CHAPTE

R 12
Race and Ethnicity
Race: Myth and Reality

 Myth 1 - Idea That Any Race is Superior

 All Races Have Geniuses and Idiots
 Genocide Still Around
 Genocide: the systematic annihilation or attempted
annihilation of a people because of their presumed race
or ethic group
 Race: physical characteristics that distinguish one
group from another
 Ethnicity: having distinctive cultural characteristics
Race: Myth and Reality

 Myth 2 - Idea that Any Race is Pure

 Human Characteristics Flow Endlessly
Together
Ethnic Groups

 Race Refers to Biological Characteristics

 Ethnicity Refers to Cultural Characteristics
 Common Ancestry
 Cultural Heritage
 Nations of Origin
 Minority and Dominant Groups

 Minority group: people ho are not

singled out for unequal treatment and
who regard themselves as objects of
collective discrimination
 Example – Women are a minority all over
the world
 Dominant group: the group with the
most power, greatest privileges, and
highest social status
 Dominant group does the discriminating
Emergence of Minority Groups

Minority Groups Occur Because of…

 Expansion of Political Boundaries

 Migration
Constructing Racial-Ethnic Identity

 Sense of Ethnicity
 Relative Size
 Power
 Appearance
 Discrimination
 Ethnic Work and the Melting Pot
 Ethnic work: activities designed to discover,
enhance, or maintain ethnic and racial identification
 Melting pot: the view that Americans of various
backgrounds would blend into a sort of ethnic stew
 Prejudice and Discrimination

 Learning Prejudice
 Prejudice vs. Discrimination
 Prejudice: an attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative
way
 Discrimination: an act of unfair treatment directed
against an individual or group
 Discrimination is Action
 Learning from Association
Prejudice and Discrimination

 Far-Reaching Nature of Prejudice

 Internalizing Dominant Norms

 Media

 Group Membership
Individual and Institutional
Discrimination
 Individual discrimination: the negative treatment of one
person by another on the basis of that person’s perceived
characteristics
 Institutional discrimination: the negative treatment of a
minority group that is built into a society’s institutions;
also called systematic discrimination

 Health Care

 Home Mortgage and Car Loans

Theories of Prejudice

Psychological Perspectives

 Frustration and Scapegoats

 Scapegoat: an individual or group unfairly blamed for
someone else’s troubles
 The Authoritarian Personality: Theodore Adorno’s
term for people who are prejudiced and rank high on
scales of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect
for authority, and submissiveness to superiors
Theories of Prejudice

Sociological Perspectives
 Functionalism
 Conflict Theory
 Reserve labor force: the unemployed; unemployed workers are
thought of as being “in reserve” – capitalists take them out of
reserve (put them back into work) during times of high
production and then lay them off (put them back in reserve)
when they are no longer needed
 Split labor market: workers split along racial, ethnic, gender,
age, or any other lines; this split is exploited by owners to
weaken the bargaining power of workers
 Symbolic Interactionism
 Labels Create Prejudice
 Self-Fulfilling Prophesy
 Selective perception: seeing certain features of an object or
situation, but remaining blind to others
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations

 Genocide: the systematic annihilation or

attempted annihilation of a people because of their
presumed race or ethic group
 Population Transfer: forcing a minority group to
leave
 Internal Colonialism: the policy of economically
exploiting minority groups
Global Patterns of Intergroup
Relations
 Segregation: the policy of keeping racial-ethnic
groups apart
 Assimilation: the process of being absorbed into
the mainstream culture
 Multiculturalism (Pluralism): a philosophy or
political policy that permits or encourages ethnic
differences
Race and Ethnic Relations in
the United States
Race and Ethnic Relations in
the United States
Race and Ethnic Relations in the United
States: Europeans Americans

 Nation’s Founders Included Only Those from

England (WASPs)
 WASP: White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant; narrowly, an
American

 Other “White” Europeans Inferior

 White ethnics: white immigrants to the U.S.
whose cultures differ from that of WASPs
Race and Ethnic Relations in the United
States: Latinos (Hispanics)

 Numbers Origins, Location

Race and Ethnic Relations in the United
States: Latinos (Hispanics)

 Spanish Language
 Diversity
 Comparative Conditions
Race and Ethnic Relations in the
United States: African-Americans
 The Struggle for Civil Rights
 Rising Expectations and Civil Strife
 Rising expectations: the sense that better conditions are
soon to follow, which, if unfulfilled, increases frustration
 Continued Gains
 Current Losses
 Race or Social Class?
 Racism as an Everyday Burden
Race and Ethnic Relations in the
United States: Asian-Americans
 Background of Discrimination
 Diversity
 Reasons for Success
Race and Ethnic Relations in the
United States: Native Americans
 Diversity of Groups
 From Treaties to Genocide and Population Transfer
 The Invisible Minority and Self-Determination
 Pan-Indianism: a movement that focuses on
common elements in the cultures of Native
Americans in order to develop a cross-tribal self-
identity and to work toward the welfare of all
Native Americans
Looking Towards the Future

 The Immigration Debate

 Affirmative Action

 Towards a True Multicultural Society