Chapter 10

Race and Ethnicity

Race
Since ancient times, people have
attempted to group human beings into
racial categories based on physical
characteristics, such as skin color, hair
texture, and body structure.
Race: Categories of people who share
inherited physical characteristics and
whom others see as being a distinct
group.
Race
For sociologists, the important issue is
not that a person has a specific color of
skin or hair of a certain texture.

Sociologists are concerned with how

people react to these physical
characteristics and how these reactions
affect individuals in society.
Race
Scholars have placed people into 3 racial
groups:
Caucasoid (Whites)- fair skin and straight
or wavy hair.
Mongoloids (Asians)- yellowish or
brownish skin and folds on eyelids.
Negroids (Blacks)- dark skin and tightly
curled hair.
There are NO Biologically pure races.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity is a cultural characteristic.
The set of cultural characteristics that
distinguishes one group from one
another is called ethnicity.
Ethnicity is based on cultural
considerations whereas race is based on
physical considerations.
Ethnic Groups
An ethnic group is a group of people
who share a common cultural
background and a common sense of
identity.
EX. Whites: Irish, Polish, Russian,
Americans
Ethnicity is generally based on such
cultural characteristics as national
origin, religion, language, customs, and
Minority Group
No particular skin color, physical
frame, or ethnic background is
superior or inferior by nature.
However, sociologists agree that
those who hold power may place a
value on specific characteristics.
Minority Group
Those who hold power- Majority
Those who don’t hold power-
Minority
Not necessarily based on numbers
of people like other areas (voting,
etc.)
Conflict Theory in Ethnicity and Race
From the conflict perspective,
many sociologists have concluded
that a dominant group’s position of
power allows them to enjoy certain
privileges, such as better housing,
better schools, and higher incomes.
Louis Wirth
Identified a minority group as a
group of people who, because of
their physical characteristics and/or
cultural perspectives- are singled
out and unequally treated.
Minority Group Characteristics
Identifiable physical/cultural characteristics
which are different from dominant group.
Victims of unfair/unequal treatment.
Membership in group is ascribed (born into).
Members share a strong bond and a sense of
group loyalty.
Members tend to practice endogamy-
marriage within the group.
Discrimination and Prejudice
Often these two words are used
interchangeably, but they do not mean
the same thing.
Discrimination- The denial of equal
treatment to individuals based on their
group membership.
Prejudice- An unsupported
generalization about a category of
people.
Blue Eyes v. Brown Eyes
http://vod.nort2h.com/SAFARI/mo
ntage/play.php?keyindex=5557&c
hapterskeyindex=-1&keyconcepts
keyindex=-1&sceneclipskeyindex
=-
1&location=local
Discrimination
Found on an individual or societal
level.
Between 1882 and 1970 more than
1,170 African Americans were lynched
by white mobs in the U.S.
Most of the time these people were
attempting to vote, use the same public
facilities, or had become too successful.
White Privilege
White privilege refers to any
advantage, opportunity, benefit, head
start, or general protection from
negative societal mistreatment, which
persons deemed white will typically
enjoy, but which others will generally
not enjoy.
White Privilege
These benefits can be:
 material (such as greater opportunity in the
labor market, or greater net worth, due to a
history in which whites had the ability to
accumulate wealth to a greater extent than
persons of color)
 social (such as presumptions of competence,
creditworthiness, law-abidingness,
intelligence, etc.)
White Privilege
psychological (such as not having to
worry about triggering negative
stereotypes, rarely having to feel out of
place, not having to worry about racial
profiling, etc.).
Societal Discrimination
Appears in one of two forms
Legal discrimination- upheld by law.
Institutionalized discrimination- an
outgrowth of the structure of society.
What are some examples of legal
discrimination throughout history?
What are some examples of
institutionalized discrimination today?
Legal Discrimination
Minors-
Drinking age (21)
Smoking age (18)
Voting age (18)
Marriage age (in Ohio, 16 with
parental approval, 18 without
parental approval)
Legal Discrimination
Marriage
In the state of Ohio, it must be between a
man and a woman.
Apartheid
Laws to keep the races separate in S.
Africa until early 1990s.
Apartments
No pets, no children, no one under 55
Institutionalized Discrimination
Overtime, unequal access to the resources
of society pushes some minority groups
into less-powerful positions.
When this occurs, it is no longer
necessary for the dominant group to
consciously discriminate against the
minority group to maintain a system of
inequality.
Institutionalized Discrimination
Redlining-
Coined by John McKnight.
It marks the practice of marking a red line
on the map to delineate the area where
banks would later not invest.
NFL-
Rooney Rule
Interviewing minority coaches in the league
Institutionalized Discrimination
Airlines
Restrictions on overweight fliers
http://
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/earl
yshow/living/travel/main4952134.shtml
Sin Tax
Taxing things like tobacco and alcohol as
well as soft drinks, candy, coffee,
gambling or prostitution.
Hank Williams
Hank Williams Jr.’s song All My Rowdy Friends has
been the opening to the NFL’s Monday Night Football
since 1991.
The NFL pulled the song before the Colts v. Dolphins
game on October 3rd because of remarks that Williams
made to Fox News.
http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eF6vCv13bw&safety_mod
e=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Since the remarks, Williams has apologized, but the
NFL has permanently pulled Williams song and said
they will not use it any longer.
Prejudice
Prejudice is an unsupported
generalization.
Does not always have to be about
race or ethnicity
It is an attitude
Can be positive (for) or negative
(against)
Sociology focuses on the negative
Generally, someone who is
Stereotyping
 An oversimplified, exaggerated, or
unfavorable generalization about a group of
people.
An individual forms an image of a
particular group and then applies that image
to all members of the group.
If individuals are found to differ from the
stereotyped image, they are thought to be
exceptions to the rule, rather than proof that
the stereotype is wrong.
Stereotyping
“ If people define situations as real,
they are real in their consequences.”
W.I. Thomas, American sociologist
Self-fulfilling prophecy: A prediction
that results in behavior that makes the
prediction become true.
Racism
Belief that one’s own race or ethnicity’s group or
religion is superior to all others.
When an individual or group believes they are
innately superior, it justifies their mistreatment of
others.
Ex. Hitler and the Nazis, Slave masters and slaves
Prejudice and discrimination are related, but they
do not always go hand-in-hand.
 http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?
utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_41253
Racism in Disney Movies

 http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHyzAbV6nuM&safety_mode
=true&safe=active&persist_safety_mode=1
 http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSYAY1nv6tg&safety_mode=
true&safe=active&persist_safety_mode=1
 Robert K. Merton’s Patterns of Prejudice and
Discrimination
Prejudice
Yes No

Timid Bigot: All-Weather Liberal:

Discrimination

Prejudiced person Non prejudiced

No

who does not person who does not

discriminate discriminate
Active Bigot: Fair-Weather
Prejudiced person Liberal: Non-
Yes

who discriminates prejudiced person

who discriminates
Sociological Explanations
Most sociological explanations of
prejudice and discrimination focus on
social environment.
Often a learned behavior (comes from
home).
Embedded in social norms (socialization).
People often become prejudice to maintain
their place in a group (peer pressure).
Psychological Explanations
Theodor Adorno- Came up with common
characteristics among people studied who
were prejudice.
Strongly conformist
Great respect for authority and tendency
to follow orders of those in authority
Great deal of anger and are likely to
blame their problems on others.
Psychological Explanations
Prejudice might be the product of
anger and frustration.
Scapegoating- The practice of placing
the blame of one’s troubles on an
innocent individual or group.
Anyone know where the term
‘scapegoat” comes from?
Psychological Explanations
Minority groups become scapegoats
because of their distinctive appearance,
language, style of dress, religious
practices.
They tend to lack power in society
Tend to be concentrated in one
geographic region.
Cultural Pluralism
Cultural pluralism is a policy that
allows each group within society to
keep its unique cultural identity.
Good example- Switzerland: 3 official
languages, French, German and Italian.
Extremely loyal to Switzerland and
live peacefully.
Assimilation
Assimilation is the blending of
culturally distinct groups into a single
group with a common culture.
Good example- America: the idea that
various groups can be blended into a
single people with a common,
homogeneous culture.
“Melting pot”
Segregation
Segregation is the act of using policies
to separate a minority group from the
dominant group.
Two types of segregation
De jure segregation- based on laws
De facto segregation- based on
informal norms
Genocide
Genocide is the intentional
extermination of a targeted
population.
This kind of extermination has
been attempted many times, and
sometimes achieved, throughout
history.