Chapter 9 Race and Ethnicity

Laying the Sociological Foundation Race is a reality in the sense that humans do come in different colors and shapes However, two of the myths regarding race are that one race is superior to another and that a pure race exists These myths make a difference in social life because people believe they are real and act on their beliefs Race and ethnicity are often confused due to the cultural differences people see and the way they define race Ethnicity refers to cultural characteristics that distinguish a people © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laying the Sociological Foundation Minority groups are people singled out for unequal treatment They regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination The shared characteristics of minorities worldwide are: Physical or cultural traits that distinguish them are held in low esteem by the dominant group, which treats them unequally They tend to marry within their own group They tend to feel strong group solidarity © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laying the Sociological Foundation Minority groups are not necessarily in the numerical minority Dominant Group Those who do the discriminating They have greater power, more privileges, and higher social status The dominant group attributes its privileged position to its superiority, not to discrimination A group becomes a minority through the expansion of political boundaries by another group Another way for a group to become a minority, either voluntarily or involuntarily, is by migration into a territory © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laying the Sociological Foundation Individuals vary considerably in terms of how they construct their racial-ethnic identity Some people feel an intense sense of ethnic identity, while others feel very little Ethnic identity is influenced by the relative size and power of the ethnic group, its appearance, and the level of discrimination aimed at the group If a group is relatively small, has little power, has a distinctive appearance, and is an object of discrimination, its members will have a heightened sense of ethnic identity © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laying the Sociological Foundation Ethnic work Refers to how people construct their ethnic identity and includes enhancing and maintaining a group’s distinctiveness or attempting to recover their ethnic heritage The idea of the U.S. as a melting pot? Different groups quietly blending together into an ethnic stew, is undermined by the fact that many people today are engaged in ethnic work A better metaphor would be “tossed salad” © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.1: A Sense of Ethnicity

Laying the Sociological Foundation Prejudice and discrimination are common throughout the world Discrimination Unfair treatment directed toward someone When based on race, it is known as racism It can also be based on features such as age, sex, sexual preference, religion, or politics Prejudice Prejudging of some sort, usually in a negative way © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laying the Sociological Foundation Ethnocentrism Using one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies Is so common that each racial/ethnic group views other groups as inferior in some way Studies confirm that there is less prejudice among the more educated and among younger people © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laying the Sociological Foundation Sociologists distinguish between individual and institutional discrimination: Individual discrimination is negative treatment of one person by another Too limited a perspective because it focuses only on individual treatment Institutional discrimination is negative treatment of a minority group that is built into a society’s institutions Focuses on human behavior at the group level Examples include certain mortgage lending practices and health care availability © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Buying a House: Institutional Discrimination and Predatory Lending © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theories of Prejudice Psychological Perspectives: According to John Dollard, prejudice results from frustration: people unable to strike out at the real source of their frustration find scapegoats to unfairly blame According to Theodor Adorno, highly prejudiced people are characterized by excess conformity, intolerance, insecurity, heightened respect for authority, and submission to superiors He called this complex of personality traits the authoritarian personality Subsequent studies have generally concluded that people who are older, less educated, less intelligent, and from a lower social class are more likely to be authoritarian © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theories of Prejudice Functionalists The social environment can be deliberately arranged to generate either positive or negative feelings about people Prejudice can be a product of pitting groups against each other in an “I win/you lose” situation It is functional in that it creates in-group solidarity and out- group antagonism It is dysfunctional in that prejudice destroys social relationships and intensifies conflict © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theories of Prejudice Conflict Theorists The ruling class benefits when it systematically pits group against group by: Creating a split labor market which divides workers along racial- ethnic lines and weakens solidarity among the workers Maintaining higher unemployment rates for minorities, creating a reserve labor force from which owners can draw when they need to temporarily expand production Workers from different racial-ethnic groups learn to fear and distrust one another instead of recognizing common interests and working for their mutual benefit © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theories of Prejudice Symbolic Interactionists The labels people learn color their perception and lead them to see certain things and be blind to others Racial and ethnic labels are especially powerful because they are shorthand for emotionally laden stereotypes The stereotypes that we learn not only justify prejudice and discrimination, but they also lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy about it © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.3: Global Patterns of Intergroup Relationships: A Continuum © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Fig. 9.4: Race-Ethnicity of the U.S. Population © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Where U.S. Latinos Live © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Distribution of Dominant and Minority Groups © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Racial-Ethnic Relations in the U.S. The major racial-ethnic groups in the U.S. are White European Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans In the U.S., the dominant group is made up of whites whose ancestors emigrated here from European countries White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) were highly ethnocentric and viewed white ethnics—the Irish, Germans, Poles, Jews, and Italians—as inferior © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Racial-Ethnic Relations in the U.S. Immigrants were expected to blend into the mainstream, speak English, and adopt the dominant group’s way of life (Anglo-Conformity) It was the grandchildren of the immigrants, the third generation, who most easily adjusted As these white ethnics assimilated into Anglo culture, the definition of WASP was expanded to include them Because the English first settled the colonies, they established the institutions and culture to which later immigrants had to conform © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Looking Towards the Future As U.S. society is now in the 21st century, two issues that will have to be resolved are immigration and affirmative action Immigration The first great wave of immigrants arrived from Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries The second wave, since 1980, has brought immigrants from around the world and is contributing to the changing U.S. racial/ethnic mix In some states, such as California, all minorities combined represent the majority of the population Many are concerned that this influx of immigrants will change the character of U.S. society, including the primacy of the English language © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Looking Towards the Future Affirmative action is at the core of the national debate about how to steer a course in race and ethnic relations Some see affirmative action as the more direct way to level the playing field of economic opportunity, while others say that it results in reverse discrimination There is still no consensus about the proper role of affirmative action in a multicultural society In order to achieve a multicultural society will require that groups with different histories and cultures learn to accept one another We must begin to examine our history and question many of its assumptions and symbols © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Projections of the Racial-Ethnic Makeup of the U.S. Population © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations Genocide The actual, or attempted, systematic annihilation of a race or ethnic group who has been labeled as less than fully human by the dominant group Dehumanizing labels are powerful forces that help people to compartmentalize—separate their acts from any feelings that would threaten their self-concept—thereby making it difficult for them to participate in the act The Holocaust and the treatment of Native Americans are examples of genocide.

Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations Population transfer The involuntary movement of a minority group Indirect transfer involves making life so unbearable that the minority group members leave Direct transfer involves forced expulsion A combination of genocide and population transfer occurred in Bosnia (a part of the former Yugoslavia) when Serbs engaged in ethnic cleansing—the wholesale slaughter of Muslims and Croats, which forced survivors to flee the area

Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations Internal colonialism A society’s policy of exploiting a minority by using social institutions to deny it access to full benefits Slavery is an extreme example Segregation The formal separation of groups Often accompanies internal colonialism The dominant group exploits the labor of the minority while maintaining social distance

Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations Assimilation The process by which a minority is absorbed into the mainstream Forced assimilation occurs when the dominant group prohibits the minority from using its own religion, language, and customs Permissive assimilation is when the minority adopts the dominant group’s patterns in its own way, at its own speed Multiculturalism (pluralism) Permits or encourages racial and ethnic variation Switzerland provides an outstanding example of this