1. Racism in the United states today
Horowitz: “Ethnicity is based on a myth of collective ancestry, which usually carries with it traits believed to be innate.”
“African-American ethnicity is a prime example of an ethnic identity which is created by racialization of people who would not otherwise have shared an identity.”- Frederickson

2. sociologist perspective
Society as Unequal
stratification- a geological term referring to the way layers of earth and rock are stacked on top of one another.
social stratification- refers to social groups being similarly stacked on top of one another.
stratification as inequality- having unequal access to social resources (money, authority, prestige, material possessions).
stratification is sometimes defined as class

3. What defines stratification?
Formal Differences: rules written into legal and social organizational structures (political and social organizational).
Informal Differences: non-written rules and cultural beliefs that still hold meaning.

4. What are the bases for stratification?
Ascribed: attributes you are born with (skin color, gender, country of origin).
Achieved: attributes which you have some control.
Each society defines their system of stratification.

5. Is Inequality Necessary? Unavoidable?
George Orwell’s Animal Farm
Farm animals drive farmers (authority) out to create equal society for all.
The pigs begin to use leadership positions to abuse power: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Income, ability, jobs, motivation, connections, credentials, education, specialized knowledge, age, sex, race, caste.
Difference creates advantaged/disadvantaged group creating an inherent inequality.

6. Bias/Stereotypes/Discrimination
Bias- when someone uses a groups’ personal attributes to make assumptions about other characteristics.
Discrimination- when those assumptions affect the decisions people make regarding that group.
1. Why do biases (stereotypes) exist?
2. Why are certain types of bias accepted by a society or community?
3. What is the history of particular racist belief systems?

7. Historical Perspective on Racism
“If conversion or assimilation is a real possibility, we have religious or cultural intolerance, but not racism.”
“...Racism exists when one ethnic group or historical collectivity dominates, excludes, or seeks to eliminate another on the basis that it believes are hereditary and unalterable.”
Source- Racism: A Short History by George Fredrickson

8. Where does roots of racism stem from in the U.S.?
Europe
If racism stems from authority over another, what is the most logical source for social inequalities?
Who holds the highest authority in a society or community?

9. Modern Racism stems from Anti-semitism
Organized violence and discrimination: crusades and pograms
Violence needs to be justified:
Jews crucified Jesus Christ: “Jews who called out for Jesus’ death after the deed was done said, ‘His blood be upon us and our children”’- Mathew 25:27
Jews crucified children (1150-England)
Jews drink Christian blood
Jews caused the Black Death by poisoning wells
Anti-semitism is racism once the belief took hold that Jews were intrinsically and organically evil (not having false beliefs)

10. Christian dominance spread with Christendom and the Catholic Church from Europe to Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Christian dominance began to support ethnocentric dominance: Germans superior to Slavs, Anglo (English) superior to Irish
Ghettoization and banning inter-marriage
Birth and Blood became a dividing line between social groups.

11. Exploration and the Spread of Racism
It was believed that one should not enslave a Christian.
Europe was “white”/ Christian
Asian, Africans, and Americans were “Other”/ Non- Christian
Exploration also started Colonization: defined by dominance
Colonization grounded in economics and religion

12. 1492
Spanish Inquisition
Christopher
Columbus

13. Slavery v. Indentured Servitude
indentured servitude: labor is payment for travel to the new world (contract).
slavery: legal based on purchase in West Africa (contract).
chattel slavery: black slaves as property = overtly racist
1st official slave: John Casor
1st official slave holder: Anthony Johnson
Johnson v. Parker: legally enforced black slavery as racist in practice started.

14. Modern Racism: 18th Century
“Race” was originally linked to nationality: French, English
The Enlightenment called for the use of the scientific method in the social sciences
Humans were defined by species. Difference was defined by species.
The Enlightenment called for equality and universal rights:
Biological unfitness created to justify slavery and dominance => Racist Theory

15. 19th Century: Emancipation?
“The nation was well rid of slavery, an institution that had retarded the economic development and prosperity that a system of capitalism based on wage labor now made possible, but efforts to extend meaning to emancipation to include black civil and political equality awakened the demons of racism greater than during the defense of slavery.” = racist theory is now applied to maintain an unequal level of stratification
“The white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage.” - W.E.B Du Bois
Eugenics Movement: the science of improving human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.

16. Jim Crow Laws-Overtly Racist Society
Official ideology that is specifically racist
authorities claim difference
dissent is dangerous
Clearly expressed by laws that forbid interracial marriage (Loving v. Virginia, 1967)
Social segregation is mandated by law
“The Others” political equality is removed
Access to resources and economic opportunities are limited
“The Other” is kept in cycle of poverty

17. Civil Rights Movement End of Systematic Racism (?)
What effects still exist today from the creation of Jim Crow laws?
What systems that were social and economic still exist?
What were the unintended consequences of ending Jim Crow on the African-American community?