Race and Relations Celebration #1

Race

socially constructed - defined by physical differences that society considers significant

Racial Social construction example

black people look like… white people look like…

1 drop rule

any amount of African lineage/ ancestry in one’s blood makes you black (from slavery)

Hypo-descent (Why?)

defining the offspring of two different raced parents, as the race of the smaller/ weaker minority (African Americans)

Why? labeling more people as black meant more slaves back then

Who constructed these categories?

The dominant group in power (White Europeans)

Pencil test example

If you stuck a pencil in your hair, and shook your head, the pencil falling/ staying determined your race

Hispanic race

technically not an American recognized race (white), called pan ethnic racial group: all spanish speaking countries

Middle Eastern

Historically classified as "white" under older U.S. federal guidelines

Conflict theory - Marx (Theories for why we racialize/why racism)

conflict happens because people fight over natural resources/ competition of resources

3 Ps - Weber (Theories for why we racialize/why racism)

Property, Power, and Prestige

Racial Formation - Omi & Winant

race is dependent on the social, historical formation; process: social, economic, political forces > racial categories

Racialized Social System - Bonilla-Silva

a life of it’s own: race is at the heart of everything we do in society

Functionalism

A sociological approach emphasizing how parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability

Ethnicity

defined on the basis of shared cultural heritage

Why does ethnicity matter?

Conflict & 3Ps

Symbolic Ethnicity Theory (Ethnicity)

• 3rd gen + europeans americans

• It helps people express their ethnicity

• It’s voluntary because they want to have culture too

Emergent Ethnicity Theory (Ethnicity)

• practical social support to have ethnicity

• ethnicity emerges under common occupational positions, residence, concentration

Rational Choice (Ethnicity)

• maximize their self interest or group interest, you heighten your identity

• ethnic groups = interest groups

The Homogenous Principle (Ethnicity)

• people like people that are like them

• “birds of feather flock together”

Assimilation

change your culture to fit the culture of the majority

Most common way ethnic groups have been incorporated into U.S.?

Anglo - Conformity

Cultural Assimilation

over time, you lose your culture and adapt a new culture

Structural assimilation

you gain a main entrance into other structures/ organizations of another culture

Melting Pot

creation of new society through several cultures (A+B+C+D=?)

Triple Melting Pot

assimilating ethnically, culturally and religiously

Pan-ethnic Alternative

ethnic subgroups that seem homogeneous to others get together & build solidarities; shared culture/ structure

Pluralism

Mutual respect for one another’s culture, a respect that allows minorities to express their own culture without suffering prejudice or discrimination.

Genocide

acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group

Expulsion (Removal)

moving undesired people out

Direct Expulsion

A formal, legal command or physical action requiring an individual or group to depart immediately.

Example - Native Americans and Chinese Internment Camps

Indirect Expulsion

Coercive measures short of a formal removal order intended to make staying impossible.

Example - Hostility towards POC

Exclusion

refusing admittance

Example - 1882 Chinese Exc. Act; 1924 Immigration Quota (SE Europeans, Asians)

Know Nothing Party

anti-immigrant and anti-catholic political movement; instructed to reply "I know nothing about it" when questioned about the secret society

Separatism

marginalized group creates own enclave by physical separation, minimal interaction, initiated by marginalized group

Example - Amish, Malcolm x nationalism, mormon

Prejudice

negative prejudgement of an entire category of people (ECP)

Discrimination

unfair/ unequal treatment based on prejudice

Merton’s Typology of Prejudice/ Discrimination

• All weather Illiberal (Active Bigot) - Prejudice + Discrimination

  • a prejudice discriminator

• Fair - weather Illiberal (Timid Bigot) - Prejudice + No Discrimination

  • Believe in prejudice but they don’t act them due to fear of consequence

• Fair - weather Liberal - No Prejudice + Discrimination

  • doesn’t have prejudice but will discriminate when it benefits them

• All weather Liberal - No Prejudice + No Discrimination

  • treats everyone equal

Merton’s Solution to Racial P/D

• reward non-prejudice views → change interpersonal relations

• change culture, laws, inst. setting

Stereotype

overgeneralization; attribute certain traits to ECP

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

stereotypes can become this because if you treat people like they will act a certain way, they will actually start acting like that

Institutional Discrimination

organization practices that exclude minorities from 3Ps

Institutional Discrimination (Examples)

Shoney’s, Ivy League, Denny’s

How will we know if racism is gone from a structural perspective (Bonilla-Silva)?

Rewards will be equal

Anti-Black discrimination in public places?

Yes, main goal: avoidance, exclusion, rejection, to attack; happens to open persons and middle class

Joe R. Feagin's study demonstrates that middle-class status does not protect Black Americans from routine, persistent racial discrimination in public accommodations. The research highlights that these frequent encounters with bias accumulate over a lifetime, imposing a heavy psychological and emotional burden on individuals despite their socioeconomic achievements.

Fundamental Ideology behind racism?

differences (cultural, personality, intelligence) are biological/ belief that one race is inherently better than the other

Real Racism

systemically prevented from securing access to 3Ps/ rewards of society because of your race

How does “real racism” become institutionalized?

when it moves from personal prejudice into standard laws, policies, and organizational procedures that govern society.

Symbolic Racism

a subtle, indirect form of racial prejudice that replaced overt, old-fashioned racism after the Civil Rights movement

ex) a person might fiercely oppose social policies like affirmative action, student loan forgiveness, or urban welfare initiatives. They justify their opposition not by using racial slurs, but by using "race-neutral" moral arguments—claiming they are simply protecting "traditional values" or fighting against "unfair advantages"

Colorism

The ranking or judging of individuals based on skin tone.

Colorblind Racism

Use of race-neutral principles to defend the racially unequal status quo; “I don’t see color”

Internal Racism

hating your own ethnic/racial group; believing in the racist ideology of the majority against your group

Reverse Racism

minorities discriminate against whites

BUT for this to be true, the minority needs to have systemic power (3 Ps)

Tatum’s definition of racism

a system of advantage based on race

Race and Crime

Justice is not colorblind

• black people are usually caught with crack cocaine → arrested

• white people are usually caught with powder cocaine → in rehab

• harsher laws on crack cocaine then powder

New Jim Crow

Ultizing mass incarceration of black men to keep segregation alive

Old Jim Crow

legalized segregation

Circular illogic of Racial Profiling

Police disproportionately target a specific racial group based on an assumption, which naturally leads to more arrests within that group. Law enforcement then uses those high arrest numbers to justify their original bias, completely ignoring that they only found more crime because that is where they chose to look.

Majority of drug users/ dealers

White

Brown v Board of Education (1954)

Concluded that separate is not equal which resulted in the integration of African Americans in public school

Housing Segregation

Housing Segregation (Past and Present; Massey)

Past: European immigrant groups experienced low-to-moderate levels of residential segregation. Black Americans experienced severe housing discrimination through explicit institutional barriers like redlining, discriminatory lending, and racially restrictive covenants.

Present: While explicit legal barriers have been dismantled, residential segregation remains highly entrenched. Black-White segregation are mostly confined to metropolitan areas with relatively small Black populations, while major industrial metropolitan areas continue to exhibit deeply stubborn segregation

Patterns/ Consequences of Housing Segregation

traps communities of color away from jobs, effective schools, and safe environments

Hypersegregation

a pattern where a minoritized group scores exceptionally high across five distinct spatial dimensions:

• Unevenness: Being highly maldistributed across neighborhoods.

• Isolation: Living in highly racially homogenous neighborhoods.

• Clustering: Neighborhoods joining together to form massive, contiguous ghettos.

• Centralization: Being tightly restricted to the urban core near central business districts.

• Concentration: Being packed into compact, hyper-dense spatial areas

School Segregation

a direct structural echo of residential segregation; separating families residentially automatically ensures that classrooms remain racially and socioeconomically segregated which then restricts minoritized students' access to critical educational resources, high-quality peer networks, and advanced academic counseling

School Segregation (More or Less Today?)

It is more today. Because of persisting residential hypersegregation and rising economic divides, public schools have effectively re-segregated over the last few decades

Massey’s real reason for racial segregation in housing?

institutionalized discrimination, prejudice, and systemic barriers that block spatial assimilation, rather than merely class differences or individual personal preferences

Responses to Racism (Washington)

• “accommodator” his views accommodate racism

• Justice LATER

• said to accept segregation; stop fighting Jim Crow, voting restrictions, and social segregation

• self-reliance + industrial practical skill/ character

• white people don’t need to do anything for AA

Responses to Racism (MLK)

• advocated for civil disobedience

• used a “love, truth, and soul” force

Responses to Racism (Du Bois)

• said to fight for acceptance in all areas

• Justice NOW (demanded immediate civil rights, political power, and higher education)

• dismantled scientific racism that justified white supremacy

Responses to Racism (Carmichael)

• shift from integration to nonviolent appeals to Black Power, self-defense, and structural reform

• grew skeptical that nonviolent appeals to the conscience of white racists would dismantle systemic oppression

• argued that racism derived its power from capitalism and imperialism, asserting that true anti-racism (promote black power to counteract racism) required dismantling capitalist structures

Responses to racism today?

• Black Community? Embrace the past, embrace hope, BUT demand equality

• White community? we can ALL pursue American Dream and if someone says there’s racism, believe them!

• Golden Rule? Love your neighbor as yourself!

• Abolish white supremecy