Race Relations test 3

Most social scientist consider prejudice as...

an attitude with an emotional bias.

Research evidence indicates that television programming...

distorts reality, promotes stereotypical role models, and significantly shapes and reinforces our attitudes about men, women, and minority groups.

Cognitive level of prejudice:

encompasses a person's beliefs and perceptions of a group as threatening or nonthreatening, inferior or equal, seclusive or intrusive,

Pop culture

enormous influence on how young men and women see themselves and one another in terms of sexuality and gender.

Ethnocentrism vs prejudice

ethnocentrism: a generalized rejection of all out-groups on the basis of an in-group focus. Prejudice: a rejection of certain people solely on the basis of their membership in a particular gorup

Intergroup contact

speaks to the importance of contact/interaction for improving intergroup relations. However it does not necessarily lead to more positive attitudes between the groups. The groups have to want to change their beliefs for it to have much of an effect at all. Successful outcomes are mostly likely going to come from perspective taking and joint efforts.

Social norms

the cultural guidelines that form the generally shared rules for defining what is and is not proper behavior. As individuals conform to the norms and prejudices of a desirable group, they begin to identify with this group and internalize its norms.

Prejudices are learned/taught through what?

the socialization process. The prevailing attitudes and actions may be embedded deeply in customs or laws. (The Jim Crow Laws)

Television influences attitudes toward racial or ethnic groups by:

the status of the parts it assigns to their members, the kind of behavior they display within these parts, and even the types of products they promote. Greatly influences children's attitudes in their area.

5 levels of discrimination

verbal expression, avoidance, exclusion, physical abuse, and extermination

Scapegoating

Blaming others for something that is not their fault.

Legislation to enact Affirmative Action in the US occurred in what year?

1972

Ethnophaulism

A derogatory word or expression used to describe a racial or ethnic group. Used and made by both minority and majority groups.

Relative deprivation

A lack of resources, or rewards, in one's standard of living in comparison with those of others in the society. Can lead to frustration.

Displaced aggression

A person directs hostility against a powerless group to compensate for feelings of insecurity or fear.

Verbal Expression

A statement of dislike or the use of a derogatory term.

Prejudiced discriminator

AKA active bigot. No conflict between attitudes and behavior. Will openly discriminate and be proud to do so.

Unprejudiced non-discriminators

AKA all-weather liberals. Are not prejudiced and do not discriminate. Often do not come into connect with or compete with minority groups.

Unprejudiced discriminators

AKA fair weather liberals. They do not have prejudices but will discriminate (probably against their ow beliefs if it benefits them personally)

Prejudiced non-discriminator

AKA timid bigot. They believe stereotypes and feel hostile towards minority groups but they stay silent in the presence of those who are more tolerant. They conform because they must.

Thirteenth amendment

Abolished slavery

Title VII

Addresses the need for openness, fairness, and color-blind opportunities for all.

Based on public opinion and current events, what will probably happen in the future regarding Affirmative Action in the US?

Affirmative Action policies are likely to continue, they are likely to be contested, and some existing policies may be dismantled.

Which minority group typically receives the highest levels o racial residential segregation in the US?

African Americans

Which group is the target for the "war on drugs"

African Americans, minorities are much more likely to have their vehicles searched in a routine traffic stop.

Robert Merton's 4 types of prejudiced people

All-weather liberal, fair-weather liberal, timid bigot, active bigot.

Prejudice:

An attitudinal system of negative beliefs, feelings, and action orientations regarding a certain group or groups of people

Racial Profiling

Any arbitrary police-initiated action based on race, ethnicity, or natural origin rather than a person's behavior.

Which of the following ethnic groups can be legally profiled in the US?

Arab Americans

Where do discriminatory actions occur frequently?

Areas of employment and residency and are likely to be concealed or denied by those who take them

Herbert Blumer

Argued that prejudice can include beliefs, feelings, and a predisposition to action, thus motivating behavior that derives from the social hierarchy.

The most underrepresented groups in the media in the US are...

Asians, Hispanic, and Native Americans. They are sometimes even negatively depicted.

Examples of institutional discrimination:

Banks rejecting more minority loan requests, concentration of minorities in low-paying jobs, segregated housing

Exclusion

Being excluded from certain jobs, housing, education, or social organizations. De jure segregation and de facto segregation.

Generalizations shape what?

Both ethnocentrism and prejudicial attitutudes

Three levels of prejudice:

Cognitive, emotional, and action oriented.

Diversity Training

Critical for all workplace organizations to take steps to prevent prejudice from creating dysfunctions within their daily operations. Heighten awareness by providing informational insights into the diversity of cultural value orientations and the current and future demographics of employees and clients.

Racial residential segregation in the US is...

Declining over time

Top 6 cities with the highest amount of segregation (from highest to lowest)

Detroit, Milwaukee, New York City, Newark, Chicago, and Philadelphia

Three types of ethnophaulisms:

Disparaging nicknames, Alleged physical characteristics or foods, and Alleged behaviors

The U.S. Department of Justice has guidelines rejecting racial profiling on the grounds that it is

Immoral and perpetuates negative racial stereotypes that are harmful to our diverse democracy. Does not make it illegal to profile though.

Emotional level of prejudice:

Encompasses the feelings (negative or positive) that a minority group arouses in a individual. These feelings may be triggered by social interaction or the possibility of social interaction.

Personality and T.W. Adorno study

Found a correlation between individuals' childhood experiences of harsh parental discipline and their development of an authoritarian personality as adults. This can lead to displaced aggression

Relative deprivation can lead to ________, which in turn, can lead to ____________ .

Frustration, aggression

Awareness of discrimination does what?

Individual's awareness of potential discrimination against themselves can provide self-esteem protection and vice versa.

Socialization

Individuals acquire the values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of their culture or subculture, including religion, nationality, and social class.

Sentencing inequalities in the criminal justice system is an example of what kind of discrimination?

Institutional

Organized efforts to lessen or eliminate prejudice generally fall into one of three approaches:

Intergroup contact, education, workplace diversity programs

Self-justification

Involves denigrating a person or group to justify maltreatment of that person or group. Can lead to prejudice and discrimination and a feeling of majority superiority over other groups.

Relationship between prejudices and the tendency to conform:

Many social scientists insist that a relationship between prejudice and a person's tendency to conform to societal expectations exists. By learning social norms and unknowingly accepting the prevailing prejudices, an individual is simply conforming to those norms.

Extermination

Massacres, genocides, and pogroms against certain groups of people.

How has the discontinuation of affirmative action programs effected enrollment of minorities in US colleges and universities?

Mixed effect. Some colleges have seen a dramatic drop in student enrollment, while others have seen an increase.

What increases whenever competition for available jobs increases.

Negative stereotyping, prejudices, and discrimination.

Music

One of the major criticisms of rap music is that it may affect attitudes and behavior regarding the use of violence, especially violence against women.

Stereotype

Oversimplified generalization by which we attribute certain traits or characteristics to a group without regard to individual differences.

True or false: A deeply prejudiced person is almost totally immune to new information

True.

Economic competition and its effect on prejudices

People tend to be more hostile when they feel their security or identities are being threatened. Economic competition and conflict breed prejudice.

What is most likely going to have the greatest effect in decreasing the use of racial profiling?

Persistent pressure from the media in highlighting the problem.

Affirmative Action

Positive efforts to recruit subordinate group members, including women, for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities. President Kennedy.

Origin of government involved affirmative action can be traced to who and what did he do?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he issued Executive Order 8802. This said not to discriminate against any worker based on race, creed, color, or national origin.

De facto segregation

Residential patterns that become embedded in social customs and institutions, maintaining racially segregated communities and schools.

De jure segregation

Segregation laws that kept all public places racially separated.

Even when based on false stereotypes, prejudices do what?

Shape our perceptions of various peoples and influence our attitudes and actions toward particular groups.

Passive discrimination

Silence towards someone's discrimination. Standing by and not taking action against or to stop discrimination.

Talcott Parsons

Social forces as a variable in the frustration-aggression theory. Suggested that both family and occupational structure may produce anxieties and insecurities that create frustration

Active discrimination

Someone actively discriminates against a group or minority.

Ethnic humor

Studies show that a person's response to an ethnic joke (positive or negative) often reflects the listener's attitude toward the group being ridiculed.

Education

Studies show this has a positive effect but they may not be universal nor long-lasting.

What event changed the U.S. government's view on racial profiling?

Terrorists attack in 2001 (9/11) changed the view from an undesirable police activity to a necessity for national security.

When the Supreme Court says they are reluctant to use "race-conscious remedies" it probably means

That it is not comfortable trying to overcome the effects of past, racially motivated discrimination, by using affirmative action programs to help minorities in the present, on the basis of race.

Some people think that affirmative action is pitting ______ against __________.

The "greater good"; personal freedoms

Social discrimination

The creation of the "social distance" between groups. (People tend to associate with people that look like them)

Institutional discrimination

The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals or groups resulting from the normal operations of society.

Sociological perspectives of prejudice focuses on

The objective conditions of society as the social forces behind prejudicial attitude and behind racial and ethnic relations.

Action-orientation level of prejudice:

The positive or negative pre-disposition to engage in discriminatory behavior.

Avoidance

The prejudiced person takes steps to avoid social interaction with a group.

Selective perception

The way people sometimes only absorb information that accords with their own beliefs and rationalize away information that does not.

Of the following statements, which is the most accurate with regard to the degree it is likely that prejudice will lead to discrimination, and vice versa? -It is very likely -It is very unlikely -Prejudice may lead to discrimination, but the reverse is never true -There is no simple cause-effect relationship between prejudice and discrimination

There is no simple cause-effect relationship between prejudices and discrimination

Because feelings shape our attitudes...

They reduce our receptivity to additional information that may alter our attitudes. Especially true if prejudice is embedded in cultural norms and systematically instilled in members of society. May be positive or negative though

Self-esteem

Those with high self-esteem tend to evaluate out-groups more positively than those with low self esteem.

Race-conscious remedies

Trying to overcome past discriminations by helping minorities.

The two most sociologically interesting classifications?

Unprejudiced discriminator and the prejudiced non-discriminator.

Public opinions of Affirmative Action

Very mixed.For some its more about increasing diversity and less about over coming past discrimination, "The past is in the past mindset". Some are more for it if it's based on economic reasons and not solely race.

Physical Abuse

Violent attacks on members of the disliked group. Ethnoviolence.

Ethnoviolence

Violent attacks or physical abuse on a disliked group, aka the physical abuse level of the 5 levels of discrimination.

Researchers found that commercials tend to portray...

White men as powerful, white women as sex objects, black men as aggressive, and black women as inconsequential.

Which group seems to have benefitted the most from affirmative action?

Women