SA 150: Week 9 - Ethnic and Racialized Groups

multiculturalism

- a political and social policy that promotes ethnic tolerance and diversity in communities

- helps with decreasing fertility rates

discrimination

distinctions, exclusions, and preferential treatment based on an arbitrary trait (e.g., racialization) and that risks a person's human rights and basic freedoms

Racism

discrimination, prejudice, or antagonism directed against someone of a different ethnicity or racialized group based on the belief that one's own racialized identity is superior

ethnicity

membership in a group or category of people who share a national tradition, language, or cultural heritage

Racialization

- the way in which others classify people by visible characteristics such as hair colour, hair type, skin colour, and facial features

- something people do to other people, rather than a reflection of what they are

ethnic groups and their related dimensions

- people who share a common homeland, language, or culture

- group members share a homeland or ancestry

- group members share a history, with key historical events and a collective memory

- group members share an identity, with similar traditions, customs, and symbols

- group members feel they belong and think others see them as belonging

double consciousness

- refers to the experience of African Americans who must reconcile their black identity with the expectations and values of the dominant white society

- The veil represents the separation between whites and blacks, which makes it difficult for white people to understand the black experience

racialized group/minority

- those who are treated in a particular way because of their physical features and the qualities those features are assumed to represent

- Racialization is directed towards those who have features distinct from the majority group that holds social power in a society

relationship between racialized groups and dominant groups

- The dominant group is often unaware of the struggles of racialized minorities in adapting to new cultures or finding a job

- Tensions often result from dominant groups seeing racialized minorities as a threat to their status

- issue of ethnic enclaves

ethnic enclaves

- an area with a high concentration of residents having a particular ethnicity or set of related ethnicities, with a distinct culture and a defined boundary

- ie Vancouver's Chinatown

functionalism approach to racialization

- ethnic identity provides social connectedness in an individualistic society

- Ethnocultural conflict enforces boundaries, which give groups more cohesion and a stronger sense of identity

- Ethnocultural diversity provides a wide range of opinions and values that enrich society

Conflict theory approach to racialization

- dominant groups benefit from excluding and marginalizing minority groups

- CRT examines the causes and effects of racialization practices

sterotypes

- widely held beliefs about a social group that are simplistic and often false.

- can ascribe both positive and negative qualities to members of a group

critical race theory

a theory that views racialization as a performance and a social construction rather than a reflection of innate, biological qualities

symbolic interactionism approach to racialization

- ethnic differentiation is constructed by labelling

- code-switching eases moving between social groups with different norms and values

- ethnic solidarity

racialized or ethnic socialization

- the process by which we learn to evaluate people (including ourselves) according to presumed racialized or ethnic differences

ethnic solidarity

a process in which members of self-conscious communities interact with one another to achieve common purposes

code-switch

effortlessly shifting to a different language, dialect, class and often culture

feminist approach to racialization

- focuses on how racialized groups are seen as the "other" to highlight socially constructed differences

- examines the intersectionality of racializations with gender, class, and sexual orientation

social distance

- the perceived extent to which social groups are isolated from one another

- It is measured by the degree to which a respondent, a member of one social class, racialized group, or ethnicity, would welcome members of another social class, racialized group, or ethnicity

tolerance

- the idea that people from various ethnic and racialized backgrounds can come together in a single nation-state and achieve high levels of trust

three core elements of tolerance

- political: a readiness to welcome more immigrants and help them settle

- evaluative: a sense that minority groups can make a positive contribution

- cognitive: a willing ability to reflect on inclusion and discrimination

- control how a society views minorities and to what extent it will welcome newcomers from minority groups

diaspora

- the scattering of any group of people

- originally, the term referred specifically to the tribes of ancient Israel dispersed around the world

Three key dimensions that make up diaspora

- dispersion: communities are separated by national borders

- homeland orientation: communities are oriented towards a distant homeland

- boundary maintenance: communities are cohesive and exclude outsiders

Institutional Racism

a form of racism expressed in the practices of social and political institutions

expressed racism

discriminatory practices based on fears or prejudices projected onto particular racialized minorities

internalized racism

the acceptance by those who are racialized or stereotypes or beliefs existent in society about the racialized group to which they belong

scientific racism

- The pseudoscientific belief that there is evidence to support or justify white supremacy or racism

- eugenics

eugenics

The selective mating of individuals with specific desirable hereditary traits

Microaggressions

Every day, routine interaction with subtle, indirect or unintentional forms of discrimination at its root

Postcolonialism

- a theoretical framework that seeks to understand the ways in which power is exercised in relationships between colonizing and colonized societies

- orientalism

Orientalism

a view that exaggerates and distorts features of people and cultures from Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East and contrasts their characteristics with those of Europeans

3 dimensions of racism

1. material: how physical traits gain meaning (face, accent, body)

2. imaginary: society decides who belongs (local) or is a stranger

3. ideological: idea/belief decides group labels (danger, inferior)

local-stranger

someone lives somewhere but treated as if they don’t belong

19th century 5 human races

American (indig), Ethiopian, Mongolian, Caucasian, Malayan