Chapter 5: Race and Racism

race

a flawed system of classification, with no biological basis, that uses certain physical characteristics to divide the human population

racism

individual's thoughts and actions and and institutional patterns and policies that create or reproduce unequal access to power, privilege, resources, and opportunities based on imagined differences among groups

intersectionality

an analytic framework for assessing how factors such as race, gender and class interact to shape individual life chances and societal patterns of stratification

genotype

the inherited genetic factors that provide the framework for an organism's physical form

phenotype

the way genes are expressed in an individual's physical form as a result of genotype interaction with the enviornment

colonialism

the practice by which a nation-state extends political, social and economic power beyond its own borders over an extended period of time to secure access to raw materials, cheap labor, and markets in other countries or regions

miscegenation

a demeaning historical term used to describe interracial marriage

White supremacy

the belief that White people are biologically different from and superior to people of other races

Whiteness

a culturally constructed concept originated in Virginia designed to establish clear boundaries of who is white and who is not, a process which aided to US racial stratification

Jim Crow

Laws implemented after the US Civil War to enforce segregation legally, particularly in the South after the abolishment of slavery

hypodescent

the assignment of children of an interracial unions to the 'superior' race

nativism

the favoring of long-term inhabitants, particularly White people

racialization

the process of categorizing, differentiating and attributing a particular racial character to a person or group of people

individual racism

personal prejudiced beliefs and discriminatory actions based on race

microaggressions

common, or everyday verbal or behavioral indigities and slights that communicate hostile, derogatory, and negative messages about someone's race, gender, sexual orientation or religion

institutional racism

patterns by which racial inequality is structured through key cultural institutions, policies and systems

racial ideology

a set of popular ideas about race that allows for the discriminatory behaviors of individuals and institutions to seem reasonable, rational and normal