SOCI 205 1nd Edition Lecture 18 Outline of Last Lecture II. Exam 2 CompletedOutline of Current LectureII. Social Construction of RaceIII. Changing Racial PatternsCurrent LectureII. Social Construction of Racea. Meaning of race:i. Changed dramatically over time1. key concepts:a. racial formationb. racializationii. varies internationally: Brazil, Englandiii. varies within the US: Gordon on Irish Foundlingsb. Sociologists on Racial Inequalityi. W.E.B. Du Boisii. (1868-1963)1. Argued “the color line” persisted after slaveryc. Gunnar Myrdali. An American Dilemma (1944)ii. Tocqueville: legacy of slavery would undermine democracy1. Prejudice appears stronger in non-slaveholding statesd. Social Construction of Racei. Strict Functional View: ascribed characteristics linked to skill & talentii. Very few functionalists held/hold this viewiii. Rather, race persists because it helps legitimize inequality (Gans)e. Conflict Scholars: outcomes due to differential access to wealth, power, statusf. Social & Natural Scientists: no obvious line delineating different racesi. There is as much genetic variation within races as there in between racesg. Omi & Winanti. Racial Understandings Change1. Racial Formation- ideology determines one’s raceThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.a. “hypo-descent/one-drop rule”- if a white person has one drop of African blood in them, they are black2. Race Varies by Country: Brazil & Englanda. Brazil- if you have any white features, you are never considered blackb. Much less strict on race3. England- anyone that is not white is considered blackii. Modern Racial Categories1. European expansion meets “the other” (i.e. non-European Indigenous)iii. Racial Formation in the US: Racialization1. Def. “extension of racial meaning to previously unclassified relationship, practice or group”2. Early Settlers: ID as Christian (not white)3. Gans: enslaving Africans acceptable because they were “heathen”II. Changing Racial Patternsa. Irish: unskilled, illiterate peasantsi. Faced discriminationii. Became white & assimilatedb. “orphans”i. Mothers: too poor to care for childii. Mothers: wanted to reclaim their childiii. Most were Irishiv. Orphans sent to Arizona were all over 3 years oldv. Great Arizona Orphan Abduction- study by Linda Gordon 1. Nuns were receiving about 150 orphans a month in the 1870s2. Mexicans unfit to adopt “white” kids3. Anti-Catholicism: anti-Irish sentiment; part of larger WASP anti-Catholicisma. Catholicism: seen as dependency, alcoholism, shiftlessnessb. Linked poverty to moral failingsc. To save kids: remove them from this environment4. Racial Hierarchiesa. Turn of the century in NY & Arizonai. NY: many “races” (blacks, whites, Irish, Polish)ii. Irish: Not white; wild, primitive, undisciplinediii. White: WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants)iv. Mexico: white, mestizo, Indian5. Race categories: unstable in different
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