Lauren Hedrick October 22nd 2013 Race and Ethnicity Race Gender and Ethnicity are the first characteristics that individuals see when they engage in social interaction with others Race characterized by observable hereditary features A group of people who see themselves and are seen by others as having hereditary traits that set them apart from others o People can change their race but not typically o Something you can see but there is no genetic basis Ethnic Groups identified culturally language folk practices dress mannerisms and religion o Sense of peoplehood or nationhood o Shared history and or fate o People can change their ethnic groups relatively easily Racial Formation The process by which a group of people come to be seen as a race practices o How do conceptualizations of race persist and change o How does the usage of that idea from the basis for exclusionary Foundational Principles in the Sociological Study of Race o There is no biological basis for separation of human beings into races o The idea of race is a relatively recent social and political construction o Humans are one species regardless of skin color dialect eye shape and or hair texture The Science of Race Individuals show more genetic variation within races than among them There is no gene for race Race as a Social Construct o Race is not based on biology but race is rather an idea that we ascribe to biology Alan Goodman We attach certain qualities and attributes to people once we see their race and we believe that we know someone better by their race than we would otherwise o Human Genome Project find no consistent patterns of genes to distinguish between races o 94 of genetic variation is within races o Less than 5 of genetic variation is between races o If race is not biologically based why do we construct the concept of race The Social Construction of Race o Social economic and political forces create and perpetuate racial categories and meanings competition motivates systems of social inequality and competition is channeled along racial and ethnic lines o Racial formation comes out of the need of a consolidated social structure and exploration and domination Lauren Hedrick October 22nd 2013 o Unequal power determines which group can institutionalize the o Conflict Theory Race is used as a system in order to keep social racism stratification in line Race The Power of an Illusion A group of students decided to test to see how similar they were to people of different and the same races they found that they expected that they were going to be the most similar to people of their same race but in reality there was no pattern to who they were the most similar to according to race o Hair Color o Blood Types A B O A B o Whether or not your tongue curls o Lactose tolerance or intolerance o Left handedness or right handedness o Skin Color Compare the inside of your arm Typically to define race we use skin color because it is the easiest to see right off hand to categorize others but it is the only one on the list that has no genetic basis Thomas Theorem 1928 If men define situation as real they are real in their consequences o Not about if the situation is real or not in reality but how the situation is perceived by someone to be a reality o Therefore the consequences can only exist if someone believes that the situation is an actual real issue or situation o Then the consequences of the situation will only occur when people believe that there is in fact a situation The Creation of American Indians Good example of how racial definition is fluid over time o In 1492 when Columbus showed up thinking he was in India There was no such thing as an American Indian Instead there were hundreds of distinct groups indigenous to the present United States who spoke different languages had different kinds of technologies different family formations different religious beliefs and different political structures Some of theses groups fought with each other others were in alliance with other some traded with each other still others had never heard of each other Estimates of the population of indigenous peoples north of contemporary Mexico at the time of the first European contact range from around 3 8 18 million 400 Years Later Around 1900 The population of the United States and Canada reached its low point of 400 000 a size between 2 and 10 5 of the indigenous population existing before European contact Today Lauren Hedrick October 22nd 2013 American Indian exists as a legal category The federal government issues Certificates of Degree of Indian Blood indicating descent from federally recognized tribal groups American Indian exists as an identity Descendants of groups who once fought with o would never have met each other now attend pan tribal events such as Pow Wows Low educational attainment high unemployment and short lives are usually all associated with the American Indians Whites o WASPs White Anglo Saxon Protestant Usually very hard working motivated and dedicated to their work Usually associated with the upper class Usually found in the New England area o White Ethnics People who immigrated to the United States from other places earlier in time who were first not seen to be white Now they are integrated within the group of people considered to be white Ethnicity tends to be symbolic The demographics in the United States is changing very fast there are states that are already becoming Minority Majority States States where the minority groups account for almost 50 of the population Hispanics Latinos o Becomes the largest racial ethnic minority group in 2002 o More than 1 6th of the US population o Latinos account for just over half of foreign born population in the US o 2010 Census choices for Hispanic Latino or Spanish origin Mexican Puerto Rican Cuban and Central and South Americans o Educational Attainment Overall Hispanics have the lowest overall education attainment of any ethnic group Attributed to the fact that many of them are immigrants Asian Americans o About 14 7 million in the US population 5 o Chinese Japanese Filipinos Indians Koreans Vietnamese Hmong Laotian Cambodians o Fastest Growing group in the US o Model Minority Highest median household income Due to the fact that many of the Asian immigrants value education as the only way to move up the social ladder therefore they put a higher value on education than other American families Lauren Hedrick October 22nd 2013 Median household income and not