SOC 100 1st Edition Lecture 10 Race Chapter 9 Absorption assimilation A process by which racial and ethnic minorities adapt to the point where they are completely absorbed into the dominant culture Assimilation A process by which ethnic or racial distinctions between groups disappear because one group is absorbed into another groups culture or because two cultures blend to form a new culture Chance characteristics and experiences not the result of will choice or effort something not subject to human will choice or effort something not subject to human will choice or effort Choice the conscious act of choosing among a range of possible behaviors appearance or paths Context the larger social setting in which a person lives his or her life that also presents opportunities and barriers to success the social setting in which racial and ethnic categories are recognized created and challenged Dominant ethnic group the most advantaged ethnic group in a society it is the ethnic group that possesses the greatest access to valued resources Including the power to create and maintain the system that gives in these advantages Ethnic renewal this occurs when someone discovers an ethnic identity as when an adopted child learns about and identifies with newly found biological relatives or a person learns about and revives lost traditions These 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 Ethnicity people who share a national origin common ancestry etc Hidden ethnicity a sense of self that is based on little to no awareness of an ethnic identity because its culture is considered normative or mainstream Individual discrimination any individual or overt action aimed at someone in an outgroup that depreciates denies opportunities or does violence to life or property Institutionalized discrimination the established customary way of doing things in society the unchallenged rules policies and day to day practices established by advantaged groups that impede or limit the opportunities of those in disadvantaged groups Involuntary ethnicity when a government or other dominant group creates an umbrellaethnic category and assigns people from many different cultures and countries to it Involuntary minorities Ethnic or racial groups that were forced to become part of a country by slavery conquest or colonization Melting pot assimilation cultural blending in which groups accept many new behaviors and values from one another This exchange produces a new cultural system which is a blend of the previously separate systems Minority groups subgroups within a society that can be distinguished from members of the dominant group Mixed contracts Social encounters involving stigmatized people and so called normal Non prejudiced discriminators fair weather liberals people who believe in equal opportunity but discriminative because doing so gives them an advantage or because they simply fail to consider the discriminatory consequences of their actions No prejudicednondiscriminatory all weather liberals people who accept the creed of equal opportunity and their conduct conforms to that creed They not only believe in equal opportunity but also take action against discrimination Non prejudiced non discriminators all weather liberals people who accept the creed of equal opportunity and their conduct conforms to that creed They not only believe in equal opportunity but also take action against discrimination Prejudice a rigid and usually unfavorable judgment about an outgroup that does not change in the face of contradictory evidence and that applies to anyone who shares the distinguishing characteristics of the outgroup Prejudiced discriminators active bigots people who reject the notion of equal opportunity and profess a right even a duty to discriminate They express with a deep conviction hat anyone from the in group is superior to any members of the out group Prejudiced nondiscriminatory timid bigots people who reject the creed of equal opportunity but refrain from discrimination primarily because they fear possible sanctions or being labeled as racists Race Human constructed categories that assume great social importance Those categories are typically based on observable physical traits ex skin shade hair texture eye shape and geographic origin Racial common sense shared ideas believed to be so obvious or natural about racial groups that hey need not be questioned Reify treating racial labels and categories as if they are real and meaningful and to forget that they are made up Scientific racism the use of faulty science to support systems of racial rankings and theories of social and cultural progress that placed whites in the most advanced ranks and stage of human evolution Segregation the physical and or social separation of people according to their race or ethnicity Selective forgetting a process by which people forget dismiss or fail to pass on an ethnic heritage Selective perception the process in which prejudice people notice only those supposed facts that support their stereotypes Spatial segregation A de facto or de jure situation in which racial or ethnic groups attend different schools live in different public facilities or occupy the same facility but sit work or eat on different floors in different rooms or at separate tables Stereotypes simplistic generalizations about categories that are applied to anyone in those categories Stigma a physical trait or other attribute that is deeply discrediting Can be physically uncovered