with Latinos, there has been something of a tendency to lump together all those from Asian countries into one large group that we simply call “Asian.” Like Latinos, this misses the reality of a group of people coming from some more than 15 countries and with different cultures, languages, and reasons for being here.
The largest Asian groups in the United States are Chinese, Filipinos, Asian Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. 23

24. Asians in the United States
Asians have a history of extreme discrimination in U.S. history.
Even so, as a group they have done very well and are now often referred to as a “model minority.”
Asians currently make up about 4 percent of the U.S. population.
As I’ve already mentioned, many Asians have experienced a great deal of discrimination in American history. The two best-known examples are the dreadful treatment of Chinese workers in the mining and railroad industries at the end of the nineteenth century and the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Discrimination against Asian Americans certainly still exists, but in large part they are a minority group that has been, in general, quite successful. In a moment we will look at some education and income data that will be more precise, but for now suffice it to say that as a group, Asians outperform even whites in many categories we tend to think of as very important. This has led to their sometimes loved, sometimes loathed, moniker as a “model minority.” 24

25. Seeing racial and ethnic inequality
To say that a society is racialized is to say that it has a racial system of stratification.
The United States is a racially stratified society, and we can see this in many places:
Educational attainment
Income
Residence
Wealth
After all of this talk about race, ethnicity, racialization, and history, it will be helpful to see what this actually looks like—which is a great deal of inequality. We can see this in many categories, including wealth, place of residence, education, occupation, and income.
There are also more subtle indicators of inequality having to do with how people perceive their group’s status in society, whether they see racism as a continuing problem, and whether they believe their interests are taken into account by elected officials.
We can see inequality in the kind of everyday racial profiling that, while illegal, happens with police officers, teachers, airport guards, store clerks. We can see it in the unequal distribution of privilege.
But let’s go ahead and look at some data that will make some of this situation clearer. 25

26. Figure 10.2A High School Graduation Rates by Race and Ethnicity, 2008.
Looking at this slide and the two that follow, you can see variation in high school graduation rates, college graduation rates, and median household income. As we discussed when thinking about stratification more broadly, education is the key to getting ahead in American society, so when we can identify clear differences between groups in terms of educational attainment, we know that that will translate into other kinds of inequities throughout people’s lives.
Figure 10.2A High School Graduation Rates
by Race and Ethnicity, 2008.
© 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.

27. Figure 10.2B High School Graduation Rates by Race and Ethnicity, 2008.
© 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.

28. Figure 10.3 Median Household Income by Race, 1980– 2008.
© 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.

29. 2008 recession and beyond
The impact of the recent recession has not hit all racial groups equally.
This is most obvious in unemployment rates, which are far higher for blacks and Latinos than for whites.
The recent recession has certainly led to difficulties for Americans of all walks of life, but not in equal measure. Job loss has been especially catastrophic for young men of color, as unemployment rates show clearly (go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to pull most recent figures). Those with less education—remember the graphs we just discussed—have been far more likely to be hit in this recession, meaning blacks and Latinos have been hit disproportionately hard.

30. Seeing inequality We can also see racial inequality in:
Political representation
Residential segregation
Criminal justice system
Health and wellness
Those, of course, aren’t the only places were we can actively see racial inequality. Let’s think for a moment about four more locations:
First, consider political representation. Yes, we now have a black president, but that does not make the disproportional representation of minorities across the political spectrum vanish either literally or in importance. African Americans, for example, make up 12 percent of the population but only 2 percent of elected officials. Elected officials have a great deal of power, so this tells us that African Americans have only a limited voice in terms of political power. There are, for example, currently no black members of the U.S. Senate.
Second, we can think about what’s called residential segregation. We know that there are ongoing structures of residential segregation that keep us living separately and, per our own Supreme Court, this means unequally. Some of this is by choice, but some happens through the process of steering and other nefarious real estate and mortgage practices. Some happens through what is known as “white flight.” Do you know what white flight is?
Other locations for inequality include our criminal justice system and our basic, physical health. Let me just say that minority groups, especially those living disproportionately in poverty, do not fare well in either case. Your textbook deals with both issues. 30

31. Getting ahead Over time, white ethnics have integrated well.
Asian Americans have also done quite well when looked at as a whole.
Cubans have done very well overall.
African Americans, Native Americans, and Puerto Ricans have not fared as well.
So what kinds of changes have occurred? Certainly white ethnics—those reviled Southern and Eastern Europeans who arrived at the turn of the twentieth century—have been very successful. Asian Americans have also done very well as a whole, though there are a few smaller groups, for example the Hmong and the Hmien, who are more recent immigrants and who continue to struggle. Cubans have been by far the most successful of the Latino groups here in the United States, becoming quite powerful and influential in South Florida, where they mostly reside.
African Americans, Native Americans, and Puerto Ricans,have not had nearly as much success. Getting ahead continues to elude members of these groups as a whole. That certainly does not mean no African Americans are doing well; again, look at our president. But data still shows significant gaps between these groups and others, and the question is, why? 31

32. Why are there such significant gaps?
There are a variety of factors that help explain why some groups find more success than others.
Voluntary immigration versus forced minority status
Type and degree of discrimination faced
Ability to blend into the “mainstream”
Affinity of group culture to U.S. culture and values
There are as many explanations as students in this room, but let’s focus on a few of the factors that social scientists have isolated as among the most important in explaining who gets ahead and who does not.
Groups that do well are typically those who came to this country voluntarily. Groups that struggle were either brought here against their will or were incorporated (as in the case of Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans) into the United States as a group. Why might this lead to different outcomes?
The type and degree of discrimination faced by groups also seems to have something to do with a group’s ability to succeed here. Slavery of African Americans is the most obvious example. No other group has faced anything comparable. There are exceptions, of course. The Chinese and Japanese faced terrible racism and have indeed climbed the ladder, but they have had other factors work in their favor.
Groups that could blend in have certainly had a certain kind of advantage. Jews from Eastern Europe certainly stood out on arrival, with strange accents and customs. But in time, as their children went to public schools, as Reform Judaism became the largest denomination, and as assimilation took place, their ability to literally look like everyone else—the fact that they were white—was very helpful to them.
Finally, but no less significantly, coming from a culture with similar values to “American culture” has really helped certain groups. Having a strong educational or work ethic matches up very nicely with the very American “Protestant work ethic.” Such an affinity certainly plays a role, for example, in the success of Asians and Jews. 32

33. Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
There is so much more that could be said, but that completes our material on this chapter. Next we will move on to discuss something all of us have: families.

34. Clicker Questions
1. What is ethnicity? a. the physical manifestation of racial difference b. any biologically grounded features of a group of people c. any group outside the white, English-speaking majority d. the cultural practices and outlooks of a given community that have emerged historically and tend to set people apart
Answer: d
Feedback: What Are Race and Ethnicity? p Ethnicity refers to cultural practices and outlooks of a given community that have emerged historically and tend to set people apart. Members of ethnic groups see themselves as culturally distinct from other groups in a society and are seen by those other groups to be so in return. 34

35. Clicker Questions
2. Racism that is embedded in the very structure and operation of society is called a. structural racism. b. institutional racism. c. formal racism. d. modern racism.
Answer: b
What Are Race and Ethnicity?, p The idea of institutional racism suggests that racism pervades all of society’s structures in a systematic manner. According to this view, institutions such as the police, the health-care industry, and the educational system all promote policies that favor certain groups while discriminating against others.

36. Clicker Questions
3. Which of the following is a characteristic of minority groups? a. The members speak English as a second language. b. The members have no sense of group solidarity. c. The members find themselves in a position of inequality within a society. d. The members tend to live and work in mostly white neighborhoods.
Answer: c
Feedback: What Are Race and Ethnicity? p A minority group is a group of people who are in a minority in a given society and who, because of their distinct physical or cultural characteristics, find themselves in situations of inequality within that society. Members of a minority group are disadvantaged as compared with members of the dominant group (a group possessing more wealth, power, and prestige) and have some sense of group solidarity, of belonging together.

37. Clicker Questions
4. What is the difference between the assimilation and melting pot models of integrating new ethnic groups into the dominant society? a. The assimilation model refers to the new group adopting the norms and values of the dominant society; the melting pot model refers to the merging and blending of dominant and ethnic cultures. b. The assimilation model refers to members of the new group becoming citizens of the host nation; the melting pot model refers to members of the new group remaining guest workers and having only the legal rights afforded to those on work visas. c. The assimilation model refers to members of the new group learning the language of the host nation and dispersing to the suburbs; the melting pot model refers to members of the new group sticking to their own language and becoming concentrated in particular urban neighborhoods.
Answer: a
Feedback: How Do Ethnic Groups Coexist and Compete? p For many years, the two most common positive models of political ethnic harmony in the United States were those of assimilation and the melting pot. Assimilation meant that new immigrant groups would assume the attitudes and language of the dominant white community. The idea of the melting pot was different—it meant merging different cultures and outlooks by stirring them all together.

38. Clicker Questions
5. The planned destruction of a particular group, on the grounds of group members’ ethnicity, religion, culture, or political views is called a. genocide. b. a hate crime. c. assimilation. d. segregation.
Answer: a
Feedback: How Do Ethnic Groups Coexist and Compete? p The most extreme and devastating form of group relations in human history involves genocide, the systematic, planned destruction of a particular group, on the grounds of group members’ ethnicity, religion, culture, or political views.

39. Clicker Questions
6. The process by which a society’s understandings of race are used to classify individuals or groups of people is called a. racialism. b. racism. c. racialization. d. racial identification.
Answer: c
Feedback: What Are Race and Ethnicity? p Racialization is the process by which understandings of race are used to classify individuals or groups of people. Racial distinctions are more than ways of describing human differences; they are also important factors in the reproduction of patterns of power and inequality.

40. Clicker Questions
7. How does the experience of blacks in American cities compare with that of other minority groups? a. Blacks have more political representation but less economic wealth. b. Segregation and poverty have not been reduced in the way they have been for other groups. c. Blacks have more wealth and more likely to live in the suburbs than other immigrant groups. d. Blacks have been much less involved in the public sector than immigrant groups, but they have more wealth than other immigrant groups.
Answer: b
Feedback: How Do Ethnic Minorities Experience Life in the United States? p African Americans have not become assimilated into the wider society in the way in which the successive groups of white immigrants were. They have, for the most part, been unable to break free from the conditions of neighborhood segregation and poverty that other immigrants faced on arrival.