201.11 Race and Ethnic Relations

8/4/2019 201.11 Race and Ethnic Relations

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2009 he McGraw HillCompanies

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Race and Ethnic Relations


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Race is a socially constructed category composed of

people who share biologically transmitted traits that

members of a society consider important. There are no

biologically pure races.

Race is a significant concept chiefly because most

people consider it to be such. Biologically speaking,

race has less and less meaning in the United States

Basic Definitions


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Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage. Ethnicity involveseven more variability and mixture than race because most

people identify with more than one ethnic background.

A minority is a category of people, distinguished by

physical or cultural traits, who are socially disadvantaged. Minorities have two major characteristics:

They share a distinctive identity.

They occupy a subordinate status.

Basic Definitions


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Racial and Ethnic Groups

Minority group: subordinate group whose

members have significantly less control or power

over their own lives than members of the dominant

group Racial group: group set apart from others because of

physical differences that have taken on social

significance

Ethnic group: group set apart from others primarily

because of its national origin or distinctive cultural

patterns


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Racial and Ethnic Groups in the

United States, 2006

Note: Percentages do not total 100 and

subtotals do not add up to totals in major

categories because of overlap between

groups (for example, Polish American Jews

or people of mixed ancestry, such as Irish

and Italian). White ancestry is for the year

2000, and percentages are based on total

population in that year.

Source: Author estimates based on American

Community Survey 2006, Tables DP-1 and

R0203, in Bureau of the Census 2007d;Sheskin and Dashefsky 2006.


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Race

Race as a biological construct does not

exist Racial formation: sociohistorical process in which racial

categories are created, inhibited, transformed, and destroyed

Social construction of race: process by which people come to

define a group as as a race based on physical characteristics as

a race based on physical characteristics, but also on historical,cultural, and economic factors


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Race

The one-drop rule was a vivid example of the

social construction of race

Race is often used to justify unequal access to

economic, social, and cultural resources based on theassumption that such inequality is natural

Stereotypes: unreliable generalizations about all

members of a group

Often used to justify inequality


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Race

Multiple Identities

2000 census gave people option of identifying

themselves with multiple racial categories for the

first timeHalf of those classified as multiracial were under

age 18

Points toward growing awareness of populationdiversity


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U.S. Racial Categories 1790-2000


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National Map 14-1

Where the Minority-Majority Already Exists

Source: Macionis , John J. Sociology, 10th Ed ,

Pearson Prentice Hall , 2005 Ch 14


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Ethnicity

An ethnic group is set apart from others

explicitly because of its national origin or

cultural patternsDistinction between racial and ethnic

minorities not always clear-cut

Distinction between racial and ethnicgroups is socially significant


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Prejudice is a rigid and irrational generalization about anentire category of people. Prejudices are prejudgments andthey may be positive or negative.

Stereotypes are exaggerated descriptions applied to everyperson in some category.

One measure of prejudice issocial distance, that is, howclosely people are willing to interact with members ofsome category.

Almost eighty years ago, Emory Bogardus developed theseven-pointsocial distance scale and determined that

people felt much more social distance from some

categories than from others.

Attitudes and their consequences


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A recent study using the same scale reported threemajor findings:

A trend toward greater social acceptance hascontinued.

People see less difference in various minorities.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks mayhave contributed to low social acceptance ofArabs and Muslims.



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Racism refers to the belief that one racial category isinnately superior or inferior to another.

Does Race Affect Intelligence?

Theories of prejudice:Scapegoat theory holds that prejudice results from

frustrations among people who are themselvesdisadvantaged.

A scapegoat is a person or category of people,typically with little power, whom unfairly blame fortheir own troubles



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Authoritarian personality theory views prejudice as a

personality trait in certain individuals.

The cultural theory of prejudiceargues that

prejudice is embedded in culture.The conflict theory of prejudiceproposes that

powerful people use prejudice to justify oppressing

others.



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Authoritarian personality theory views prejudice as apersonality trait in certain individuals.

The cultural theory of prejudiceargues that prejudice isembedded in culture.

The conflict theory of prejudiceproposes that powerfulpeople use prejudice to justify oppressing others.

Discrimination is an action that involves treating variouscategories of people unequally.



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Patterns of Intergroup Relations

Pluralism: mutual respect for one anothers culturesamong the various groups in a society, which allows

minorities to express their own cultures without

experiencing prejudice

In U.S., pluralism is more of an ideal than

a reality

Switzerland exemplifies a modern

pluralistic state


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The Melting Pot. Probably the most importanttheory stating that ethnic minorities would livetogether in harmony.

Multiculturalism is a society in which each groupcelebrates its own characteristics

Some people feel this harms the wider society,for example

http://www.faculty.ccc.edu/aberger/PerilsofMulticul

Patterns of Intergroup Relations
http://perilsofmulticulturalism.pdf/http://perilsofmulticulturalism.pdf/


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Segregation refers to the physical and social separation ofcategories of people. It may be voluntary, but is usuallyimposed.

Assimilation is the process by which minorities graduallyadopt patterns of the dominant culture. Racial traits can

diminish over time only through miscegenation,biological reproduction by partners of different racialcategories.

Genocide is the systematic annihilation of one category ofpeople by another.

Amalgamation: when a majority group and a minority group combineto form a new group

Patterns of Interaction.


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Brought to this country as indentured servants or slaves.

Sociologist Gunnar Myrdal referred to as the American

dilemma. In 1865

This denial of basic human rights was a sharp contradiction to the

promise of the American republic

Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlawed slavery After Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws perpetuated the

subordinate status of African Americans.

Racial Groups: African Americans


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In the first part of the twentieth century, a mass migration of

African Americans to the cities of the North occurred followed by the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Even today African Americans continue to beeconomically disadvantaged as a group,

Problem exacerbated by the loss of factory jobs thathas accompanied Americas move to a serviceeconomy.

The educational gap between whites and AfricanAmericans has narrowed substantially in recent years.

Political clout of African Americans has increasedsubstantially in recentdecades.

Racial Groups: African Americans


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Source: Macionis , John J. Sociology, 10th Ed , Pearson Prentice Hall , 2005

National Map 14.4 (b) The Concentration African Americans by County, 2000


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Native Americans were the original inhabitants

of the Americas. Before European contact, they lived in hundreds

of distinct societies.

Between 1871 and 1924, they were subjected to a

policy of forced assimilation.Now they are being encouraged to migrate from

reservations to the cities in search of economicopportunity, but they remain far behind whites ineducational and economic standing.

Many tribes and individuals have recently cometogether to assert pride in their culture.

Racial Groups: Native Americans


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National Map 14.2 Land Controlled by Native Americans, 1790-1998


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2009 Alan S. Berger 25

Asian Americans make up about 4 percent of the UnitedStates population. They have a model minority image.

Chinese immigration started with the Gold Rush. When the economy soured, discrimination increased

and harsh laws were enacted limiting furtherimmigration.

In response, most Chinese Americans clustered in

closed ghettoes called Chinatowns. Assimilation andupward mobility marked the era that began withWorld War II.

Chinese Americans currently outpace the nationalaverage economically and educationally, althoughmany living in Chinatowns continue to experience

poverty Currently, about 3.1 million Chinese Americans live in

U.S.

Racial Groups: Asian Americans


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Japanese Americans also came to this country in the last

century to work, and soon experienced legal and socialdiscrimination. During the Second World War manywere confined in relocation camps. After the war, manymade a dramatic economic recovery, and today thisgroup is above the national average in financial standing.Their upward social mobility has also strongly

encouraged cultural assimilation and interracialmarriage.

More recent Asian immigrants include Koreans andFilipinos.

Large-scale Korean immigration followed the Korean

War. Korean Americans often own and operate smallbusinesses.

Filipinos enjoy relatively high incomes.



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Vietnamese Americans

Came to U.S. during and after Vietnam War and, overtime, gravitated toward larger

urban areas



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Major Asian American Groups

in the United States, 2006

Source: Authors analysis of American Community Survey 2006

in Bureau of the Census 2007d.


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White Anglo-Saxon-Protestants (WASPs), mostly of Englishorigin, have dominated the U.S. since colonial days.

Most came to this country highly skilled and motivated toachieve. Especially in the last century, many WASPs stronglyopposed subsequent waves of non-Anglo immigrants. Their

power is gradually declining in the twenty-first century.Ancestry Across the United States. The highest

concentrations of WASPs are in Utah, Appalachia,and northern New England.

RacialGroups: WASPS


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White ethnic Americans come from European

nations other than Britain.

Most experienced substantial prejudice

and discrimination when they arrived

here in the nineteenth century. Many

have now fully assimilated and achieved

substantial success.

Racial Groups: WASPS


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Source: Macionis , John J. Sociology, 10th Ed , Pearson Prentice Hall ,

2005 National Map 14-3 The Concentration of People of WASP

Ancestry across the United States


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Most Mexican Americans (or Chicanos) are recentimmigrants, though some lived in Mexican territoryannexed by the U.S. in the last century. They are wellbelow the national average in economic and educationalattainment.

Puerto Ricans are American citizens and travel freelybetween the island and the mainland, especially NewYork City. They are the most socially disadvantagedHispanic minority.

Racial Groups: Hispanic Americans


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Many Cubans fled the 1959 Marxist revolution andsettled in Miami and other U.S. cities. Most were well-educated business and professional people and havedone relatively well in this country.

Racial Groups: Hispanic Americans


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National Map 14.4 (a) The Concentration of Hispanics/Latinos by County, 2000


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Racial Groups

Arab Americans

About 3 million live in U.S.

Arabic language is single most unifying force

Most are not Muslim

For years, and especially after 9/11, have

been subject to profiling and surveillance bylaw enforcement


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Source: Curry et al Sociology For The Twenty-First Century,

Fifth Edition, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River,2008


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Residential Segregation

in the United States, 2005

Source: Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?G ll O i i J l 12 200

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