Sociology Chp. 9

Native Americans and Alaskan Natives

Native Americans and Alaska Natives are believed to have migrated to North America from Asia thousands of years ago. Native Americans have been the victims of genocide and forced migration, and are the most disadvantaged racial or ethnic group in the United States in terms of income, employment, housing, nutrition, and health.

Theories of Prejudice

The frustration-aggression hypothesis states that people who are frustrated in their efforts to achieve a highly desired goal will respond with a pattern of aggression toward others who become scapegoats (individuals or groups incapable of offering resistance to others' hostility or aggression). Psychologist Theodor W. Adorno and his colleagues concluded that highly prejudiced individuals tend to have an authoritarian personality, characterized by excessive conformity, submissiveness to authority, intolerance, insecurity, superstition, and rigid stereotypical thinking. While prejudice is an attitude, discrimination involves actions or practices of dominant-group members (or their representatives) that have a harmful effect on members of a subordinate group. Types of discrimination range from individual discrimination to institutional discrimination to the most extreme form, genocide.

White Ethnic Americans

The term "white ethnic Americans" is applied to a wide diversity of immigrants who trace their origins to Ireland and to Eastern and Southern European countries. Many people in white ethnic American categories who were not Protestant immigrants experienced discrimination.

Latinos/as (Hispanic Americans)

The terms Latino (for males), Latina (for females), and Hispanic are used interchangeably to refer to people who trace their origins to Spanish-speaking Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. Hispanic households have lower median household incomes and higher poverty rates than white Americans.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Global Racial and Ethnic Equality

Throughout the world, many racial and ethnic groups seek self-determination, which is the right to choose their own way of life. As many nations are currently structured, however, self-determination is impossible.

Authoritarian Personality

a personality type characterized by excessive conformity, submissiveness to authority, intolerance, insecurity, a high level of superstition, and rigid, stereotypic thinking.

Assimilation

a process by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups become absorbed into the dominant culture.

Prejudice

is a negative attitude based on faulty generalizations about members of specific racial, ethnic, or other groups. Although prejudice can be either positive (bias in favor of a group, often our own), or negative (bias against a group, one we deem less worthy than our own), it most often refers to the negative attitudes that people have about members of other racial or ethnic groups.

Dominant Group

is a racial or ethnic group that has the greatest power and resources in a society.

Racism

is a set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices used to justify the superior treatment of one racial or ethnic group and the inferior treatment of another racial or ethnic group. Overt racism is more blatant and may take the form of public statements about the "inferiority" of members of a racial or ethnic group. Subtle racism is hidden from sight and more difficult to recognize.

Subordinate Group

is one whose members, because of physical or cultural characteristics, are disadvantaged and subjected to unequal treatment and discrimination by the dominant group.

Genocide

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

Split Labor Market

the division of the economy into two areas of employment: a primary sector or upper tier, composed of higher-paid (usually dominant-group) workers in more-secure jobs, and a secondary sector or lower tier, composed of lower-paid (often subordinate-group) workers in jobs with little security and hazardous working conditions.

Theory of Racial Formation

the idea that actions of the government substantially define racial and ethnic relations in the United States.

Gendered Racism

the interactive effect of racism and sexism on the exploitation of women of color.

Segregation

the spatial and social separation of categories of people by race, ethnicity, class, gender, and/or religion.

Stereotype

Expectations about a person's appearance, behavior, or other characteristic on the basis of his or her membership in a particular group (especially racial or ethnic groups) are stereotypes. These expectations are sometimes positive, such as expecting Asian Americans to be smart and studious, but they are often very negative and hurtful.

Ethnic Pluralism

the coexistence of a variety of distinct racial and ethnic groups within one society.

Institutional Discrimination

the day-to-day practices of organizations and institutions that have a harmful effect on members of subordinate groups.

Scapegoats

a person or group that is incapable of offering resistance to the hostility or aggression of others.

Conflict Perspectives

Conflict theorists focus on economic stratification and access to power in their analyses of race and ethnic relations. Some emphasize the caste-like nature of racial stratification, while others analyze class-based discrimination. Still others examine internal colonialism, which occurs when members of a racial or ethnic group are conquered or colonized and forcibly placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group, and gendered racism, the interactive effect of racism and sexism on the exploitation of women of color. Split labor market theory proposes that white workers and members of the capitalist class benefit from the exploitation of people of color. The theory of racial formation states that actions of the government substantially define racial and ethnic relations in the United States.

Functionalist Perspectives

Early functionalists studied immigration and patterns of dominant and subordinate group interactions. Assimilation, including both cultural and structural assimilation, is the process by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups become absorbed into the dominant culture. Ethnic pluralism is the coexistence of a variety of distinct racial and ethnic groups within one society. Segregation is the spatial and social separation of categories of people by race, ethnicity, class, gender, and/or religion.

Ethnicity

Ethnicity refers to one's cultural background or national origin.

Stereotypes

Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to regard one's own culture and group as the standard—and thus superior—while all other groups are seen as inferior. Ethnocentrism is maintained and perpetuated by stereotypes, which are overgeneralizations about the appearance, behavior, or other characteristics of members of particular categories.

Racial Classifications and Meaning of Race

In the United States, race is defined by perceived skin color: white or nonwhite. Categories of official racial classifications may (over time) create a sense of group membership or "consciousness of kind" for people within a somewhat arbitrary classification. Racial purity is also assumed to exist. The way people are classified remains important because such classifications affect their access to a variety of goods and services.

Subtopic Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives

In the contact hypothesis, symbolic interactionists point out that contact between people from divergent groups should lead to favorable attitudes and behavior when certain factors are present; that is, members of each group must have equal status, pursue the same goals, cooperate with one another to achieve their goals, and receive positive feedback when they interact with one another in positive, nondiscriminatory ways. If these factors are not present, intergroup contact may lead to increased stereotyping and prejudice.

Dominant and Subordinate Groups

Many sociologists prefer the terms dominant and subordinate to identify power relationships based on perceived racial, ethnic, or other attributes and identities. To sociologists, a dominant group is a racial or ethnic group that has the greatest power and resources in a society. A subordinate group is one whose members, because of physical or cultural characteristics, are disadvantaged and subjected to unequal treatment and discrimination by the dominant group.

Middle Eastern Americans

Middle Eastern Americans speak a variety of languages and have diverse religious backgrounds: some are Muslim, some are Coptic Christian, and others are Melkite Catholic. Although some are from working-class families, Lebanese Americans, Syrian Americans, Iranian Americans, and Kuwaiti Americans primarily come from middle- and upper- income family backgrounds. Since 2011, Arab Americans have experienced persistent discrimination, particularly if they are Muslim.

Ethnocentrism

Most people tend to regard their own culture as superior to others or as a standard by which others should be measured. This is called ethnocentrism.

The Social Significance of Race and Ethnicity

Race and ethnicity take on great social significance because how people act in regard to these terms drastically affects other people's lives, including what opportunities they have, how they are treated, and even how long they live. Historically, stratification based on race and ethnicity has pervaded all aspects of political, economic, and social life.

Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the United States

Racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in the United States. African Americans, Latinos/as, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and mixed-race individuals constitute more than one-third of the United States population. Conflicts may become more overt and confrontational as people continue to use sincere fictions—personal beliefs that reflect larger societal mythologies, such as "I am not a racist" or "I have never discriminated against anyone"—even when these are inaccurate perceptions. Being aware that race as a social construction exists and has meaning in everyday life promotes development of the political insights necessary to mobilize ourselves and others against injustice and inequality in our society.

Race and Ethnicity

Sociologists emphasize that race is a socially constructed reality. Although scientists agree that races do not actually exist, some groups are still racially defined because the idea persists that races are distinct biological categories with physically distinguishable characteristics and shared common cultural heritage. The concept of race does have real consequences and effects in the social world.

Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States

Sociologists have explored the processes by which racial and ethnic groups come into contact with and adjust to each another and to the dominant group over time.

African Americans

The African American (black) experience has been uniquely marked by slavery, segregation, and persistent discrimination. In the 1950s, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement used civil disobedience to call attention to racial inequality and to demand greater inclusion of African Americans in all areas of public life. Efforts to prohibit discrimination by way of affirmative action have been characterized by critics as promoting reverse discrimination, which occurs when a person who is better qualified is denied a position because another person received preferential treatment as a result of affirmative action.

Asian Americans

The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term Asian Americans to designate the many diverse groups with roots in Asia. Asian Americans, the fastest-growing racial group in the nation, have the highest-income and the most formal education of any racial group in the United States. Chinese and Japanese immigrants started entering the United States in the mid-1800s, while Korean, Filipino, Indochinese, and Asian Indian Americans arrived later. Many Japanese Americans suffered discrimination during World War II when they were placed in internment camps.

Worldwide Racial and Ethnic Struggles

The cost of self-determination is the loss of life and property in ethnic warfare. Today, ethnic violence persists around the world.

An Alternative Perspective: Critical Race Theory

The critical race theory is based on the belief that racism is an ingrained feature of U.S. society that appears to be ordinary and natural to many people. Civil rights legislation and affirmative action laws (formal equality) may remedy some of the more blatant forms of racial injustice, but have little effect on subtle forms of racism that people of color experience. Central to this argument is the belief that interest convergence is a crucial factor in bringing about social change.

Racism

While prejudice and stereotypes reflect the negative attitudes and expectations a person might have about members of a particular racial or ethnic group, racism combines those attitudes and expectations with behavior that treats members of that group in an inferior way.

White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (British Americans)

White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) have been the most privileged group in the United States. Although many English settlers initially came to North America as indentured servants or prisoners, they quickly emerged as the dominant group, creating a core culture to which all other groups were expected to adapt.

Concept Clip: Social Construction of Race

[Background Music] Society differentiates among groups of people in a number of ways and race is one of the most common. But, what exactly is race? Many people still see race as a biological category, namely a group of people with physically distinct characteristics. The sociological view is that race is a social construction meaning a group is defined by how it is perceived and then how the group is labeled and treated culturally, politically, and economically based on that perception. And because it is a social construction, race is not a fixed static attribute. In fact, racial categories change over time and place and the external physical traits used to categorize different racial groups, most commonly skin color, are pretty arbitrary. Genetic differences within a so-called racial group are just as diverse as genetic differences between groups. For example, looking at the U.S. Census in 1910 shows us, in regards to race, the U.S. Government listed 2 types of Asian people, Chinese and Japanese and 100 years later the 2010 census identified 4 more physically and sociopolitically diverse groups with an option to indicate an other type as well. In 2020, Hispanics may move from having the option to select a Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish ethnicity in the census to having the option to define themselves racially instead. What impact does this expanded labeling have on a society? On the one hand it may serve the purpose of celebrating diversity. On the other, people in racial minority groups have often faced constraints based on their perceived race that limit their access to vital resources such as jobs, housing, education, and healthcare. So the biological myth of race can result in some very real social disparities. In the last two U.S. censuses people may now identify with multiple racial groups, checking off more than one box. While the trend toward multiracial identification is growing, few people have chosen to do so thus far. And, although the concept of race is becoming increasingly blurred and will continue to do so, many people continue to be treated according to the racial group in which others see them and that means perception of race is not only a social construction but a social reality [crowd noise].

Race

a category of people who have been singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis of real or alleged physical characteristics.

Ethnic Group

a collection of people distinguished, by others or by themselves, primarily on the basis of cultural or nationality characteristics.

Internal Colonialism

according to conflict theorists, a practice that occurs when members of a racial or ethnic group are conquered or colonized and forcibly placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group.

Discrimination

actions or practices of dominant-group members (or their representatives) that have a harmful effect on members of a subordinate group.

Individual Discrimination

behavior consisting of one-on-one acts by members of the dominant group that harm members of the subordinate group or their property.