Race and Ethnicity Sociology 101

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to race and ethnicity based on the lecture notes.

Ethnicity

Refers to shared cultural heritage often deriving from a common ancestry and homeland.

Race

A category of people widely perceived as sharing socially significant physical characteristics such as skin color.

Cultural Heritage

Includes common language, traditions, customs, symbols, distinctive foods and music.

Social Construction

The concept that ethnicity and race are created by social processes and can change over time.

Pseudoscience

A system of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method.

Racial Essentialism

The belief that supposedly natural and immutable differences separate the races.

Minority Group

A collection of people who suffer disadvantages and have less power due to identifiable physical or cultural characteristics.

Majority Group

A collection of people who enjoy privileges and have more access to power due to identifiable physical or cultural characteristics.

Prejudice

To pre-judge someone or a group negatively based on inadequate information.

Discrimination

Unequal treatment that gives advantages to one group over another without justifiable cause.

Pluralism

When distinct ethnic and racial groups coexist on equal terms.

Assimilation

The process by which members of a minority group come to adopt the culture of the majority group.

Genocide

The systematic killing of a group of people based on their race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.

Transnational Migrants

Immigrants who retain strong personal, cultural, and economic ties to both their country of birth and their newly adopted home.

Color-Blind Racism

A form of bias in which the promotion of race neutrality helps maintain existing racial and ethnic inequality.

New Racism

A form of racism that is hidden, implicit, and often disguised in modern society.

Mixed-Race Identity

A social identity that encompasses individuals of mixed racial or ethnic heritage.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States from the late 19th century until the civil rights movement.