chapter 3 race and ethnicity exam review

melting pot

· After this necessary transitional phase, immigrants were expected to assimilate into the dominant culture · From here emerges the ideology of the melting pot · The idea that diverse streams of immigrants come to America and eventually merge into another distinct group, that of the "American"

Phrenology

· An early example of scientific racism · A now defunct branch of science that compared the skull sizes of various racial groups and used those data to try to determine group intelligence, social and cultural characteristics, and the presumed innate group differences between the races · American phrenologist Dr. Charles Caldwell was one of the first to make this argument · The skull of Native American people were compared to those of whites, to similar political ends · Native Americans inferiority meant they were bound for extinction and for this reason efforts to "civilize" them were a waste of time and money

Split labor market theory

· Another influential conflict perspective on racial inequality · Which emphasizes the ways both race and class contribute to inequality · They believe workers can be divided into two classes: higher-paid workers and lower-paid workers which are also divided among racial lines · They disagree with Marxists on the issue of who benefits from this type of market · They argue that in many cases capitalists are not the beneficiaries of this system · The system is maintained by higher-paid labor group, which works to maintain its privilege in the labor market

Intersectionality

· Another significant contribution of CRT · Which focuses on the interactions between different systems of oppression · Al individuals hold positions in multiple status hierarchies (such as gender, race, class, sexuality, nationality, and age) · These categories of difference are also complex and sometimes contradictory axes of identity · We can experience oppression due to our membership in certain status categories (being female in a patriarchy) while simultaneously being privileged by another status hierarchy · It does not portray social inequalities and status hierarchies as separate and discrete phenomena; rather it is relational in that race, gender, sexuality, and other dimensions of status hierarchies but always intertwined · It recognizes that the systematic and structural inequalities stemming from these status hierarchies (racism, sexism, homophobia)— are oppressions that do not operate independently of one another; instead, they intersect and influence one another, often creating new and distinct forms of oppression

Internal colonialism (Blauner)

· Argues that colonialism, which is the process through which one country dominates another by stripping it of its human and economic resources, can actually take place within one country · Dominant racial groups establish a system of oppression and exploitation of subordinate racial groups within their own nation in ways that benefit them · African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans were subordinated by white Americans for economic gain—African Americans were used for free labor during slavery, Native Americans were exploited for their land, and Mexican Americans were exploited for both their land and their labor

Racial formation perspective

· Argues that we live in a postcolonial, post-civil rights, color-blind era whose circumstances challenge earlier class-based theories and the ethnicity paradigm · Racial classification persists, despite claims of color-blindness and official commitments to racial equality and multiculturalism · Racial Formation in the US: From the 1960s to the 1990s, sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant shift the discussion away from the ethnicity paradigm and its assimilationist focus to what they call racial formations (the ways racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed over time) · Example: racial formation involves the changing understanding of race and place surrounding the immigration of Latinos into the southern US, particularly into small towns and rural areas; the understanding of race in the southern US has historically been a simple black-white binary, despite increasing racial diversity throughout the rest of the country

W.E.B. DuBois and E. Franklin Frazier and the discipline of sociology

· At the forefront of the effort to open the eyes of white America to issues of oppression were African American · Although both were marginalized from the mainstream of sociology because of their race, Du Bois and Frazier managed to make important contributions to the field of sociology and the study of race · Du Bois helped to establish the discipline of sociology in the US when it was still in its infancy; yet he was virtually ignored by the discipline · Du Bois was also an activist for racial justice, anti-lynching movement · He did not gain credit; his work remained marginalized from the sociological canon (the body of knowledge considered fundamental to an academic discipline) · Du Bois is the founding father of American sociology, yet because he built a sociological school that challenged popular ideas, such as scientific racism, and instead emphasized that social conditions contribute to racial inequality, his work went unrecognized by white, mainstream sociology · Frazier was one of the first to argue that the scientific practice of white American sociologists was based on the assumption that backs were inferior race

Scientific racism

· For generations scientists repeatedly sought to prove the innate inferiority of blacks and the superiority of whites · In different historical periods, scientific claims of inferiority were extended to American Indians, Mexicans, and the Chinese; these claims follow under this · This refers to using science to prove the innate racial inferiority of some groups and the superiority of others · This emerged in response to questions concerning the morality of slavery and gained traction as the global abolitionist movement grew in the mid 1800s It served the purpose of justifying the social order

Extinction thesis

· Fredrick L. Hoffman compared mortality rates, in particular infant mortality rates, in white and black communities to establish his "extinction thesis" · In studying black communities, Hoffman attributed high infant mortality (# of babies that die before the first year of life) and high death rates to the physical inferiority of the black population · He argued that any public or social investment in a dying race would be a waste of funds · His data was accurate but faulty, and blacks did have a higher infant mortality rates and death rates than whites · He did forget to take into account the socioeconomic factors faced by black Americans (poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, and lack of healthcare)

Marxist theories

· Generally, view the world as stratified along class lines · When Marxists look at racial inequality, they see it as an extension of capitalist exploitation · They view capitalists as benefiting from racial inequality as well as class inequality · Oliver Cromwell Cox (1948) argues that slavery was first and foremost a capitalistic enterprise · He emphasizes that racial exploitation and racial prejudice emerged in conjunction with the rise of capitalism; in his view racial inequality is an extension of class inequality · Marxist theory: workers are most powerful when they are united; many of them perceive racism as a means of dividing the working class along racial lines to the advantage of business owners and corporations who seek to exploit them

Manifest destiny

· It convinced many white Americans that it was their divine right to claim and occupy all the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans · By claiming that the American Indians, Chinese immigrants, and Mexicans living throughout the American West were inferior, white landowners were able to justify a seemingly insatiable demand for land and westward expansion

Colonized minority (involuntary minorities)

· Known as involuntary minorities, members of groups that are forced to participate in another society · In the US, African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans historically at least, fell into the category of involuntary, or colonized minorities · They face assaults on their cultural traditions, struggle with limited housing options (including being segregated and forced into ghettos), and are the targets of racist stereotypes and ideologies · Asian Americans fall between immigrant and colonized minority because not all Asian Americans found themselves in the US voluntarily

Immigrant minority (voluntary minorities)

· Known as voluntary minorities, members of subordinate groups who willingly choose to immigrate to a country · Their situation differs from that of, for example, Irish and German immigrants, who as voluntary minorities faced a lesser degree of discrimination, oppression, and marginalization · Asian Americans fall between immigrant and colonized minority because not all Asian Americans found themselves in the US voluntarily

Status inequalities

· Max Weber, another founder of the discipline, expanded the sociological analysis of class inequalities by focusing more broadly on status inequalities · Differences in prestige and honor; which are not necessarily related to one's economic status

Cultural pluralism

· Others criticized this assimilationist paradigm for ignoring the possibility of cultural pluralism · It is the idea that numerous ethnicities are capable of coexisting without threatening the dominant culture · Horace Kallen, cultural pluralism was initially perceived as radically anti-assimilationist; it did challenge assimilationism, it too failed to address the diverse experiences of racial minorities · Ex: as slaves, African Americans were once forcibly stripped of their cultures · It tended to favor relatively privileged people, people in a position to choose within cultures they embrace, a decision that sometimes means challenging the dominant group

Genome geography

· Over time, certain genetic mutations appear as evolutionary responses to the environment, such as melanin concentrations in people adapting to sunny climates or the presence of sickle cell gene as antimalarial mutation; this is referred to as genome geography In which portions of a genetic sequence are associated with specific geographic locations

ethnicity paradigm

· Robert Ezra Park promoted this paradigm · Which viewed race as part of ethnicity—but a less important factor in people's lives than ethnicity—and equated ethnicity with culture · The determinants of ethnicity involved race, religion, nationality, and language · This perspective shifted understandings of race from a biological to a social phenomenon, and so was considered progressive for its time

Eugenics

· Sir Francis Galton coined the term, arguing that the healthiest and ablest should be encouraged to have more children for the betterment of society · His views were considered a positive form of eugenics because his intention was to encourage the healthiest citizens to reproduce more · A negative interpretation of eugenics emerged during the chaos of the post-Civil War era and gained currency in the US

White racial frame

· Sociologist Joe Feagin has introduced one of the latest sociological perspectives on race/ethnicity · He describes the white racial frame as a world that includes racial beliefs, racially loaded terms, racialized images, verbal connotations, and racialized emotions and interpretations, as well as discriminatory actions that help justify ongoing racism · Frames help us make sense of our world by structuring our thinking and influencing what we see, or fail to see, in our daily lives · Feagin argues that a new perspective for understanding racism and racial inequality is needed to address the systemic nature of racism in the US

Model minority

· The Asian American experience is unique in that they are perceived to be model minority · a minority group that has succeeded in American society, specifically evidenced by their success in educational institutions · Asian CRT theorists argue that the model minority image is harmful to Asian Americans because it problematically homogenizes the experience of over 25 different Asian ethnic groups, each with its own culture, history, and immigration experience

Functionalist perspective

· The first perspective · It emphasizes social order over conflict: the value of consensus, harmony, and stability for a society, and the interdependence of social systems · From this perspective, diversity along racial/ethnic lines is potentially problematic because it often results in social conflict, which they believe societies should try to reduce

assimilationist paradigm

· The idea that ethnic minorities should eventually give up their ties to their home countries and become part of the dominant, Anglo-American culture of the US · From a functionalist perspective, the assimilation of immigrants is desirable because it decreases differences between groups and also decreases the potential for group conflict

Critical race theory

· The most significant interdisciplinary development in racial theorizing · CRT argues that ideologies of assimilation and color-blindness actually help perpetuate white dominance rather than eliminate it · The group theorists who created CRT, Derrick Bell, Allen Freeman, and Richard Delgado, began with the assumption that American society was anything but race neutral; they argue that racism was an ordinary aspect of our society · This theory emerges out of critical legal studies and has had considerable impact on the fields of education and policy studies · It takes on particular significance when applied to the legal arena, where laws are assumed to be fair, universal, and not biased toward or against any particular group · It challenges the presumed racial neutrality of law and argues that there is very little incentive to eradicate racism, as so many people benefit from race privilege and the racial hierarchy

Conflict perspective

· The second theoretical perspective is conflict theory · It emerges out of Marxist thought and emphasizes conflict between dominant and subordinate groups over scarce and valued resources in a society

Symbolic interactionism

· The third theoretical perspective, argues that we can understand society and social structures through a focus on small-scale human interactions, the use symbols in interaction, and the meanings we assign to symbols · Social structures are reproduced and maintained through interactions · For instance, during the era of Jim Crow, the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era of legal segregation and subordination of blacks throughout the South, whites routinely referred to black men of all ages as "boys"; this pattern was for from meaningless, it reinforced and reproduced a social order that emphasized the inferiority of all blacks to all whites

Anglo-conformity

· Vastly different experiences separated white ethnics from racial minorities in the US, many questioned he assumption that all immigrants and racial minorities should be expected to assimilate into the dominant culture · Some criticized assimilation as mere Anglo-conformity · It means that instead of becoming a melting pot, in which all groups come together and forge a new identity, all groups coming to the US are expected to drop their cultural identities in favor of an Anglo-American culture

Racialized organizations

· Victor Ray has introduced the theory of racialized organizations to shift analysis away from the understanding of organizations as race-neutral bureaucratic structures and instead makes visible how race and racism are reproduced through various organizational mechanisms · The idea that organizations are race neutral simply obscures the fact that they operate in white interests · One organizational mechanism is how, through rules and regulations, racialized organizations limit employee agency, including the range of acceptable emotional responses · Example: NFL; through its response to Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality: as he took a knee during the pre-game national anthem throughout the 2016 season, he experienced a swift and severe backlash from the NFL