Jaymie Ticknor Intro Sociology 1510 Sect 900 25 October 2013 Chapter 10 Race and Ethnicity Race and Ethnicity Ethnicity Ethnic Group social category of people who share a common culture Ethnic Identity definition the group has of itself as sharing a common cultural bond Race Race group treated as distinct in society based on certain characteristics some of which are biological that have been assigned social importance How groups have been treated historically and socially define racial groups Social process when one says that race is socially constructed O Dinheiro Embranquence money lightens category such as social class can become racialized Racialization process whereby some social category such as social class or nationality takes on what society perceives to be racial characteristics Very few biological differences exist between racial groups Racial Formation process by which a group comes to be defined as a race Out group Homogeneity Effect all members of any out group are perceived to be similar or even identical to each other and differences among them are perceived to be minor or nonexistent Minority and Dominant Groups Minority Group any distinct group in society that shares common group characteristics and is forced to occupy low status in society because of prejudice and discrimination Dominant Group group that assigns a racial or ethnic group to subordinate status in society Racial Stereotypes Stereotypes and Salience Stereotype oversimplified set of beliefs about members of a social group or social stratum Racial Ethnic Stereotypes stereotypes based on race or ethnicity No group in U S history escaped process of categorization and stereotyping not White groups Salience Principle states that we categorize people on the basis of what appears initially prominent and obvious that is salient about them The Interplay Among Race Gender and Class Stereotypes Gender Stereotypes based on a person s gender Cultural Stereotypes conveyed and supported by the cultural media Social Class Stereotypes based on assumptions about social class status Stereotype Interchangeability holds that stereotypes especially negative ones are often interchangeable from one social class to another from one racial or ethnic group to another from a racial or ethnic group to a social class or from a social class to a gender Prejudice Discrimination and Racism Prejudice Prejudice evaluation of a social group and the individuals within it based on conceptions about the social group held despite facts that disprove them the beliefs involve both prejudgment and misjudgment Racial or Ethnic Prejudice prejudice based on race or ethnicity Ethnocentrism prejudice revealed in this belief that one s group is superior to all other groups Prejudice and Socialization Primary Socialization family peers and teachers Secondary Socialization media Discrimination Discrimination overt negative and unequal treatment of the members of some social group or stratum solely because of their membership in that group or stratum Racial Ethnic Discrimination unequal treatment of a person on the basis of race or ethnicity Redlining illegal practice in which an entire minority neighborhood is designed as no loan Gerrymandering calculated redrawing of election districts school districts and similar political boundaries in order to maintain racial segregation Residential Segregation spatial separation of racial and ethnic groups into different residential areas called American apartheid by Massey and Denton Racism Racism perception and treatment of a racial or ethnic group or member of that group as intellectually socially and culturally inferior to one s own group Forms of Racism Old Fashioned Racism obvious overt racism such as physical assaults from beatings to lynchings also known as traditional racism Jim Crow racism Aversive Racism subtle convert and nonobvious avoiding interaction with someone of another race Laissez Faire Racism after WWII and 1950s symbolic racism subtle but persistent negative stereotyping of minorities particularly Black Americans especially in the media tendency to blame Blacks themselves for the gap between Blacks and Whites in socioeconomic standing occupational achievement and educational achievement clear resistance to meaningful policy efforts designed to ameliorate America s racially oppressive social conditions and practices Color Blind Racism individual affected by this type of racism prefers to ignore legitimate racial ethnic cultural and other differences and insists that the race problems in America will go away if only race is ignored all together White Privilege allows Whites to define themselves as politically and racially tolerant as they proclaim adherence to a belief system that does not see or judge individuals by the color of their skin Institutional Racism negative treatment and oppression of one racial or ethnic group by society s existing institutions based on the presumed inferiority of the oppressed group exists at the level of social structure and is in Durkheim s sense external to the individual thus institutional Key to understanding institutional racism is seeing that dominant groups have the economic and political power to subjugate the minority group even if they do not have the explicit intent of being prejudiced or discriminating against others Racial Profiling example of institutional racism in the criminal justice system Institutional racism can exist even without prejudice being the cause Theories of Prejudice and Racism Psychological Theories of Prejudice Scapegoat Theory argues that historically members of the dominant group in the U S have harbored various frustrations in their desire to achieve social and economic success they vent their anger in the form of aggression members of minority groups become substitutes that take the place of the original perception of the frustration Authoritarian Personality characterized by a tendency to rigidly categorize other people as well as inclinations to submit to authority strictly conform be very intolerant of ambiguity and be inclined toward superstition Sociological Theories of Prejudice and Racism Functionalist Theory Assimilation a process by which a minority becomes socially economically and culturally absorbed within the dominant society Pluralism maintenance and persistence of one s culture language mannerisms practices art etc Symbolic Interaction Theory Contact Theory originated with the psychologist Gordon Allport