Sociology 101-6 Race and Ethnicity

Native American culture was eroded by the establishment of Indian boarding schools in the late nineteenth century. These schools, run by both Christian missionaries and the United States government, had the express purpose of "

"civilizing" Native American children and assimilating them into white society

Hispanic Americans have a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities; their segment of the U.S. population that self-identifies as Hispanic in 2013 was recently estimated at ________ of the total (U.S. Census Bureau 2014).

17%

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, ________ and 9 percent reported as Puerto Rican. Remember that the U.S. Census allows people to report as being more than one ethnicity.

60% reported as Mexican, 44% reported as Cuban

Name the group whose ancestors did not come here by choice.

African Americans

Restrictive immigration policies from the 1920s until 1965 curtailed all immigration, but

Arab immigration since 1965 has been steady

________ immigrants were not initially victimized in the same way that other white immigrants were. They settled in ethnic enclaves and established roots. However in the run up to World War I, sentiment turned against them strongly.

German

There is no minority or majority group that fits easily in a category or that can be described simply, however white ethnic Americans are made up of many immigrants including:

German, Irish, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants

The first Arab immigrants came to this country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were predominantly ________, and they came to escape persecution and to make a better life. These early immigrants and their descendants, who were more likely to think of themselves as Syrian or Lebanese than Arab, represent almost half of the Arab American population today (Myers 2007).

Syrian, Lebanese, and Jordanian Christians

dominant group

a group of people who have more power in a society than any of the subordinate groups

racism

a set of attitudes, belief, and practices that are used to justify the belief that one racial category is somehow superior or inferior to others

The term "race" is

a social fiction

scapegoat theory

a theory that suggest that the dominant group will displace its unfocused aggression onto a subordinate group

Illegal immigration from Mexico is due to

an enormous disparity of economic opportunity on two side of an open border

The difference between the terms "Arab" and "Muslim" is that Arab refers to ________ and Muslim refers to ________.

an ethnicity; a religion

minority group

any group of people who are singled out from the others for differential and unequal treatment

A minority group is made up of people who

are disadvantaged in some way by the dominant group

Ethnicity describes shared:

beliefs, language, or religion

Which of the following is an example of a numerical majority being treated as a subordinate group?

blacks under apartheid in South America

The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad was underway in the 1800s, and the Central Pacific section hired thousands of migrant ________ men to complete the laying of rails across the rugged Sierra Nevada mountain range.

chinese

The first Asian immigrants to come to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century were ________.

chinese

________ immigration came to an abrupt end with the Exclusion Act of 1882. This act was a result of anti-immigrant sentiment due to a depressed economy and loss of jobs. White workers blamed these migrants for taking their jobs. Because these men did not have the funds to return to their homeland, or to bring their families to the United States, they remained physically and culturally segregated in areas of large cities.

chinese

The ________ was characterized by boycotts, marches, sit-ins, and freedom rides as demonstrations by a subordinate group that would no longer willingly submit to domination.

civil rights movement

Because we grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice, ________ highlights how easy it is to project our stereotyped impressions onto groups in the manner in which we have seen them portrayed by the media without ever understanding the extent to which this may have influenced our thought processes.

culture of prejudice

A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization that

doesn't take individual differences into account

Scapegoat theory shows that:

dominant groups blame subordinate groups for their problems

When we speak of descent through such cultural backgrounds as Irish, Italian American, Russian, Jewish, and Serbian we are actually discussing

ethnicity

________describes shared culture, ancestry, nationality, or even religion.

ethnicity

Which intergroup relation displays the least tolerance?

genocide

There are wide differences among the various origins that make up the Hispanic American population, as well as different names for the group itself. The 2010 U.S. Census states that ________ refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.

hispanic or latino

The ________ focuses on how race and ethnicity provide strong symbols as sources of identity.

interaction theory

Race is about

physical markers

Although In the United States, the mutual respect required by ________ is often missing in our racial and ethnic relationships. It is considered to be the ideal where cultural differences may not necessarily be embraced but might be erased.

pluralism

What intergroup relationship is represented by the "salad bowl" metaphor?

pluralism

discrimination

prejudiced action against a group of people

ethnicity

shared culture, which may include heritage, language, religion, and more

Slaveholders and their supporters had begun to view blacks as innately inferior, therefore, ________, which was a crucial factor for slaveholders and their supporters.

slaves were denied even the most basic rights of citizenship

The focus of ________ theory would be on the inequalities of gender, social class, education, race, and ethnicity.

social conflict

colorism

the belief that one type of skin tone is superior or inferior to another within a racial group

white privilege

the benefits people receive simply by being part of the dominant group

Slavery eventually became an issue over which the nation divided into geographically and ideologically distinct factions, leading to

the civil war

genocide

the deliberate annihilation of a targeted (usually subordinate) group

pluralism

the ideal of the United States as a "salad bowl:" a mixture of different cultures where each culture retains its own identity and yet adds to the "flavor" of the whole

sedimentation of racial inequality

the intergenerational impact of de facto and de jure racism that limits the abilities of black people to accumulate wealth

segregation

the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions

redlining

the practice of routinely refusing mortgages for households and business located in predominately minority communities

By 1705, Virginia passed which of these laws?

the slave code which declared that any foreign-born non-christian could be a slave, and be considered property

model minority

the stereotype applied to a minority group that is seen as reaching higher educational, professional, and socioeconomic levels without protest against the majority establishment

culture of prejudice

the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture

racial profiling

the use by law enforcement of race alone to determine whether to stop and detain someone

intersection theory

theory that suggests we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes

Since the event on September 11, 2001, Arabs and Muslims have been stereotyped racial-ized, which means that

these groups have been assigned by the dominant group to a certain racial or ethnic identity or group that they did not identify themselves as such

Geographically, the Arab region comprises the Middle East and parts of Northern Africa (MENA). People whose ancestry lies in that area or who speak primarily Arabic may consider themselves

Arabs

Which subordinate group is often referred to as the "model minority?"

Asian Americans

What is discrimination?

Biased actions against an individual or group

________ are the second-largest Hispanic subgroup, and their history is quite different from that of other Hispanic groups. Their main wave of immigration to the United States started after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, and reached its crest with the Mariel boatlift in 1980.

Cuban Americans

Immigration from ________ and ________ continued well into the late 19th century and early part of the 20th century, at which time the immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to arrive in larger numbers

Germany and Ireland

The ________ were more of an underclass than the Germans and were not very well-off financially. They faced significant employment discrimination with some businesses posting "Help Wanted" signs in their windows but declaring that this particular group should not apply for jobs within those establishments.

Irish

Which of the following is the best explanation of racism as a social fact?

It does not need the actions of individuals to continue

Also in the 1890s, the Eastern European immigration wave included ________ immigrants escaping the religious uprisings of Eastern Europe, Poland and Russia.

Jewish

Historically, the most recent large-scale Asian immigration has come from ________ and ________.

Korea; Vietnam

While ________ immigration has been fairly gradual, ________ immigration occurred primarily post-1975, as political refugees, seeking asylum from harsh conditions in their homeland.

Korean; Vietnamese

Which group has been on this continent the longest, from between 45,000 and 12,000 BCE

Native Americans

Which federal act or program was designed to allow more Hispanic American immigration, not block it?

The Bracero Program

What makes Native Americans unique as a subordinate group in the United States

They are the only group that did not come here as immigrants

The racial term "African American" can refer to:

a black person living in the united states, people whose ancestors came to the US through the slave trade, or a white person who originated in Africa and now lives in the US

subordinate group

a group of people who have less power than the dominant group

Which of these terms refers to the situation when a subordinate group is forced by a dominant group to permanently leave a certain area or country?

expulsion

Which of the following involves the deliberate, targeted annihilation of a subordinate group?

genocide

________ indicates that racial prejudice is formed through communications and relations between members of the dominant group, and without these scenarios, individuals in the dominant group would not hold racist views. These scenarios allow the dominant group to support its view of the subordinate group, and to maintain the status quo

interaction theory

Which theory suggests we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes when we examine the advantages and disadvantages of race?

intersection theory

Social scientists today maintain that when it comes to "race," it

is not biologically identifiable and racial categories have been arbitrarily assigned

Although the first black president, Barack Hussein Obama, has been elected, despite being popularly identified as black, we should note that President Obama ________, and yet a startling percentage of the critiques of Obama have been based on his race. The most blatant of these was the controversy over his birth certificate, where the "birther" movement questioned his citizenship and right to hold office.

is of a mixed background that is equally white

Amalgamation is represented by the _____________ metaphor.

melting pot

Native Americans once numbered in the ________ but by 2010, they made up only________ of U.S. population (U.S. Census 2010).

millions; 0.9%

stereotypes

oversimplified ideas about groups of people

institutional racism

racism embedded in social institutions

In 1896, when the Supreme Court case Plessey v. Ferguson, was decided, stating that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional between whites and blacks in the South, this was an example of institutionalized

segregation

Which of these terms refers to the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions?

segregation

What doctrine justified legal segregation in the South?

separate but equal

Speedy Gonzalez is an example of:

stereotyping

After the establishment of the United States' government, discrimination against Native Americans was codified and formalized in a series of laws intended to

subjugate Native Americans and keep them from gaining any power

A term that can be used interchangeably with the term "minority" is

subordinate group

The term ________ can be used interchangeably with the term minority, while the term ________ is often substituted for the group that's in the majority.

subordinate group; dominant group

expulsion

the act of a dominant group forcing a subordinate group to leave a certain area or even the country

assimilation

the process by which a minority individual or group takes on the characteristics of the dominant culture

amalgamation

the process through which a majority group and a minority group combine to form a new group

Why did most white ethnic Americans come to the United States?

to escape oppression and for a better life

As a Caucasian in the United States, being reasonably sure that you will be dealing with authority figures of the same race as you is a result of:

white privilege

White ethnic Europeans formed the second and third great waves of immigration from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. They joined the newly formed United States which was made up primarily of

white protestants from england

Group size is not a characteristic of being a minority group. Which of the following groups could therefore be considered a minority group in the U.S.?

women

Which of the following theories would suggest that racial and ethnic inequalities must have served an important purpose in order to exist as long as they have?

functionalism

Many Arab Americans face _______________, especially after 9/11.

islamophobia

________ immigration began in the 1880s. Many of these immigrants came to Hawaii to participate in the sugar industry; others came to the mainland, especially to agricultural pursuits in California.

japanese

What is the one defining feature of a minority group?

lack of power

Which of these terms represents the ideal of the United States as a "salad bowl" where a mixture of different cultures is accepted and tolerated with each culture retaining its own identity and being valued equally with mutual respect on the part of all cultures, both dominant and subordinate?

pluralism

Stereotypes can be based on:

race, ethnicity, and gender

social construction of race

the school of thought that race is not biologically identifiable

The eradication of Native American culture continued until the 1960s, when Native Americans

were able to participate in and benefit from the civil rights movement