SOCIOLOGY CH. 9 RACE

Discrimination

Harmful or negative acts (not mere thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category without regard to their individual merit.

Symbolic ethnicity

A nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but of identifying with a past or future nationality. For later generations of white ethnics, something not constraining but easily expressed, with no risks of stigma and all the pleasures of feeling like an individual.

BLACK-NONBLACK

According to Lee, the new color line is _________-____________. The biggest differences on demographic characteristics like income, educational attainment, and interracial marriage will be between blacks and all other groups, while the distinctions between these other groups will continue to narrow (p. 367).

*not being asked to speak as a representative of an entire race * being able to easily find "flesh" colored bandages *NOT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT HOW TO PAY FOR COLLEGE CORRECT! *being able to find cultural foods at most grocery stories

According to the brief review of Peggy McIntosh's essay on white privilege in your text, which of the following examples is NOT a privilege generally associated with whiteness in the United States?

Collective resistance

An organized effort to change a power hierarchy on the part of a less-powerful group in a society.

Primordialism

Clifford Geertz's term to explain the strength of ethnic ties because they are fixed in deeply felt or primordial ties to one's homeland culture.

PREJUDICE- is negative thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group; DISCRIMINATION- is harmful or negative acts against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category.

Define PREJUDICE and DISCRIMINATION and describe the range of attitudes that emerge from the intersection of the two.

RACIALIZATION is the formation of a new racial identity in which new ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people. A recent example of racialization is the anti-Muslim backlash in America since 9/11. Being Muslim is linked in the mind of Americans to being Arab, so anyone who "looks Arab" (for men it's often linked to skin color and facial hair and perhaps clothing, and for women it's often linked to the use of a head scarf) is thought to be Muslim and therefore anti-American.

Define RACIALIZATION and use this concept to explain the anti-Muslim backlash in America since the 9/11 attacks.

Recall that SOCIAL DARWINISM is the application of Darwinian ideas (mainly the evolutionary "survival of the fittest") to society. In Nazi Germany, Jews were believed to have innate differences, and the government sought to purify society so those with more desirably characteristics survived. The notion of social Darwinism is also behind the idea of eugenics (pp. 332-334).

Define social Darwinism

Today DNA testing is used to determine people's racial makeup, and while this process may be more accurate, on some level, than nineteenth-century racial measures, it still supports the notion of biological racial differences.

Describe current scientific tools that are used in an attempt determine race.

The first wave of ASIAN IMMIGRANTS to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century was made up mostly of unskilled laborers. The current, second wave consists primarily of well-educated and highly skilled people from all over Asia. Asians are unique among U.S. minorities in that they generally achieve a high economic status. Asian Americans are often labeled a "model minority" due to their high average socioeconomic status and educational attainment. However, this label ignores the discrimination that Asian immigrants have faced in this country as well as the continuing poverty and discrimination faced by some Asian ethnics today (p. 347).

Describe differences in the first and second waves of ASIAN IMMIGRATION to the United States and explain what is unique about the Asian-American community.

Four ways that groups respond to oppression are WITHDRAWAL, PASSING, ACCEPTANCE, AND RESISTANCE. ACCEPTANCE and RESISTANCE CAN be closely linked, as members of an oppressed group might appear to accept their subordinate position while internally they feel enormous resentment. OVERT COLLECTIVE RESISTANCE CAN take the form of revolution, nonviolent protest, or riots.

Describe four ways that groups respond to oppression.

An ethnic identity becomes racialized when it is subsumed under a forced label, racial marker, or "otherness."

Describe how an ethnic identity can become racialized.

It is predicted that by 2050 whites will no longer be a majority in the United States. This change could bring about a narrowing of the definition of white, similar to what happened in the nineteenth century, as whites try to demarcate boundaries around their group in relation to the growing minorities.

Describe how expected changes in the racial makeup of the United States during the next thirty to forty years may influence concepts of race.

The idea of race did not exist as we know it today. People recognized broad physical differences between groups of people, but they did not discriminate based on those differences.

Describe how race was conceived in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

While overt racism is, for the most part, considered unacceptable in America today, a new kind of racism is on the rise in America and elsewhere, which focuses on CULTURAL AND NATIONAL DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN RACIAL ONES.

Describe the "new racism."

The LATINO POPULATION IN AMERICAN is very diverse, though one common trait is that most Latino immigrants have come to the United States voluntarily in search of economic opportunity. Latinos have a somewhat ambiguous racial identity—sometimes they are grouped with whites and sometimes not.

Describe the LATINO POPULATION in the United States and explain why it is difficult to label this group racially.

European colonizers decimated Native American populations through war and the introduction of new diseases as well as through the practice of forced ASSIMILATION, whereby Native American children were put in government-run schools and taught to reject their culture and embrace Anglo culture. Today Native Americans are on the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

Describe the means used by European colonizers to dominate Native Americans both physically and psychologically and describe the current socioeconomic status of Native Americans.

Many of the court decisions that were instrumental in implementing desegregation in America have been struck down or restricted in the past few years, leading to significant levels of resegregation in public schools. This does not bode well for minority students as research has shown that they benefit from being in racially mixed schools.

Describe the pattern of resegregation that seems to be going on in American schools currently and explain the potential negative effects this could have on educational achievement for minorities.

Race is a social construct that changes over time and across different contexts. To be white in America, for example, changed from being a somewhat inclusive category in the late eighteenth century to being much more narrowly defined in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and then shifted back to a broader definition in the mid-twentieth century. All these changes were in response to social realities.

Describe the various shifts the concept of "whiteness" has undergone in America since the late eighteenth century.

ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION can persist even after a group has become fairly well assimilated. 1.One explanation for this phenomenon is PRIMORDIALISM- (the ethnic ties are fixed in a deeply felt connection to one's homeland culture); 2. another is that it is in people's interests to maintain a strong ethnic identification—it serves as a type of interest group to promote and protect its members.

Describe two arguments for why ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION persists even after a group has become fairly well assimilated.

Subaltern

Describes a subordinate, oppressed group of people.

Robert Park's 1920 STRAIGHT-LINE ASSIMILATION MODEL INVOLVED four stages—CONTACT, COMPETITION, ACCOMMODATION, AND ASSIMILATION; in 1964, Milton Gordon offered up a variation on Park's model, one that involved seven stages that immigrants could pass through or become stuck in. Gordon did not assume that full assimilation was always the outcome.

Explain Robert Park's model of straight-line assimilation and Milton Gordon's modifications to the model.

In the nineteenth century there were a number of scientists and thinkers researching and attempting to "explain" racial differences. Many of their efforts were biased due to ETHNOCENTRISM -the judgment of other groups by one's own standards and values), so they were actually "explaining" white superiority.

Explain how ETHNOCENTRISM was at the core of many nineteenth-century theories about race, such as phrenology and physiognomy.

Backers of EUGENICS -the science of genetic lines and the inheritable traits they pass on from generation to generation) claimed that traits could be traced through bloodlines and bred into (for positive traits) or out of (for negative traits) populations. This thinking influenced immigration policy in the early twentieth century, when undesirable populations were kept out of the country so they wouldn't pollute the "native" (i.e., white) population.

Explain how it may have influenced the development of the EUGENICS movement.

As Europeans came into contact with different peoples and cultures during the Age of Exploration, racism was used to justify the conquest and colonization of foreign lands.

Explain how race was used during the Age of Exploration to legitimize imperial conquest and rule.

The ONE-DROP RULE, which evolved from U.S. laws forbidding miscegenation, was the belief that "one drop" of black blood makes a person black. Application of this rule kept the white population "pure" and lumped anyone with black blood into one category.

Explain how the ONE-DROP RULE was used to establish racial boundaries.

PLURALISM, in the context of race and ethnicity, refers to the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society, with no one group in the majority.

Explain the concept of PLURALISM in terms of a multiracial society and think about whether you would describe America as pluralistic.

The 2000 U.S. Census created separate categories for race and ethnicity and, for the first time, allowed people to check off more than one box for racial identity. These changes have given us a better idea of the diversity of the American population.

Explain the significance of changes in the 2000 Census that created separate categories for race and ethnicity and allowed people to check off more than one box for racial identity.

A WEALTH GAP exists between whites and minority groups in America that has historical roots and cannot be overcome simply through income equality. Public policies formulated to address white-nonwhite disparities have not paid enough attention to this particular legacy of racism.

Explain the significance of the WEALTH GAP THAT exists between whites and minority groups in America.

SEGREGATION is the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity. Segregation was official policy in the United States, particularly in the South, until the 1960s, but despite being illegal for over 40 years, there is still ample evidence of segregation in American society today, particularly in schools, housing, and prisons.

Explain the various elements that have contributed to SEGREGATION in schools, neighborhoods, and even in prisons in the United States.

Whites who explore and express an affinity for their European roots can be said to be adopting a symbolic ethnicity. It makes them feel good about their heritage and it's something they can focus on and express when they choose to; it isn't an identity that they must assume all the time.

Explain why SYMBOLIC ETHNICITY is something positive and voluntary for whites.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF WHITENESS STUDIES is important because it shows that being white—something that has been held up as a standard of normality or neutrality—is as much a social construction as any other racial category.

Explain why the DEVELOPMENT OF WHITENESS STUDIES IS important to the overall study of race.

The BLACK COMMUNITY IN America is marked by high rates of poverty, crime, unemployment, incarceration, and health problems. The community is also expanding as new immigrants from Africa and even "old" immigrants from the Caribbean resist being lumped together with African Americans.

Explain why today BLACKS IN AMERICA are being viewed less as a monolithic group than in the past.

Institutional racism

Institutions and social dynamics that may seem race-neutral but actually disadvantage minority groups.

1. WHITE PEOPLE are not identified, first and foremost, by their attachment to a specific race, so they have more flexibility and power to choose how they want to be identified. 2. Being the dominant race, they don't have to think about race much at all.

List two examples of white privilege in the United States.

Eugenics

Literally meaning "well born"; the theory of controlling the fertility of populations to influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation.

GHETTOS

Many factors contributed to the development of _______, including white flight, institutionalized housing discrimination, and redlining practices by federal loan agencies (p. 357).

Nativism

Movement to protect and preserve indigenous land or culture from the allegedly dangerous and polluting effects of new immigrants.

Scientific racism

Nineteenth-century theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race.

Ethnicity

One's ethnic quality or affiliation. It is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchal, fluid, and multiple, and based on cultural differences, not physical ones per se.

Social construct

Race is a ________ __________. It has no deterministic, biological basis.

mid-seventeenth century.

Racism, as we know it today, did not exist in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, or during other ancient times. In fact, modern racial thinking did not develop until the; ___-______ ________

Ancient Greece

Racism, as we know it today, did not exist in ________ ___________. In fact, modern racial thinking did not develop until the mid-seventeenth century (p. 328).`

Straight-line assimilation

Robert Park's 1920s universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate: they first arrive, then settle in, and achieve full assimilation in a newly homogenous country.

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwinian ideas to society, namely, the evolutionary "survival of the fittest.

One-drop rule

The belief that "one drop" of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from U.S. laws forbidding miscegenation.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own.

Racialization

The formation of a new racial identity in which ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people.

Segregation

The legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity.

Genocide

The mass killing of a group of people based on racial, ethnic, or religious traits.

GENOCIDE

The most contentious form of minority-majority group relations is, of course, outright conflict. _______________ is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. EXAMPLE; The 1994 mass killing and targeted destruction of Tutsis in Rwanda was genocide.

Ontological equality

The philosophical and religious notion that everyone is created equal.

Pluralism

The presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society.

Miscegenation

The technical term for interracial marriage; literally meaning "a mixing of kinds"; it is politically and historically charged—sociologists generally prefer exogamy or outmarriage.

Prejudice

Thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group.

Park's model assumes that all immigrants assimilate in the same pattern and reach the same outcome; Gordon's model includes multiple kinds of assimilation outcomes.

What is a main difference between Robert Park's and Milton Gordon's models of assimilation?

RACE

______ can be defined as a group of people who share a set of characteristics—usually physical ones—and are said to share a common bloodline.

PASSING

________ is a response to racial oppression that involves blending in with the dominant group. It can involve physical changes but may also involve things like changing a surname (p. 360).

RACE

________ is imposed, usually based on physical differences—hierarchical, exclusive, and unequal

RACISM

________ is the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal human traits.

ETHNICITY

__________ is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchical, fluid, cultural, and not so closely linked with power differences

SYMBOLIC ETHNICITY

___________ ____________ is a nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but identifying with a past or future nationality. Many white Americans choose to identify with a past nationality, which illustrates the privileged positions of whites in American society.

Racism

____________ is the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits. According to the text, racist thinking is characterized by three key beliefs: (1) humans are divided into physical types, (2) these physical traits are linked to distinct cultures, personalities, and so forth, and (3) certain groups are superior to others (p. 327).

MISCEGENATION

_____________________ is the technical term for a multiracial marriage.

Race

a group of people who share a set of characteristics—typically, but not always, physical ones—and are said to share a common bloodline.