RACE, POWER & PRIVILEGE Sociology 1301: Introduction to Sociology Week Thirteen

Race  Race: A social construct that artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as:  Physical Appearance  Ancestral Heritage  Cultural Affiliation or History  Ethnic Classification  The social, economic, and political needs of a society at a given period of time.

Race is…  Externally Imposed  Involuntary  Hierarchal  Exclusive  Unequal

Ethnicity  Ethnicity: A social construct that divides people into social groups based on characteristics such as:  Shared Sense of Group Membership  Values  Behavioral Patterns  Language  Political and Economic Interests  History  Ancestral Geographical Location.

Ethnicity is…  Voluntary  Self-Defined  Nonhierarchal  Fluid and Multiple  Cultural  Planar

Race & Ethnicity are Socially Constructed  Racial and Ethnic Identity: An individual’s awareness and experience of being a member of a racial and ethnic group.  Racial Formation: The process by which social, economic, and political forces interact to determine the content and importance of racial categories, and are in turn shaped by racial meanings.  So what is “the Myth of Race?”

History of Race  Mid 17 th -Century: Biblical in Nature  Justified Colonialism  Genesis 9: And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

History of Race  18 th & 19 th -Century: Scientific Racism  Classifications w/ Rampant Ethnocentrism  Social Darwinism  Monogenists vs. Polygenists  Justified Nativism

History of Race  20 th -Century: Social  The differences between the races is more about social circumstances  Still includes racist ideals

History of Race  20 th -Century: Social  The differences between the races is more about social circumstances  Still includes racist ideals

Prejudice vs. Discrimination  Prejudice: negative thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group.  Discrimination: harmful or negative acts (not mere thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category without regard to their individual merit.

Racism  Racism: A system of advantage based on race and supported by institutional structures, policies and practices that create and sustain advantages for the dominant white group while systematically subordinating members of targeted racial groups.  Based on 3 basic tenants: Humans are divided into distinct bloodlines and/or physical types These bloodlines or physical traits are linked to distinct cultures, behaviors, personalities, and intellectual abilities Certain groups are superior to others

Types of Racism  Individual Racism  Institutional  Active Racism  Passive Racism  Collusion  Internalized Racism  Horizontal Racism

Majority/Minority Group Relations  Assimilation  Pluralism  Segregation  Racial Conflict

Stages of Assimilation

Responses to Domination  Withdrawal  Passing/Blending In  Acceptance  Resistance

White Privilege "As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege which puts me at an advantage." (McIntosh, 1988, ¶2)

White Privilege is…  An invisible package of unearned assets which individuals can count on cashing in each day, but about which they are 'meant' to remain oblivious.  The concrete benefits of access to resources and social rewards and the power to shape the norms and values of society that Whites receive, tacitly or explicitly, by virtue of their position in a racist society.  Not feeling the weight of representing an entire population with one's successes or failures. It's about not having to think about race much at all.

White Privilege in Action  If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area, which I can afford and in which I would want to live.  I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.  When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

White Privilege in Action  I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my race will not work against me.  I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.

Works Cited  Adams, M., Bell, L.A., Griffin, P. (Eds.) (2007). Teaching for diversity and social justice (2 nd Ed.). NY: Routledge.  Conley, D. (2008). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.  Hartmann D. & Cornell S.E. (1998). Ethnicity and race: Making identities in a changing world. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  Jackson, B. & Hardiman, R. (1997) Conceptual foundations for social justice education. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook (pp ). New York: Routledge.  Massey, G. (Ed.) (2006). Readings for sociology (5 th Ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.  McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Excerpted in Working Paper 189, White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies, Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Center for Research on Women.  Omi M. & Winant H. (1986/1989). Racial formation in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge.