SOC 019 - Exam 1

levels of prejudice

1. cognitive: encompasses a person's beliefs and perceptions of a group as threatening or nonthreatening, inferior or equal, seclusive or intrusive, or possessing other positive or negative characteristics 2. emotional: encompasses the feelings that a minority group arouses in an individual; feelings may be based on stereotypes (i.e. fear/envy, distrust/trust, disgust/admiration, contempt/empathy) 3. action-orientation: the positive or negative predisposition to engage in discriminatory behavior

minority group characteristics

1. receives unequal treatment from the larger society 2. group is easily identifiable because of distinguishing physical or cultural characteristics that are held in low-esteem 3. group feels a sense of group identity, that each of them shares something in common w/ other members 4. membership in minority group has ascribed status -- one is born into it 5. group members practice endogamy -- they tend to marry within their group, either by choice or by necessity, because of their social isolation

Levels of Discrimination

1. verbal expression (statement of dislike) 2. avoidance 3. exclusion (i.e. from jobs, housing, education) 4. ethnoviolence: violence against a disliked group/physical abuse (i.e. threats, verbal harassment, murder, arson, cross burning, vandalism, etc.) 5. extermination (i.e. genocide, massacres)

mestizo

1/2 Spanish, 1/2 Indian, but referred to as an entire mixed race population; were middle class population -- took pride in Spanish ancestry, but not Indian; are the largest group in Mexico today

In the 1850s, the South limited the definition of black to at least _____ (fraction) or ______ black.

1/4th (quadroon); 1/8th (octoroon)

Starting in __________, you were allowed to choose multiple races in the census.

2000

the "sociological imagination" (C.W. Mills)

C.W. Mills explained that an intricate connection exists between the patterns of individual lives and the larger historical context of society. Ordinary people do not realize this, however, and so view their personal troubles as private matters. Their awareness is limited to their "immediate relations w/ others" and "the social setting that is directly open to personal acceptance and to some extent [their] willful activity".

examples of institutional discrimination

1. banks rejecting a disproportionate number of minority home mortgage applicants; 2. sentencing inequities in the criminal justice system; 3. the concentration of minorities in low-paying jobs; 4. the former "separate but equal" educational structure in the south; 5. segregated housing

Beginning in the 18th century, social scientists rejected race as a ___________ ______________ and began to approach it as a ________ _______________.

biological concept; social construct

"invisible blacks"

biracial individuals sometimes passing for white in order to achieve higher social status

"_________" racial category emerged during slavery.

black

scapegoating

blaming others for something that is not their fault

Arthur de Gobineau (1800s)

classified humans into three ranks - black, white, and yellow -- established superiority for whites (considered racism today, but a scientific fact during this time)

parallel social institutions

clubs, organizations, newspapers, stores, churches, and schools that immigrants or minority groups create, duplicating those of the host society

Variable Status/The Gradient System

color and racial identity are based on social status therefore in some areas (i.e. Latin America) someone can change which racial group they identify with

outgroup

consists of all people who are not members of one's ingroup

Bakke case

declared that universities could offer a "plus factor" to minority students -- not to overcome the legacy of discrimination but to ensure a diversity of view points

affirmative action

deliberate efforts to improve minority representation, as well as their economic and educational opportunities

displaced aggression

directing hostility against a powerless group to compensate for feelings of insecurity and fear

Max Weber

discounted biological explanations for race -- highlighted social/political factors

cultural transmission

each generation transmits its culture to the next generation, which learns those cultural definitions at an early age

functionalism or functionalist theory

emphasizes that the various parts of society have functions, or positive effects, that promote solidarity and maintain the stability of the whole; argues that inequality meets the needs, or results from other conditions useful to society (i.e. inequality needed for jobs to be fulfilled)

Essentialism v.s. Racial Formations

essentialism: race = unchanging; racial formations: race = always changing

convergent subcultures

ethnic subcultures that tend toward assimilation w/ the dominant society

cultural relativism

evaluates beliefs and behavior in the context of that culture; the more widespread this perspective become known and applied, the more intergroup understanding and mutual acceptance grows

interactionist theory

examines the microsocial world of personal interaction patterns in everyday life rather than the macrosocial aspects of social institutions and their harmony or conflict

Carl Linnaeus

first person to classify humans into groups/rankings

functionalism v.s. conflict theory

functionalism = society is whole and stable; conflict theory = society is not whole, power conflict between minorities and the majority/resource conflict between rich and poor

Assimilating Minority Status

accounts for minorities who are not descendants of Africans

racial profiling

action taken by law enforcement officials on the basis of race or ethnicity instead of an individual's behavior (i.e. police officer stopping the vehicle of a black or hispanic driver expecting to find drugs in their possession)

discrimination

actual behavior, the practice of differential & unequal treatment of other groups of people, usually along racial, religious, or ethnic lines

anti-miscegenation

aimed at keeping "racial purity" for whites by not interbreeding with minority races

prejudice

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

stereotype

an oversimplified generalization by which we attribute certain traits or characteristics to an entire group w/o regard to individual differences

Dillingham Flaw

any inaccurate comparison based on simplistic categorizations and anachronistic judgments; thus faulty logic in making incorrect assumptions about the past and applying stereotypes to the present to compare two groups; making insecure and inappropriate comparisons between past events and the present

Thomas Theorem

argues that if people define situations as real, those situations become real in their consequences

General Ron Davis

assistant attorney to Phipps' case; defended the law -- claimed racial classification was necessary to comply w/ federal record keeping requirements and preventing diseases when creating programs

racialization

signifies the extension of racial meaning to a previously racially unclassified relationship, social group/class; historically specific ideological process; assigning a race to an uncategorized group of people (i.e. when Latinos migrate to the U.S. they are assigned as "Latinos"); organization of society along racial lines

ethnicity

similar to race; focused more on culture and national/geographic origin (i.e. language, religion, traditions, clothing, music, etc. all contribute to ethnicity); goes beyond a simple racial similarity to encompass shared cultural traits and/or national origin

Race is a pre-eminently _______________________ concept -- racial categories/meaning are given concrete expression by the specific social relations/historical context at the moment.

sociohistorical

persistent subcultures

subcultures that do not or refuse to assimilate; they adhere as much as possible to their own way of life, resisting absorption into the dominant culture

ethclasses

subsocieties resulting from the intersection of stratifications of race and ethnic group w/ stratifications of social class; stratification incorporating both race/ethnicity and class

dominant group

term used when referring to a minority group's relationship w/ the rest of society

false reality

the acceptance of ideology

categoric knowing

the classification of others of the basis of limited information obtained visually and perhaps verbally

Essentialism

the concept that race is a fixed quality of people that will never change or be removed from society; race is scientifically real

social distance

the degree of closeness or remoteness individuals prefer in interaction w/ members of other groups

mulatto

half African black, half white

Official categorization (i.e. census)

haphazard, arbitrary, and inconsistent; naturalizes racial categories; "naming" creates a social reality; social categories are political and reflect government agenda

false consciousness

holding attitudes that do not accurately reflect the objective facts of the situation

social identity theory

holds that ingroup members almost automatically think of their group as being better than outgroups because doing so enhances their own social status or social identity and thus raises the value of their personal identity or self-image

Genetically ____________ are the most similar to each other of all the species.

humans

cultural diffusion

ideas, inventions, and practices spread from one culture to another; cultures are influenced inevitably by other cultures

authoritarian personality (T. Adorno)

in a famous study, T.W. Adorno and his colleagues reported a correlation between individuals' early childhood experiences of harsh parental & their development of an authoritarian personality as adults; one who desires an authoritarian social system and seeks obedience, subordination, servile acceptance of authority

Arthur Jenson

in his essay he argued that hereditary factors shape intelligence

minority group

indicates a group's relative power and status in a society

social construction reality

individuals create a background against which to understand their separate actions and interactions w/ others; participants see this socially constructed world as legitimate by virtue of its "objective" existence; people create cultural products: material artifacts, social institutions, ideologies, etc. -- externalization

miscegenation

interbreeding of people considered to be mixed racial types

self-justification

involves denigrating a person or group to justify maltreatment of them; leads to prejudice and discrimination against members of another group

middleman minorities

may or may not have had experience with such work that is often onerous/highly stigmatized/risky and involves long hours

Race in the Media

media can connect with people by using racial stereotypes because we already have this perception ourselves

Dark ___________ (black skin) is found where sunlight is more intense.

melonin

Multiracial Identity Movement (1980s-1990s)

movements allow mixed race people to adopt a biracial/multiracial identity -- includes ALL mixed races (i.e. campus groups/clubs, Association of Multi-Ethnic Americans (AMEA))

In 1930, ___________ was removed from the census around the time of Jim Crow segregation because anyone who it multiracial would be considered black in order to keep segregation.

mulatto

Project Race

persuades schools to require multiracial options on official forms; discouraging use of the word "multiracial"; 2.3% of Americans checked more than one race on official forms in 2000

phenotype

physical difference between individuals

de facto segregation

physical separation of a group that is entrenched in customs and practices

de jure segregation

physical separation of a group that is established by law

Great Chain of Being

posited natural categories on a hierarchy established by God or nature

There is no universal definition of "blackness", but the people who define "race" and "blackness" are the people with the social ________ and ____________ (i.e. white people, scientists, the government).

power;control

Walter White

president of the NAACP who had blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, but was considered black because he had 1/46th of "black blood"; raised in a black community and subjected to white discrimination & violence; passed as white to escape lynchings; married a white woman which provoked outrage for marrying outside of the black community

Louisiana Civil Code

prohibited free people of color from marrying neither blacks nor whites -- made primarily to protect white women from black men

Civil Rights Movement

put an end to Jim Crow laws; major civil rights legislation passed

Race as an illusion

race is only socially real; it is in our mind and we can remove race from society; race is an illusion/an idea/not real

metis

racial hybrids (white/Indian) -- felt superior to native Indians; became valued middlemen (i.e. hunters, interpreters, etc.); went from middle --> bottom ladder when whites began settling/building railroads; rebelled --> dispersed --> reservations/isolated areas (1879-1884)

ethnic group

refers only to social groupings that are unique because of religious, linguistic, or cultural characteristics

Frank Boas

refuted scientific racism by rejecting the connection between race & culture/the assumption of continual higher & lower groups -- constantly changed by political struggle

conflict theory

sees society as being continually engaged in a series of disagreements, tensions, and clashes as different groups compete for limited resources; they argue that the social structure fails to promote the society as a whole, as evidence by existing social patterns benefitting some people while depriving others

chain migration

settling in an area already containing family, friends, or compatriots who located there earlier; trend w/ immigration; makes settling in a new country a much easier transition

Black unemployment is __________ of that of whites.

twice

"amateur biology"

a way of explaining the variations in human nature; racial beliefs operate in this way

Susie Guillory Phipps case (1982-1983)

unsuccessfully sued the Louisiana Bureau of Vital Records to change her racial classification from black to white; Phipps argued that she was white, but the bureau designated her as black because she was a descendant of a white planter & black slave (Louisiana State law declared anyone w/ 1/32 or more of "black blood" to be black)

Latin America: upper class v.s. lower class

upper class = whites (includes mulattoes and mestizos) lower class = unmixed blacks and Indians

85% of genetic _______________ actually occurs between two individuals of a so-called "race".

variation

True or false: A large minority of black/white marriages in the past 30 years has been black females with white males.

False

True or false: Statuses of mixed raced people does not vary in different societies.

False

True or false: We view race as interchangeable/something not necessarily "rooted" in nature.

False

One Drop Rule/Hypodescent Rule

"one drop of black blood makes you black" (American Rule only applies to blacks); when someone is biracial they are assigned to the status of the subordinate group (i.e. a child of a white parent and a black parent will be considered black because this is the lower status group); first occurred in the mid-1600s during the mixing of white indentured servants & black slaves -- mixed people were generally assigned the status of the slaves

Jim Crow laws

"one drop rule" was further strengthened; reinforced by threats and terrorism; laws prohibited inter-racial marriage; solidified the separation between blacks and whites

"Savage Inequalities" (Kozol)

-schools in pre-dominantly black or minority neighborhoods lacking in resources (i.e. staff, safe school conditions, course options); these schools are often located in poor communities and lack government funding, as a result students lack important skills and learning, there is a high dropout rate, low college retention rate, teen pregnancy, students lack goals/aspirations -students of advantaged neighborhoods and schools against "busing"

Is race biological?

- We use physical attributions to categorize people into races. - People believe abilities such as talent, intelligence, strength, etc. are defined by race genetic. - Race is not biological, but rather an idea that we attribute to biology.

Why is "race" social?

- Social institutions shape people's perceptions, attitudes, & relationships regarding "race" (i.e. families, laws, religion, etc.). - Political, ideological, & economic conditions generate & reproduce the concept of "race". - Race is an important factor that structures/permeates human life (i.e. inequality). - Race is not an explanation; it's a social phenomenon that NEEDS explanation.

"Forget Diversity" (Traub)

-the goal of affirmative action is to help black people overcome the historic legacy of discrimination -the goal of affirmative action in employment is to overcome hiring practices that had traditionally excluded/disadvantaged blacks

"Race"

- a sociohistorical concept -- race has changed over time - its social meanings is unstable (i.e. the meaning of "whiteness" is unstable) - constantly transformed by political struggle (i.e. civil rights) - a central axis of social relations -- an element of social structure

What does it mean to say race is "socially constructed"?

- how people appear physically is how society views us - no genetic variations between the "races" - no scientific evidence separating people by race - RACE = HUMAN INVENTION - stereotypes assigned to appearances - not a biological reality, but a social reality

racial formation

- the process in which race operates as a central axis of social relations, which determines social, economic, & political institutions & practices -- meanings of race assigned over time - the obvious "natural"/"common sense" qualities which the racial order exhibits testifies to the formation process of race

"Getting Under My Skin" (Terry)

-"Our country, from its very beginning, has been obsessed with determining who is white and who is black". -"To be both black and white, then, is to do nothing less than confound [shake] national consciousness". - a phenomenon of mulattos or biracial people having an internal conflict with their race -RACE MATTERS

"Not All of Them Are Pre-Med" (Steinberg)

-Asian-Americans not being viewed as "underrepresented" minorities in university admissions -affirmative action not applied to Asian-Americans -universities bundling Asian students into one category not taking into account differences in upbringing and education (i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Indian = one category) -colleges not acknowledging disadvantaged Asian-Americans

"Fix the Census' Archaic Racial Categories" (Prewitt)

-Census should expand/upgrade racial categories -fast growing mixed groups complain that categories are too vague/limited/ludicrious -Census categories are: white black Asian American Indian/Alaska native Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander -broad racial groupings are significant for protecting voting rights, schools/government institutions, understanding health disparities, applying to jobs/scholarships, diversifying populations

"Statement on 'Race'" (AAA)

-There is greater variation within "racial" groups than between them. -The interbreeding of different groups throughout history has maintained all of humankind as a single species. -"Race" was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America: the English, other European settlers, native Indians, and African slaves. -Present-day inequalities between so-called "racial" groups are not due to biological differences, but of historical and contemporary social, economic, and educational, and political circumstances.

"Top Colleges Take More Blacks But Which Ones?" (Rimer and Arenson)

-blacks still underrepresented in selective colleges -blacks in selective universities being mostly of West Indian, or African descent, or biracial -the ancestry of black students not being taken into account for university admissions

"Race: The Power of an Illusion. The Difference between Us" (Film)

-race is not biological -greater genetic variation within "racial" groups than between them

Equality Received Among Blacks (Opinionated)

Achieved Equality: 6% Feel they will soon achieve equality: 16% Feel they won't achieve equality in this lifetime: 40% Feel blacks will never achieve equality: 19% Don't know: 19%

Population Percentages (2010) [Predicted Population Percentages for 2050]

Black: 12.8% [12.8%] White: 63.9% [46%] Asian: 5% [9.9%] American Indian: 1% [less than 1%] Latino: 16.3% [31.3%]

In 2000, _________ became the largest minority in the United States.

Hispanic

Starting in 2010, according to the census ______________ origins are not considered a race.

Hispanic

Major Poverty Rates (In Percentages)

Native American: 25-30% Black: 25-30% Latino: ~25% Asian: 10-15% White: ~10%

Brian Begue

Phipps' attorney; argued that assigning racial categories was unconstitutional -- cited research that stated most whites have 1/20 of black ancestry

patterns of relationships between prejudice and discrimination (Merton's Model)

Prejudice and discriminates = active bigot Prejudice and does NOT discriminate = timid bigot NOT prejudice but does discriminate = fair-weather liberal NOT prejudice and does NOT discriminate = all-weather liberal

_________ is a social construct.

Race

ideology

a set of generalized beliefs used to explain and justify the interests of those who hold them; the higher class controls the ideology; system of beliefs/ideas that serve to legitimize the status quo

"racial etiquette"

a set of interpretive codes/racial meanings which operate in the interactions of daily life

True or false: "Most blacks want equal treatment and economic & political integration, not total assimilation".

True

True or false: Attempts to define a scientific meaning of race exist today.

True

True or false: Authors believe that race has always been/will always be at the center of society.

True

True or false: Black/white color line has historically been defined/enforced and seen as "pure" categories.

True

True or false: Hawaiians have a long tradition of treating race in a egalitarian manner -- contrasts with U.S. mainland.

True

True or false: Human variation DOES NOT correlate with "racial lines".

True

ethnogenesis

a process in which immigrants hold onto some homeland values, adapt others, and adopt some values of the host country

ethnocentrism

a "view of things in which one's own group is the center of everything and all others are scaled and rated w/ reference to it"; people's tendency to identify w/ their own ethnic or national group as a means of fulfilling their needs for group belongingness and security

Race

a categorization in which people sharing a visible biological characteristics regard themselves or are regarded by others as a single group on that basis

internal-colonialism theory

a concept explaining the experiences of blacks, his panics, and native Americans in terms of economic exploitation and rigid stratification; minority groups are exploited and controlled by the government and legal system (i.e. blacks pushed into "ghettos", native Americans in reservations); similar situation to the times of colonialism

power-differential theory

a conflict theory; the theory that intergroup relations depend on the relative power of the migrant group and the indigenous group; because the two groups usually do not share the same culture, each strives to maintain its own institutions; which group become dominant and which becomes subordinate governs subsequent relations; the amount of power one group has shows how that group will interact w/ other groups

culture of poverty

a controversial viewpoint arguing that the disorganization and pathology of lower-class culture are self-perpetuating through cultural transmission

ingroup

a group to which individuals belong and feel loyal; everyone is part of some ingroup

social structure

the organized patterns of behavior among the basic components of a social system -- establishes relatively predictable social relationships among the different peoples in society; patterned relationships among individuals in society; these patterned relationships and positions endure beyond isolated situations

"Racial formations" (Omi and Winant)

the process by which social, economic, and political forces construct and challenge racial categories over time; both everyday experience and structural conditions; disagrees with the idea of essentialism and race as an illusion

socialization

the process of individuals acquiring the values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of their culture or subculture, including religion, nationality, and social class

symbolic interaction

the shared symbols and definitions people use when communicating w/ one another -- provides the focus for understanding how individuals create and interpret the life situations they experience; symbols -- our spoken language, expressions, body language, tone of voice, appearance, images of television, and other mass media -- are what constitute our social worlds

ethnic stratification

the structured inequality of different groups w/ different access to social rewards as a result of their status in the social hierarchy; system of inequality based on race; when the system of inequality falls along racial/ethnic lines

institutional discrimination

the unequal treatment of subordinate groups inherent in the ongoing operations of society's institutions (i.e. banking, criminal justice, employment, education, health care, housing, etc.)

"True Colors: Discrimination in Everyday Life" (Film)

the unequal treatment of whites and blacks in American society; every day discrimination towards blacks - Two men, one white (John) and one black (Glen), both middle class and having the same education, were observed as they participated in everyday activities. - In record shop, Glen is tailed/followed through the shop, while John is allowed to browse silently, not followed. -In car dealership, John is offered a car for nothing down, while Glen is offered a car with a $2,000 down payment. -In employment, Glen is turned down a job and lied to that there are no more job positions, while John is encouraged to apply for the job. -In housing, broker has strict/serious tone with Glen and tells Glen "this is not a ghetto", while John's broker uses a friendly tone with him, encouraging him to purchase/rent the apartment.

monogenesis

theory that God had made only one species of humanity

majority group

those that hold the majority of positions of social power

Seven Status positions

to gain perspective on current issues of racial identity; the seven status positions are: 1) The Hypodescendent Status, 2) The In-Between Status ("buffer group"), 3) Bottom of the Ladder, 4) Top of the Ladder, 5) Highly Variable Status: Latin America, 6) Egalitarian Pluralism for the Racially Mixed: Hawaii, 7) Assimilating Minority Status

reference group

when an outgroup serves as an exemplary model to the ingroup if the members of the ingroup think it has a conspicuous advantage over them