Chapter 99 (racism book) Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from Chapter 99 of a book on racism.

Racism

The stigma and unfair treatment experienced by members of a specific racial group.

Classism

The stigma and disadvantages experienced by those living in poverty. Note: Classism is a lot like racism but note that social class is changeable whereas race is not.

Intersectionality

The joint consequences of being a member of more than one social group. Examples: some kinds of racism are concentrated among ethnic minority men, others among women

Intersectionality, detailed example

Among U.S. mothers without a high school diploma, Latinas were much more likely than White mothers to receive no pain meds during a painful birth. This racial bias almost disappeared among college-educated Latina vs. White mothers.

Ethnic gaps in higher education

They're bigger than most people realize. When people of color do go to college, they more often go to for-profit schools - and get saddled with more debt.

Ethnic differences in escaping poverty

Population studies show that the two most historically disadvantaged groups of Americans, Blacks and Indigenous Americans, have much more difficulty escaping poverty than non-Hispanic Whites.

Poverty kills

Living in poverty shaves years off a person's life. This effect is much bigger for the very poor than for the barely poor.

The shortened telomeres study

A study showed that a 45-year-old living in a poor neighborhood had the telomeres (chromosomal markers of aging) of a typical 53-year-old living in a middle-class or richer neighborhood.

Poverty creates a vicious cycle of single motherhood

Poor women are much more likely than wealthy women to become single mothers. Single motherhood means households with only one income stream.

Race is not biologically meaningful

This is the genetic fact that the different so-called races differ very, very little except for surface features like hair color, eye color, and skin tone.

Racial essentialism

The myth that race is a crucial biological characteristic of people, and that race affects a wide range of traits.

Stigma

The negative labels and rejection that come with being a member of a low-status group.

Poverty

A lack of access to basic resources such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care, clean air, and clean water.

Hill and colleagues (2016) study

People who grew up poor ate many cookies after having just finished a Sprite. People who did not grow up poor ate fewer cookies than usual after finishing the Sprite.

Married Black mothers with graduate degrees lose their newborns

Married Black mothers with graduate degrees lose their newborns in U.S. hospitals at a slightly higher rate than White single mothers who never finished high school.

Black and White patients receive different medical attention

Black patients in pain less often get pain meds than White patients in pain. This is still true after holding poverty equal in the two groups.

Birth medicalization

Giving people unnecessary medical interventions that increase hospital profits. Such treatments (like unnecessary c-sections) disproportionately go to ethnic minority mothers.

Race and U.S. death rates

If Black Americans had died at the same rate as White Americans in 2019, there would have been about 70,000 fewer such Black deaths that year. This got worse during COVID.

Race and death by U.S. police officer shooting

Between 2015 and 2024, 179 unarmed Black Americans were shot & killed by police. Thus, 18 Black Americans die annually in this way, whereas about 70,000 die annually in more invisible ways

War on drugs

An approach to tackling the illegal drug trade by severely punishing anyone caught using or selling drugs. This 'war' began in about 1980 and continues to this day.

VITA study

This huge field experiment examined whether White-sounding job applicants (e.g., 'Brent,' 'Lisa') have an unfair advantage over Black-sounding applicants ('Jamal,' 'LaKiesha'). White-sounding candidates had an unfair advantage; however, this study may illustrate classism more than it illustrates racism.

Jail churn

The finding that for every person who goes to prison every year in the United States, more than 17 people go to jail. That's 10.6 million people per year.

Voter photo-ID laws

Voter ID laws often keep poor voters from voting. Because almost no one ever tries to vote who isn't a real voter, these laws also do little or nothing to protect elections.

Rebranding

Coming up with a new label for a product, process, or program to make it sound better. Sad example: 'America First' sounds better than LPPD ('Let Poor People Die').

Gerrymandering

Rigging elections. Drawing boundaries of congressional districts so that you concentrate all the people who tend to vote a certain way into the fewest districts possible.

Public opinion about gerrymandering

Almost all Americans who know what gerrymandering is are opposed to it: But politicians keep doing it.

Black poverty vs. White poverty

Black poverty is geographically concentrated. This means that poor Black kids more often go to poor schools compared with equally poor White kids.

Script

A prototypical event sequence. In other words, our theory about what happens and when in a social event such as a wedding, baseball game, or illegal drug transaction.

Gordon Allport's (1954) definition of stereotype

"A false or overgeneralized and typically negative belief about the members of a social group."

Hardin's modern definition of stereotype

A socially-shared belief about the members of a group. This definition emphasizes social consensus rather than inaccuracy, for example.

Three functions of stereotypes

They simplify our world, justify treating some people better than others, and identify who we are and who our groups are.

Simplification

Stereotypes make a complex world seem less so.

Justification

Stereotypes help us excuse and defend norms and laws that put certain groups of people at a disadvantage.

Identification

Stereotypes tell us who we are - by saying which social groups define us.

Blaming the victim

When something bad happens to a person (even if the bad event is not the person's fault), we often conclude that the person must deserve the bad outcome.

Discrimination

Treating people unfairly in ways that are connected to their group membership.

Prejudice

The negative (or positive) feelings we have about the members of specific social groups.

Ingroup bias

Favoring or preferring a group to which you belong over a group to which you do not belong.

Racial phenotypicality bias

Black Americans with more 'Black' features (e.g., darker skin) experience greater discrimination. A version of this idea also applies to other ethnic minority groups

Longevity gap

Black people in the United States have long died younger than White people. This longevity gap is about 5.2 years for White vs. Black women and 7.1 years for White versus Black men.

Covenants

Legally binding statements in deeds that once made it impossible for White people to sell their homes to minorities (usually Blacks or Jews).

Redlining

A decades long system that, with the full cooperation of the U.S. government, made it very, very difficult for people living in Black or Latino neighborhoods to get home loans.

Racism is automatic

Racism is often invisible because it is fast, unconscious, mandatory, and efficient.