Minority and Dominant Group Relations

Sub-TopicUnit7- Race and Ethnicity

Essential Questions: • What are minority and dominant groups?• What relationships exist between Minority and

Dominant groups?

Minority Group-People who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.

• Members of minority groups have substantially less control or power over their lives than members of the dominant group.

• Examples in the US: Blacks, Hispanics, women, Asians, homosexuals, disabled people (arguably)

• Nothing holds back whites from rising to the top in the US - and white males make up huge majorities of people in power in political, economic, and religious organizations.

Dominant Group

• Those that have the power over the minority group (not always the most number of people)

• Examples: • The British in colonial

India. • Whites in South Africa• White males in the United

States

Example: Apartheid in South Africa– Whites in South Africa were about 20% of the population compared to

around 70% black, 2% Asian, and 8% mixed. – Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times. However,

apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948. New legislation classified inhabitants into four racial groups ("native", "white", "coloured", and "Asian"),[1] and residential areas were segregated, sometimes by means of forced removals.

– Non-white political representation was completely abolished in 1970, and starting in that year black people were deprived of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands called bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states.

– The government segregated education, medical care, beaches, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people.[2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej-KqF5CJes South Africa’s State of Emergency

Who are the largest minority groups in the US today?

• Women – though a majority – treated differently and can be called a minority group

• What is the largest ethnic or racial minority in the US?

– Hispanics Now Largest U.S. Minority

»As of 2000 Census: Now 37 Million Latinos In U.S., Versus 36 Million Blacks

Characteristics of a minority group:

• Physical or cultural characteristics different from dominant group

• Victims of unequal treatment

• Share strong bond and a sense of group loyalty

• Tend to marry with their group

Sister Gioan Linh Nguyen with two women of the Red Dzao minority group in their town of Sa Pa in northern Vietnam (Catholics in Communist Vietnam)

Other minority and dominant group relations:

• Why study minority groups?– Because these groups are treated very

differently, and often very poorly, simply on the basis of physical or cultural characteristics.

– There are a variety of minority and dominant group relations:

• Genocide• Ethnic Cleansing• Subjugation• De Jure Segregation• De Facto Segregation• Assimilation• Multiculturalism

Genocide: extermination of a minority group with the intention of destroying the entire population

• Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, Ukrainian Holodomor

• Rwanda - Hutus(majority) and Tutsis (minority)

• The Rwanda Genocide was one of worst genocides to occur in the 20th century. Taking place in 1994, over 800,000 Tutsis (a Rwandan ethnic class) were killed in the small African country of Rwanda in about 100 days.

• Ethnic cleansing: removing a group from an area through terror, expulsion, and mass murder

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKIwE4hRnaY Ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia (with errors)

Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia - 1992

• The multiethnic state of Yugoslavia collapsed into civil war in the early 90s. The majority Serbs attempted to take over and dominate the majority Muslim area, Bosnia.

• The Muslims were forced out of town, terrorized, or murdered.

• 100,000 killed (80% Bosniaks) , 2000 people unaccounted for. 49,000 expelled.

– Today - Bosnia and Herzegovina is independent state with Muslim and Christians living side by side (and Serbia remains its own independent state.)

– Slobodan Milosevic - the leader of Serbia who was blamed for the war crimes - died in his prison cell during his trial in 2006.

Other group dynamics:• Subjugation: maintaining control

over a group through force

Subjugation Example: The New World

– What did the Spanish do after they discovered the New World? One of Columbus' first actions was to enslave several native Caribs!

– Next the Conquistadors conquered the Empires and civilizations of Latin America, enslaving the people.

– Native slaves were used on Spanish plantations and mines and around 90% of the population died due to disease and mistreatment.

– Millions of African slaves would be brought in to replace them over the centuries of Spanish domination of Latin America.

• De jure segregation: physical separation of a minority group from the dominant group based on laws (Ex: Jim Crow Laws)

• De facto segregation: physical separation of a minority group based on informal norms (Ex: Racism in hiring; who you hang out with/date)

• Assimilation: the blending of culturally distinct groups into a single group with a common culture and identity

• (A+B+C = A)• "Melting Pot"• Can be voluntary - families change their names

to more "Americanized versions" and teach their children English and American holidays and customs

• Or forced - Required to learn language for citizenship; Australia- 1910 to 1970 - the government forcibly removed aboriginal children to be raised by whites and learn the dominant Australian culture. (Australian government has officially apologized now)

Multiculturalism:

• Encouragement of racial and ethnic variation by the dominant group; or no dominant group at all

• (A+B+C = A+B+C)– "Salad Bowl"– Respect for all groups and enabling them to remain independent.– What happens when multiculturalism goes wrong? Example: Sweden https

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrfLjozo8NM

With a group:Which of these has the United

States practiced over its history???

• When/where?– subjugation - of black Africans/Native Americans– segregation of Chinese and blacks (de facto today - where do blacks

live? Where do whites live? White flight )– assimilation - good - encouragement of English and American ideals,

bad - taking Native Americans from their families and forcing them to learn "white ways”

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llgLTDYkY1w Cherokee Nation– Starting to practice multiculturalism (Ex: NYC mayor announcing

schools closed on 2 Muslim holidays)

“An American Dilemma”

• Swede – Gunnar Myrdal

– There is a gap between what Americans claim to believe and how they behave.

• Believe—freedom, equality, inalienable rights, dignity

• Behave—segregation of blacks, Native Americans, Japanese internment camps

Moving forward:

• Which is a better plan for our society - encouraging multiculturalism or assimilation?– "hyphenated-Americans" or just "Americans"– Can we truly be colorblind?