Ch. 1 Race and Ethnicity Class Exam Cards

Emigration

(by emigrants) Describes leaving a country to settle in another.

Class

Social ranking.

Immigration

(by immigrants) Denotes coming into the new country.

How Racism is Dysfunctional to Society

1.A society that practices discrimination fails to use the resources of all individuals. Discrimination limits the search for talent and leadership to the dominant group. 2.Discrimination aggravates social problems such as poverty, delinquency, and crime and places the financial burden of alleviating these problems on the dominant group. 3.Society must invest a good deal of time and money to defend the barriers that prevent the full participation of all members. 4.Racial prejudice and discrimination undercut goodwill and friendly diplomatic relations between nations. They also negatively affect efforts to increase global trade. 5.Social change is inhibited because change may assist a subordinate group. 6.Discrimination promotes disrespect for law enforcement and for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Five Functions Racist Beliefs have for the Dominant Group

1.Racist ideologies provide a moral justification for maintaining a society that routinely deprives a group of its rights and privileges. 2.Racist beliefs discourage subordinate people from attempting to question their lowly status and why they must perform "the dirty work"; to do so is to question the very foundation of the society. 3.Racial ideologies not only justify existing practices but also serve as a rallying point for social movements, as seen in the rise of the Nazi party or present-day Aryan movements. 4.Racist myths encourage support for the existing order. Some argue that if there were any major societal change, the subordinate group would suffer even greater poverty, and the dominant group would suffer lower living standards. 5.Racist beliefs relieve the dominant group of the responsibility to address the economic and educational problems faced by subordinate groups.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A person or group described as having particular characteristics begins to display the very traits attributed to him or her. Thus, a child who is praised for being a natural comic may focus on learning to become funny to gain approval and attention.

Minority group

A subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their own lives than do the members of a dominant or majority group.

Afrocentric perspective

African American studies scholar Molefi Kete Asante (2007, 2008) has called for an Afrocentric perspective that emphasizes the customs of African cultures and how they have pervaded the history, culture, and behavior of Blacks in the United States and around the world. Afrocentrism seeks to balance Eurocentrism and works toward a multiculturalist or pluralist orientation in which no viewpoint is suppressed.

Emigration vs. Immigration

As an example, from Vietnam's perspective, the "boat people" were emigrants from Vietnam to the United States, but in the United States they were counted among this nation's immigrants.

Segmented assimilation

Describes the outcome of immigrants and their descendants moving in to different classes of the host society. It emphasizes that there is not a single, uniform lifestyle in the United States and that much of the assimilation is into the working or even lower classes.

Melting pot

Diverse racial or ethnic groups form a new creation, a new cultural entity.

Dysfunctions

Elements of society that may disrupt a social system or decrease its stability.

Ethnic group

Ethnic minority groups are differentiated from the dominant group on the basis of cultural differences such as language, attitudes toward marriage and parenting, and food habits. Ethnic groups are groups set apart from others because of their national origin or distinctive cultural patterns.

Six Consequences of Subordinate Group Status

Extermination, expulsion, secession, segregation, fusion, and assimilation.

Gender group

Gender is another attribute that creates dominant and subordinate groups. Males are the social majority; females, although numerous, are relegated to the position of the social minority. Women are considered a minority even though they do not exhibit all the characteristics outlined earlier (e.g., there is little in-group marriage). Women encounter prejudice and discrimination and are physically distinguishable. Group membership is involuntary, and many women have developed a sense of sisterhood.

Pluralism

Implies that various groups in a society have mutual respect for one another's culture, a respect that allows minorities to express their own culture without suffering prejudice or discrimination. Whereas the assimilationist or integrationist seeks the elimination of ethnic boundaries, the pluralist believes in maintaining many of them.

Panethnicity

In the United States and other multiracial, multiethnic societies, panethnicity, the development of solidarity between ethnic subgroups, has emerged. The coalition of tribal groups as Native Americans or American Indians to confront outside forces, notably the federal government, is one example of panethnicity.

Fusion

Occurs when a minority and a majority group combine to form a new group. This combining can be expressed as A + B + C → D, where A, B, and C represent the groups present in a society and D signifies the result, an ethnocultural-racial group that shares some of the characteristics of each initial group. Mexican people are an example of fusion, originating as they do from the mixing of Spanish and indigenous Indian cultures.

Racial formation

Race definitions are crystallized through what Michael Omi and Howard Winant (1994) called racial formation, a sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed. Those in power define groups of people in a certain way that depends on a racist social structure.

Racism

Racism is a doctrine of racial supremacy that states one race is superior to another.

Ethnic cleansing

Refers to the forced deportation of people, accompanied by systematic violence including death.

Labeling theory

Related to the conflict perspective and its concern over blaming the victim is labeling theory, a concept introduced by sociologist Howard Becker to explain why certain people are viewed as deviant and others engaging in the same behavior are not. Students of crime and deviance have relied heavily on labeling theory. According to labeling theory, a youth who misbehaves may be considered and treated as a delinquent if he or she comes from the "wrong kind of family." Another youth from a middle-class family who commits the same sort of misbehavior might be given another chance before being punished.

Religious group

Religious minorities include groups such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Amish, Muslims, and Buddhists. Cults or sects associated with practices such as animal sacrifice, doomsday prophecy, demon worship, or the use of snakes in a ritualistic fashion also constitute religious minorities. Jews are excluded from this category and placed among ethnic groups. Culture is a more important defining trait for Jewish people worldwide than is religious doctrine. Jewish Americans share a cultural tradition that goes beyond theology. In this sense, it is appropriate to view them as an ethnic group rather than as members of a religious faith.

Stereotype

Stereotypes are unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account. The warrior image of Native American (American Indian) people is perpetuated by the frequent use of tribal names or even names such as "Indians" and "Redskins" for sports teams.

Conflict perspective

The conflict perspective assumes that the social structure is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups. The result of this conflict is significant economic disparity and structural inequality in education, the labor market, housing, and health care delivery. Specifically, society is in a struggle between the privileged (the dominant group) and the exploited (the subordinate group). Such conflicts need not be physically violent and may take the form of immigration restrictions, real estate practices, or disputes over cuts in the federal budget.

Functionalist perspective

The functionalist perspective emphasizes how the parts of society are structured to maintain its stability. According to this approach, if an aspect of social life does not contribute to a society's stability or survival, then it will not be passed on from one generation to the next.

Migration

The general term used to describe any transfer of population.

Biological race

The idea of biological race is based on the mistaken notion of a genetically isolated human group.

Colonialism

The maintenance of political, social, economic, and cultural dominance over people by a foreign power for an extended period.

Resegregation

The physical separation of racial and ethnic groups reappearing after a period of relative integration. Resegregation has occurred in neighborhoods and schools after a transitional period of desegregation. For example, in 1954, only 1 in 100,000 Black students attended a majority White school in the South.

Segregation

The physical separation of two groups in residence, workplace, and social functions.

Amalgamation

The process by which a dominant group and a subordinate group combine through intermarriage into a new people.

Assimilation

The process by which a subordinate groups takes on the characteristics of the dominant group and is eventually accepted as part of that group. Assimilation is a majority ideology in which A + B + C → A. The majority (A) dominates in such a way that the minorities (B and C) become indistinguishable from the dominant group. Assimilation dictates conformity to the dominant group, regardless of how many racial, ethnic, or religious groups are involved.

Marginality

The status of being between two cultures, as in the case of a person whose mother is a Jew and father a Christian. Marginalized individuals often encounter social situations in which their identities are sources of tension, especially when the expression of multiple identities is not accepted, and they find themselves being perceived differently in different environments, with varying expectations. Yet another source of marginality comes from children of biracial or multiracial parental backgrounds and children adopted by parents of a different racial or ethnic background. For these children or adolescents, developing their racial or ethnic identity says more about society's desire to fix labels onto their own actions.

Stratification

The structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and power in a society.

Sociology

The systematic study of social behavior and human groups, so it is aptly suited to enlarge our understanding of intergroup relations.

Racial group

The term racial group is reserved for minorities and the corresponding majorities that are socially set apart because of obvious physical differences. Notice the two crucial words in the definition: obvious and physical. What is obvious? Hair color? Shape of an earlobe? Presence of body hair? To whom are these differences obvious, and why? Each society defines what it finds obvious.

Globalization

The worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas. The increased movement of people and money across borders has made the distinction between temporary and permanent migration less meaningful.

Blaming the victim

Those who follow the conflict approach to race and ethnicity have remarked repeatedly that the subordinate group is criticized for its low status. That the dominant group is responsible for subordination is often ignored. William Ryan (1976) calls this an instance of blaming the victim: portraying the problems of racial and ethnic minorities as their fault rather than recognizing society's responsibility.

IQ

Typically, intelligence is measured as an intelligence quotient (IQ), which is the ratio of a person's mental age to his or her chronological age, multiplied by 100, with 100 representing average intelligence and higher scores representing greater intelligence. Note: IQ tests are NOT as accurate as they could be.

5 Characteristics of a Minority Group

Unequal treatment, distinguishing physical or cultural traits, involuntary membership, awareness of subordination, and in group marriage.

Genocide

Used to describe the deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation.

Annexation

When annexation occurs, the dominant power generally suppresses the language and culture of the minority. Such was the practice of Russia with the Ukrainians and Poles and of Prussia with the Poles. Minorities try to maintain their cultural integrity despite annexation. Poles inhabited an area divided into territories ruled by three countries but maintained their own culture across political boundaries.

World systems theory

Which views the global economic system as divided between nations that control wealth and those that provide natural resources and labor.

Conditions for Lengthy Assimilation

◾️The differences between the minority and the majority are large. ◾️The majority is not receptive, or the minority retains its own culture. ◾️The minority group arrives over a short period of time. ◾️The minority-group residents are concentrated rather than dispersed. ◾️The arrival is recent, and the homeland is accessible.