Chapter `12: Race and Ethnicity

race

a group of people with inherited physical characteristics that distinguish it from another group

ethnicity

(and ethnic) having distinctive cultural characteristics

minority group

people who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination

dominant group

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

ethnic work

activities designed to discover, maintain, or transmit an ethnic or racial identity

discrimination

an action; unfair treatment directed against an individual or group

racism

prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race

prejudice

an attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative way

positive prejudice

exaggerates the virtues of a group

scapegoat

an individual or group unfairly blamed for someone else’s troubles

authoritarian personality

Theodor Adorno’s term for people who are prejudiced and ranked high on scales of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect of authority, and submissiveness to superiors

Fritz Hippler

a nazi who was just 29 when he was put in charge of the entire German film industry

split labor market

workers split along racial-ethnic, gender, age, or any other lines; this split is exploited by owners to weaken the bargaining power of workers

reserve labor force

the unemployed; unemployed workers are thought of as being “in reserve”— capitalists take them “out of reserve” (put them back to work) during times of high production and then put them “back in reserve” (lay them off) when they are no longer needed

selective perception

seeing certain features of an object or situation, but remaining blind to others

implicit association test

test created by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwalk; in one version of this test, good and bad words are flashed along with photos of black and white people; found that most people are quicker to associate positive words with white people and negative words with black people

genocide

the dominant group tries to destroy the minority group (i.e., Germany, and Rwanda)

compartmentalize

to separate acts from feelings or attitudes

population transfer

forced transfer of minority group

indirect transfer

achieved by making life so miserable for members of a minority that they leave “voluntarily”

direct transfer

the dominant group expels the minority group (i.e., Native Americans forced onto reservations)

ethnic cleansing

a policy of eliminating a population; includes forcible expulsion and genocide

internal colonialism

the dominant group exploits the minority group (i.e., low-paid, menial work)

segregation

the dominant group structures the social institutions to maintain minimal contact with the minority group (i.e., the U.S. south before the 1960s)

assimilation

the dominant group absorbs the minority group (i.e., American Czechoslovakians)

forced assimilation

the domination group refuses to allow the minority to practice its religion, to speak its language, or to follow its customs

permissible assimilation

allows the minority to adopt the dominant group’s patterns in its own way and at its own speed

multiculturalism (pluralism)

the dominant group encourages racial and ethnic variation; when successful, there is no longer a dominant group (i.e., Switzerland)

WASPs

White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

white ethnics

white immigrants to the united states whose cultures differ from wasp (white anglo-saxon protestants) culture

latino

an umbrella term that lumps people from many cultures into a single category

rising expectations

the sense that better conditions are soon to follow, which, if unfulfilled, increases frustration

% of Latinos Americans in the U.S.

17.4

most latinos are u.s. citizens, but about __ million have entered the country illegally

11

% of African Americans in the U.S.

13.1

% of Asian Americans in the U.S.

5.6

family life, education, and assimilation into mainstream cultures

reasons for asian’s financial success

California’s 1850 Foreign Miners Act

required Chinese (and Latinos) to pay $20 a month in order to work, when wages were a dollar a day

Chinese Exclusion Act

in 1882, congress passed this act suspending all chinese immigration for 10 years

spillover bigotry

a stereotype that lumped asians together, depicting them as sneaky, lazy, and untrustworthy

% of White Americans in the U.S.

60.1

% of Native Americans in the U.S.

1.2