soci204~ quiz 1

Race

A social and cultural system by which people are categorized based on presumed biological differences.

Identity

A political process/structure that relies on people of specific religions, racial and ethnic groups, or social backgrounds to form exclusive political alliances.

Class

A person’s location in the social stratification, which encompasses particular levels of access to and control over resources for survival.

Ethnicity

Identity that encompasses cultural aspects of an individual’s life, including religion, tradition, language, ancestry, nation, geography, history, belief, and practice.

Prejudice

A judgment of an individual or group, often based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, class, and other social identities.

Stereotypes

Assumptions or generalizations applied to an entire group.

Discrimination

The differential allocation of goods, resources, and services, and the limitation of access to full participation in society, based on an individual’s membership in a particular social category.

Oppression

The systematic devaluing, undermining, marginalizing, and disadvantaging of certain social identity groups in contrast to a privileged norm.

Racism

A system of oppression by which those groups with relatively more social power subordinate members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power.

Formal racism

Discriminatory practices and behaviors that are sanctioned by official rules,
codes, or laws of an organization, institution, or society.

Informal Racism

Discriminatory practices and behaviors that are not formally sanctioned but rather are often assumed to be the natural, legitimate, and normal workings of society and its institutions.

White Privilege

The advantage that white people have (over blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and others) as the result of laws, practices, and behaviors that preserve and (re)create societal benefits for them.

Whiteness Studies

An interdisciplinary subfield of scholarship examining whiteness and white privilege that includes contributions by literary theorists, legal scholars, anthropologists, historians, psychologists, and sociologists.

Color Blindness

The view (or assertion) that one does not see race or ethnicity, only humans.

Microaggressions

Intentional or unintentional brief insults to a person or group; these may be verbal, nonverbal, or behavioral.

Color Blind Racism

An ideology with four components: abstract liberalism, which encompasses abstract concepts of equal opportunity, rationality, free choice, and individualism and is used to argue that discrimination is no longer a problem, and any individual who works hard can succeed; naturalization, in which ongoing inequality is reframed as the result of natural processes rather than social relations; cultural racism, in which inherent cultural differences are used to separate racialized groups; and minimization of racism, or the argument that we now have a fairly level playing field, everyone has equal opportunities to succeed, and racism is no longer a real problem.

Matrix

The surrounding environment in which something (e.g., values, cells, humans) originates, develops, and grows. The concept of a matrix captures the basic sociological understanding that contexts—social, cultural, economic, historical, and otherwise—matter.

Social Institutions

Patterned and structured sets of roles and behaviors centered on the performance of important social tasks within any given society.

Relational Aspects of Race

A concept that encompasses the defining of categories of race in opposition to each other (e.g., to be white means one is not black, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American) and according to where they fall along the continuum of hierarchy.

Intersectional Theories

Theories that argue that race and gender (as well as other salient social identities) are intertwined and inseparable, and no individual social identity can be fully comprehended on its own.

Racial Frames

The ideological justifications, processes, procedures, and institutions that define and structure society.

Agency

The ability to effect change, to act independently, and to exercise free choices.

Bacon’s Rebellion Of 1676

A revolt in which Black, Irish, Scottish, and English bond servants fought against the planter elite in Virginia.

Black Code

France’s Colonial Ordinance of 1685, which legislated the life, death, purchase, marriage, and religion of slaves, as well as the treatment of slaves by their masters.

Colonialism

A set of hierarchical relationships in which groups are defined culturally, ethnically, and/or racially and in which these relationships serve to guarantee the political, social, and eco-nomic interests of the dominant group.

Frontiers

Contested spaces or borders, such as those between the Spanish, French, and English colonies in the Americas.

Genocide

The large-scale, systematic destruction of a people or nation.

Left-Handed Marriages

Temporary alliances between men and women equivalent to common-law marriages, particularly common in the French colonies in the Americas. These unions often resulted in children who served as interpreters and mediators.

Miscegenation

The mixing of different racial groups.

Plaçage

The name given to the social arrangement of left-handed marriages by free people of color in the colonial era. A woman involved in such an arrangement had a status lower than that of a wife but higher than that of a concubine.

Quadroon

A person who is one-fourth black by descent.

Racial Caste System

A hierarchical social system based on race that is considered to be permanent.

Settler Colonies

Colonies created by external, imperialist nations in which those nations control political, economic, social, and cultural mechanisms through a colonial elite.

Turner Thesis

The theory, developed by historian Frederick J. Turner in the late 19th century, that the American identity—including democratic governance, rugged individualism, innovative thinking, and egalitarian viewpoints—was forged in the nation’s frontier experience.

Assimilation

The process through which people gradually accept and adapt to the dominant culture after immigrating to a new society. The stages of assimilation generally begin with adoption of the dominant language and cultural patterns and then advance to increased interaction between new-comers and dominant group members, reduced levels of prejudice and discrimination, intermarriage, and eventually full integration and acceptance.

Dawes Act

Law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1887 that required Native American nations to divide their communal reservations into individual plots of 160 acres, with each assigned to a family head. The remaining land was given to White homesteaders and various corporations, such as railroads and ranching companies.

Gestational Surrogacy

The practice of a woman carrying an implanted embryo, not her own, to full term for the biological parent(s).

Great Migration

The movement, from 1916 to 1970, of more than 6 million African Americans out of the rural South to the urban areas of the North, Midwest, and West, in search of greater safety and higher-paying, industrial jobs.

Ideology of Domesticity

An ideology in which the home and family became defined as women’s realm, and women were not expected to work for pay outside the home. This ideal was generally attainable only by well-off White families.

Legacy of Slavery Thesis

A theoretical approach that argues that Black family structures are the result of the long history of structural inequality faced by Blacks since slavery.

Marriage Promotion

State and federal programs that teach relationship and communication skills to women in poverty, with the aim of increasing their chances of marriage, as marriage is assumed to be a solution to poverty for single mothers. No research evidence exists to support the ideas on which such programs are based.

Nuclear Family

A family consisting of a mother, a father, and their children (biological or adopted), living together. The idea of the “ideal” and “traditional” nuclear family usually assumes a working father and stay-at-home mother.

Revisionist Thesis

A theoretical approach, developed in direct response to stereotypes and the legacy of slavery thesis, involving research that redirects attention to the strength and resilience of Black families.

Settler Colonialism

Colonies created by external, imperialist nations in which those nations control political, economic, social, and cultural mechanisms through a colonial elite.

Separate Spheres

The concept that men’s area of influence, or sphere, is the world outside the home, and women’s sphere is the home and domesticity. The ideology of separate spheres for men and women developed along with industrialization and created a public/private dichotomy.

Transmigrants

People who live their lives crossing national borders, for whom participating in more than one nation is central to their lives.

Affirmative Action

Programs, begun under the administration of President Richard Nixon, requiring employers receiving federal funding to take affirmative steps to eliminate discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, or gender in the hiring and treatment of employees.

Capitalism

A type of economy in which the means of production are held and controlled by private owners, not the government, and in which prices are set by the forces of supply and demand with minimal government interference.

Chattel Slavery

Slavery in which the enslaved persons are considered personal property, owned by their masters for life, and their children are the owners’ property as well.

Economic Restructuring

The shift from a manufacturing- to a service-based economy in urban areas.

Fair Deal

A series of federal programs initiated in the late 1940s and early 1950s by President Harry Truman to protect workers from unfair employment practices, raise the minimum wage, and provide housing assistance, among other goals.

Gi Bill of Rights

The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, passed in 1944 to support veterans. The law included provisions for low-cost guaranteed loans for college degrees, new homes, and businesses; job training; and unemployment benefits.

Income

The sum of earnings from work, profit from items sold, and returns on investments.

Indentured Servants

Persons who are legally bound to work for their masters for a set number of years.

Marxist Theories

Social theories concerning the impacts of economic change on class relations and conditions, as examined in the work of Karl Marx.

Neoliberal Theory

A social theory that embraces individualism, free markets, free trade, and limited government intervention or regulation. Also known as market fundamentalism.

New Deal

A series of programs initiated in the mid-1930s by President Franklin Roosevelt in response to the great depression, with the aim of providing economic relief and instituting banking reform.

Split Labor Market

A labor market in which higher-paid workers, largely White, try to protect their jobs and wages (often through unions) by excluding new groups (often minorities) entering the labor market from the higher-paying jobs.

Wealth

The market value of all assets owned (such as homes, cars, artwork, jewelry, businesses, and savings and retirement accounts) minus any debts owed (such as credit card debts, mortgages, and college loans).

Welfare

Policies and programs designed to support people in great financial need. Examples of forms of welfare are food stamps, social security benefits, medicare, and medicaid.