Section#1: Constructing Categories of Difference Lecture Slides for Rosenblum Pages 1-21

The Framework Essay Section #1 of Sociology 15 is designed to: -Discuss and consider how categories of difference are constructed and created -Discuss how these categories of people are seen as significantly different from one another and how this can affect people’s lives -What categories of difference? - What does it mean that a category is socially constructed? Changes across_________ , ________, and ___________.

Constructing Categories of Difference Statuses Master Status Status set Are there consequences, both positive and negative, for the master statuses that individuals occupy? Examples? Patricia Hill Collins and Intersectionality

Differing Perspectives on Categorization Essentialism The perspective that reality exists independent of our perception of it, that we perceive the meaning of the world rather than construct the meaning. From a purely essentialist perspective: Knowledge is regarded as objective and independent of mind. Categories of race, sex, sexual orientation, social class, and disability point up significant, empirically verifiable differences between people. Racial categories exist apart from any social processes; they are objective categories of real differences between people.

From a constructionist perspective: Constructionism   The perspective that reality cannot be separated from the way that a culture makes sense of it, that meaning is constructed through—for example—social, political, legal, religious, and scientific practices.   From a constructionist perspective: Differences between people are created through social processes. Difference is created rather than intrinsic to a phenomenon. Social processes (political, legal, economic, scientific, and religious institutions) create differences; determine that some differences are more important than others; and assign particular meanings to those differences. The way a society defines difference among its members tells us more about the society than about the people who are being classified. Americans are now about equally split between those who hold essentialist and constructionist views on homosexuality.

Creating Difference Naming Constructionists pay special attention to the ways and the circumstances under which people name themselves and others, as well as to those occasions when people are grouped together or separated out. Language carries powerful symbolic meaning, and names are an important part of every language and the categorization of groups of people Who are you? What are your master statuses? Do the names that you use for yourself and others carry meaning, power, identity, superiority or inferiority?

The Power of Naming in Social Movements Changes in names are often promoted by activists to demonstrate their resistance to oppression and stigma and demonstrate their commitment to a new order. “Colored” (1800’s) “Negro” (W.E.B. Du Bois) “black” (Black Power Movement) African American (1980’s political correctness) Homosexual (1900-1960) Gay and Lesbian (1960’s) Queer? (Socially acceptable) Girl Woman What is a “Slut Walk”? Is it OK for gay people or racial minorities to call each other names that can also be derogatory?

What groups have historically had the ability to name and categorize people? How have these categorizations influenced people’s lives?

Creating Categories of People While people or groups may assert names for themselves, governments have the power to categorize. The recent history of the United States Census provides evidence of this process. Every census since the first, issued in 1790, has included a question about race, and has almost never measured these categories the same The social construction of Race The power of leaders: The Supreme court and granting “whiteness”

Aggregating Categories Federal identification policies aggregated or combined non-white Americans into four categories: Hispanics; American Indians; Blacks; and Asian or Pacific Islanders. Problems? Issues? Injustices? Positives: Panethnicity-Aggregation has been promoted by social movements and activist groups. What aggregate category of people did the textbook initially ignore? (Hispanics/Latinos; American Indians; African American Indians; Pacific Islanders; Middle Easterners/Arabs) Invisibility…

Dichotomizing Categories Often, aggregates are created as dichotomies, mutually exclusive and in opposition to each other. In contemporary American culture, we tend to treat master status categories as if they could be broken down into two exclusive and opposed groups. Race Class Gender Sexual Orientation Disability Dichotomization encourages the sense that there are just two categories of each subgroup, and that everyone fits easily into one or the other, which often creates an “us” vs. “them” mentality

Dichotomizing Race While three racial categories—white, Negro, and Indian—were identified throughout the 19th century, and well into the twentieth, all were located within a white/non-white dichotomy. What difference did it make? Inclusion in American society hinged on the classification one received; to be American and be granted the rights that went along with this classification, meant to be classified or categorized as white, literally. Supreme Court Decisions-Who is White?