Introduction to Sociology Notes: Units 7-8

Race

Race

A socially constructed category of people who share physical characteristics that distinguish them from other groups (e.g., skin color, hair texture, facial features, body shape).

Ethnicity

A shared cultural heritage or characteristics, involving common language, religion, nationality, history, or other cultural factors. Can be hidden.

Sociologists view race and ethnicity as social constructs that shape individual identities and influence social dynamics, often leading to systemic inequalities and cultural distinctions (e.g., White, Black, Asian, Hispanic).

How do sociologists see race and ethnicity?

Genocide

The annihilation or attempted annihilation of a people because of their presumed race or ethnicity.

Minority Group

People who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as victims of discrimination.

Dominant Group

The group with the most power, greatest privileges, and highest social status.

Racism

Prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race; beliefs about the superiority of one racial or ethnic group. It is an ideology that justifies unequal treatment and social hierarchies.

Prejudice

A thought process; a usually negative attitude (can be positive, e.g., Asians are smart) or prejudgment applied to all members of a group that is unlikely to change regardless of the evidence against it.

Contact Theory

The idea that increased contact between different groups can reduce prejudice and improve relations, as long as the groups have equal status and common goals.

Discrimination

An act of unfair treatment directed against an individual or a group based on social group characteristics (e.g., age, sex, weight, skin color, sexual orientation, disability).

Individual Discrimination (Racism)

Discrimination carried out by one person against another.

Institutionalized Discrimination (Racism)

Discrimination carried out systematically by social institutions that affect all members of a group (e.g., home mortgage, healthcare, and employment).

White Privilege

Social advantages enjoyed by white people relative to those in minority categories.

Invisible Knapsack

Refers to unearned resources and privileges that are not intended to be seen (e.g., “I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed).

Frustration and Scapegoats

Psychological perspectives that suggest people misplace their negative emotions like anger or frustration from their true source to a more accessible target, like a minority group.

Authoritarian Personality

A personality type characterized by high conformity, intolerance, and submissiveness that is often associated with prejudice and discrimination against out-groups.

Functionalism

The sociological perspective that views racial inequality as functional for maintaining social order.

Conflict Theory

The perspective that racial and ethnic differences create intergroup conflict.

For example, split labor refers to a labor market where different groups of workers, usually differentiated by race or ethnicity, compete for the same jobs but are paid significantly different wages, creating tension and conflict between these groups, with employers often favoring the cheaper labor pool.

Also, the reserve labor force is a readily available workforce that can be tapped into by employers during economic booms, thus keeping wages low and maintaining pressure on existing workers by providing a readily available replacement option.

Symbolic Interactionism

The perspective that looks at race and ethnicity as part of our presentation of self through labels and stereotypes.

Thirteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.

Model Minority

A minority group that is perceived as more successful than the average, particularly Asians in America.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School

The first off-reservation boarding school for Native Americans, aimed at forced assimilation ran by Richard Henry Pratt.

The Adoption Era

What took off as boarding schools for Native Americans were forced to close as a result of unfair treatment?

Indian Children Welfare Act

Legislation aimed at keeping Indian children in Indian families.

Health, education, work, family, and interactions with the criminal justice system

What are examples of aspects that race and ethnicity affect?

Structural Racism

Racism is embedded in the fabric of societal structures affecting all members of minority groups that can’t be ridden of even if all racist people went away.

Latinos

What is the largest minority group within the U.S.?

Latino

________ culture significantly influences American culture, particularly through language.

Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations: A Continuum

Inhumanity (Rejection) → Humanity (Acceptance)

Genocide - The dominant group tries to destroy the minority group (e.g., Germany and Rwanda)

Popular Transfer - The dominant group expels the minority group (e.g., Native Americans forced onto reservations).

Internal Colonialism - The dominant group exploits the minority group (e.g., slavery, low-paid).

Segregation - The dominant group structures the social institutions to maintain minimal contact with the minority group (e.g., the U.S. South before the 1960s)

Assimilation - The dominant group absorbs the minority group (e.g., individuals from minority backgrounds adopt Westernized names or mannerisms to fit in).

Multiculturalism (Pluralism) - The dominant group encourages racial and ethnic variation; when successful, there is no longer a dominant group (e.g., Canada, where a significant population of both French and English speakers coexist alongside various Indigenous groups).

Assimilation

The process by which individuals or groups adopt the culture of another group.

Resistance to Assimilation

The refusal or inability of a minority group to integrate into the dominant culture.

Racial Stereotypes

Oversimplified and generalized beliefs about a particular racial group.

Racial Inequality

Inequalities that are based on race and are maintained through social systems.

Max Weber’s

What social class definition have most sociologists adopted as a large group of people who rank close to one another in terms of property, power, and prestige?

Property

Material possessions such as buildings, bank, accounts, bonds, businesses, car, jewelry, land, etc.

Power

The ability to get one’s way even though others resist.

C. Wright Mills, referring to the small group that holds the reins of power in business, government, and the military.

Who coined the term “power elite” and what does it refer to?

Prestige

The reputation or esteem that a person has in society based on their position, achievements, or inherited status. Is often linked to occupational status.

Occupational Prestige

The social status or respect associated with a particular occupation (e.g., physician, Supreme Court judge, lawyer, janitor, nanny, shoe shiner).

True - They rank high or low on all three dimensions of social class: wealth, power, and prestige.

T/F: Most people are status consistent.

social ranking

Status is a ______ __________.

Political Radicalism

What do the frustrations of status inconsistency tend to produce?

Social media influencers and lottery winners

Who are two examples that tend to have status inconsistencies?

Income

Money received or earned, usually from job, business, or assets (salary/wages).

Wealth

Total value of everything someone owns, minus outstanding debts. Distributed more unequally than income.

$90,000

What does data from 2014 suggests median wealth for U.S. families was about?

88.9; no wealth; in debt

The richest one-fifth of U.S. families control ____ percent of all privately owned wealth; the poorest one-fifth of families have ___ ______ and are actually ___ _____.

Karl Marx’s View of Social Class

Capitalist (Bourgeoisie) - Those who own the means of production.

Workers (Proletariat) - Those who are exploited by those who own the means of production.

Max Weber’s View of Social Class

(Social Class Ladder): Underclass, working poor, working, lower middle, upper middle, capitalist

Intergenerational Mobility, Structural Mobility, and Exchange Mobility

What are three main types of social mobility?

Intergenerational Mobility

Refers to changes in social class from one generation to the next.

Structural Mobility

Refers to changes in society that lead large numbers of people to change their social class.

Exchange Mobility

The movement of large numbers of people from one class to another, with the net result that the relative proportions of the population in the classes remain about the same.

Upward Social Mobility

Movement up the social class ladder.

Downward Social Mobility

Movement down the social class ladder.

Social class leaves no aspect of life untouched.

It affects our chances of benefiting from the new technology, dying early, becoming ill, receiving good health care, and getting divorced.

Social class membership also affects child rearing, educational attainment, religious affiliation, political participation, and contact with the criminal justice system.

What are examples of the consequences of social class?

Poor health, substandard housing, homelessness, limited schooling, crime and punishment, and political alienation

What are some problems linked to poverty?

Poverty Line

Income level set by the government for the purpose of counting the poor.

Roughly three times what a family needs to eat a basic, nutritious diet. In 2016, 12.7 percent of the U.S. population fell below this.

1. Poor people are lazy: They are poor because they don’t want to work.

2. Poor people are trapped in a cycle of Poverty that few escape.

3. Most of the poor are African American or Latino.

4. Most of the poor live in the inner city.

5. The poor live on welfare.

What are 5 myths about poverty?

Structural-Functional Analysis

Some Poverty is Inevitable -> Social Pathology Theories (Personal Deficiency): Poverty is the result of personal flaws.

Culture of Poverty (Structural-Functional Analysis)

Patterns that encourage poverty as a way of life.

Meritocracy (Structural-Functional Analysis)

Social standing corresponds to personal ability and effort.

Symbolic-Interaction Analysis

Defining the Problem -> How individuals experiencing poverty are labeled and perceived by society, impacting their daily interactions and self-image.

Blaming the Victim (Symbolic-Interaction Analysis)

When individuals are seen as personally responsible for their poverty due to their choices, values, and behaviors, often overlooking larger structural factors that contribute to their situation.

Social-Conflict Analysis

Poverty Can Be Eliminated -> Marxist Theory (Poverty and Capitalism): Industrial-capitalist economy places wealth in the hands of a few.

Cultural Capital (Social-Conflict Analysis)

The skills, values, attitudes, and schooling that increase a person’s chances of success.

Horatio Alger Myth

The belief that anyone can get ahead if only he or she tries hard enough—encourages people to strive to get ahead.

It also deflects blame for failure from society to the individual.