1. Race and Ethnicity
Sociology Ch. 14

2. Definitions
Race–A socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important
Sociologists consider racial terms misleading at best and harmful at worst.
No society contains biologically “pure” people.

3. Definitions Ethnicity–a shared cultural heritage
The United States is a multiethnic society
Like race, ethnicity is socially constructed
Remember: Race is constructed from biological traits and ethnicity is constructed from cultural traits.
For most people, ethnicity is more complex than race.

4. Table 14.1a Racial and Ethnic Categories in the United States, 2000 (Continued on next two slides)

7. Minority Any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates
General characteristics
Distinct identity: Race, sex, sexual orientation, the poor
Subordination: Often saddled with lower status
Stereotypes, stigma, and labeling
Group size not always a factor
Women in US outnumber men.
Blacks in South Africa outnumber whites.

8. National Map Where the Minority Majority Already Exists By 2004, minorities had become a majority in four states–Hawaii, California, New Mexico, and Texas–and the District of Columbia. At the other extreme, Vermont and Maine have the lowest share of racial and ethnic minorities (about 4% each). Why are states with high minority populations located in the South and Southwest?

9. Prejudice
Prejudice–A rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people.
Stereotype–An exaggerated description applied to every person in some category

10. Measuring Prejudice The Social Distance Scale
Student opinion shows a trend toward greater social acceptance.
People see less difference between various minorities.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, might have reduced social acceptance of Arabs and Muslims.

11. Figure 14.1 Bogardus Social Distance Research (Detail on next slide) The social distance scale is a good way to measure prejudice. Part (a) illustrates the complete social distance scale, from least social distance at the far left to greatest social distance at the far right. Part (b) shows the mean (average) social distance score received by each category of people in Part (c) presents the overall mean score (the average of the scores received by all racial and ethnic categories) in specific years. These scores have fallen from 2.14 in 1925 to 1.44 in 2001, showing that students express less social distance toward minorities today than they did in the past. Part (d) shows the range of averages, the difference between the highest and lowest scores in given years (in 2001, for instance, it was 0.87, the difference between the high score of 1.94 for Arabs and the low score of 1.07 for Americans). This figure has also become smaller since 1925, indicating that today’s students tend to see fewer differences between various categories of people. Source: Parrillo & Donoghue (2005).

12. Figure Detail

13. Racism The belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another
Racism has been widespread throughout US history where ideas about racial inferiority supported slavery.
Overt racism in the US has decreased, but remains a serious social problem.

14. Theories of Prejudice Scapegoat theory
Disadvantaged people who unfairly blame minorities for their own problems
Authoritarian personality theory
Rigid moralists who see things in “black & white”
Culture theory
Everyone has some prejudice because it’s embedded in culture.

15. Theories of Prejudice Conflict theory
Self-justification for the rich and powerful in the United States
Minorities might cultivate climate of race consciousness in order to win greater power and privileges.

16. Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life The Distribution of Intelligence.

17. Discrimination Unequal treatment of various categories of people
Institutional prejudice and discrimination–Bias built into the operation of society’s institutions
Carmichael and Hamilton: People are slow to condemn or even recognize institutional prejudice and discrimination because it often involves respected public officials and long-established practices.

18. The Vicious Circle
Prejudice and discrimination begin as ethnocentric attitudes.
As a result, groups can be placed in a situation where they are socially disadvantaged and labeled.
A group’s situation, over time, is thus explained as a result of innate inferiority rather than looking at the social structure. of reasons. The cycle then repeats itself

19. Figure Prejudice and Discrimination: The Vicious Circle Prejudice and discrimination can form a vicious circle, perpetuating themselves.

20. Patterns of Interaction
Pluralism–A state in which people of all races and ethnicities are distinct but have equal social standing
Assimilation–The process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture
Miscegenation–Biological reproduction by partners of different racial categories

21. Patterns of Interaction
Segregation–The physical and social separation of categories of people
Genocide–The systematic killing of one category of people by another

22. National Map 14.2 Land Controlled by Native Americans, 1790 to Today In 1790, Native Americans controlled three-fourths of the land (blue-shaded areas) that eventually became the United States. Today, Native Americans control 314 reservations, scattered across the United States, that account for just 2% of the country’s land area. How would you characterize these locations?

23. Race and Ethnicity in the US
Native Americans
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
African Americans
Asian Americans
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipinos
Hispanic Americans
Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans
Arab Americans
White Ethnic Americans

24. Table 14.3 The Social Standing of African Americans, 2005

25. Table 14.4 The Social Standing of Asian Americans

26. Table 14.2 The Social Standing of Native Americans, 2000

27. Table 14.4 The Social Standing of Asian Americans

28. Table 14.5 The Social Standing of Hispanic Americans, 2005

29. Table 14.6 The Social Standing of Arab Americans, 1999

30. National Map 14.3 The Concentration of Hispanics or Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Arab Americans, by County, 2000 In 2000, people of Hispanic or Latino descent represented 12.5 % of the US population, compared with 12.3% African Americans, 3.6% Asian Americans, and 0.4% Arab Americans. These maps show the geographic distribution of these categories of people in Comparing them, we see that the southern half of the US is home to far more minorities than the northern half. But do they all concentrate in the same areas? What patterns do the maps reveal?

31. Race and Ethnicity: Looking Ahead
The US will remain a land of immigrants.
Most immigrants arrived in a wave that peaked about 1910.
Another wave of immigration began after World War II and swelled as the government relaxed immigration laws in the 1960s.
Today, about 1.5 million people come to the United States each year