1. Chapter Ten:
Race and Ethnicity

2. Chapter Overview Laying the Sociological Foundation
Theories of Prejudice
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States
Looking Toward the Future

3. Understanding Race Race
A category created by society to classify people on perceived similar physical characteristics
Is Race a Myth or Fact?

4. Race and Ethnicity Myth 1 - Idea That Any Race is Superior
Race - Group with Biological Characteristics
Myth 1 - Idea That Any Race is Superior
All Races Have Geniuses and Idiots
Myth 2 - Idea that Any Race is Pure
Human Characteristics Flow Endlessly Together

5. Relevance of Race as Scientific Concept
1. Current scientific thinking: “race” as a biological reality does not exist...
2. No set number of “races” in nature...
3. Rather, “races” are social constructs, reflecting divisions based on arbitrary physical traits.

6. Understanding Ethnicity
Statuses based on cultural heritage and shared “feelings of peoplehood”
Key factors that heightened or reduce our sense of ethnic identity
Relative size, power, appearance, and discrimination
Ethnic group
A category of people set apart from others because of distinctive customs and lifestyles
Ethnic work
The way people construct their ethnicity

7. Minority and Dominant Groups
Minority Group - People Singled Out for Unequal Treatment by the Dominant Group
Dominant Group – Group with wealth, power, and privileges
Minority groups are not necessarily small in number

8. Characteristics of a Minority Group
Membership is an Ascribed Status
Physical or Cultural Traits Held in Low Esteem by Dominant Group
Unequal Treatment
High ingroup marriage: marry within own group
An awareness of inequalities and feel strong group solidarity

9. Attitudinal Tools of Domination
Racism
Belief that one race is inherently superior or inferior to another
Attitudinal Tools of Domination
Prejudice
Preconceived judgments about a category of people
Stereotype
Static, oversimplified ideas about a category of people

10. Prejudice
An irrationally based negative, or sometimes positive, attitude toward a certain group of people.
An attitude or subjective feelings
Sets group boundaries
Promotes social solidarity and identity (we-ness and sense of superiority).

11. Approaches to Prejudice
Psychological Perspectives
Frustration and Scapegoats – people who are unable to strike out at the real source of their frustration look for someone to blame
The Authoritarian Personality – Theodor Adorno created a survey which measured: ethnocentrism, Anti-Semitism, and support for strong, Authoritarian leaders and found that these criteria were connected

12. Approaches to Prejudice
Stereotyping
One common reaction to strangers is to categorize them broadly.
An oversimplified generalization by which we attribute certain traits or characteristics to a group without regard to individual differences
Positive stereotypes
Distort reality, but are nevertheless socially approved images held by one group about another.
Easily becomes ingrained within everyday thinking.

13. Approaches to Prejudice
Internalization of Dominant Norms
People can learn to be prejudice against own group
Members of groups held in low esteem by society may, as a result, have low self-esteem themselves.
Banaji & Greenwald, “Implicit Association Test”

14. Approaches to Prejudice
Socialization
Individuals acquire the values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of their culture or subculture, including religion, nationality, and social class.
The child conforms to the parents’ expectations in acquiring an understanding of the world and its people
We learn the prejudices of our parents and others which than becomes a part of our values and beliefs.
Criticism
Does not explain the origin of prejudice or why prejudice intensifies or diminishes over the years.

15. Discrimination Discrimination Types of Discrimination
Unequal treatment of people because of their group membership
Types of Discrimination
Personal (Individual) discrimination
Legal discrimination
Institutional discrimination

16. Institutional Discrimination
The complex societal arrangements that restrict the life chances and choices of minority groups in comparison with those in the dominant group.
Embedded into the social institutions.
Benefits are given to one group are withheld from another.
Maintains the disadvantage position of minority groups.
Examples: sentencing inequalities, hiring practices, segregated housing, education, health care, etc.

17. Health Care Inequality
Discrimination is does not have to be deliberate
People unconsciously discriminate and those who are being discriminated against are unaware of it.
Inferior Health Care
African American mother is more than three times likely to die in childbirth than a white mother.
African American babies has more than twice the chance of dying in infancy than does a white baby
Race is a factor in Medical decisions
The researchers examined hospital records of about 40,000 Medicare beneficiaries
Whites are more likely than blacks to be given cardiac catheterization (a test to detect blockage of blood vessels)

18. Contemporary Discrimination in the United States
Racial Profiling
Refers to the action taken by law enforcement officials on the presumption that individuals of one race or ethnicity are more likely to engage in criminal activity.
Leads law enforcement to routinely stop vehicles driven by Blacks and Latinos in the expectation of finding drugs in their possession.
2003 U.S. Department of Justice issued guidelines rejecting racial profiling
In the statement it included a broad and largely undefined exception when “national security” concerns come into play.

19. Criminal Justice System
Minorities are suspected and arrested for more crimes than whites.
Minorities face more serious charges and are given more serious penalties and longer sentences than whites for the same crimes.
Prison and Capital Punishment (1998)
Black defendants were 38% more likely to be sentenced to die than others who committed similar crimes.
African Americans constitute slightly more than 12% of the American population
They account for more than 50% of all federal and state prisoners

20. In the Workplace and Economically
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 dramatically altered historic patterns of discrimination
Mandated that the government take affirmative action to ensure “equality of employment opportunity”
For several decades, affirmative action accomplished a great deal
% of African American households were in the middle class
% of African American households were in middle-class
1990 their number in high-paying professional and technical occupations had increased by over 100%

21. Even with such gains there still remains a sizeable economic gap between whites and most other minorities.

22. The Three Sociological Perspectives on Prejudice
Functionalist – Sherif Study
Prejudice is functional as it brings people together
Can create negative stereotypes (dsyfunction)
Conflict – Prejudice is beneficial to the dominant group as it keeps minority groups oppressed
Power Split Labor Force
Symbolic Interactionist – Labels lead to selective perception – we see what we want to see
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009

23. Dominant-Minority Group Relations
Cultural Pluralism
When groups cooperate while still retaining their distinctive identities and lifestyles
Assimilation
Process where minority groups lose their identities & conform to the dominant group
Segregation
Physical or social exclusion of minority groups from dominant group activities
Genocide
Deliberate and systematic elimination of minority group members

24. Race & Ethnic Diversity in U.S.
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
Native Americans
Latinos
African-Americans
Euro-American Ethnics