SOC 101 Quiz 3

Ethnicity

• People who are racially similar to one another, but have distinctive cultural characteristics that distinguish them from their neighboring groups (ex. China and Japan)

• A socially constructed concept defining groups based on shared cultural traits (such as language, religion, traditions, and ancestry) rather than just biological features

Scientific Racism

• The use of pseudo-scientific research or data to justify misinformed beliefs about the superiority of inferiority of particular racial groups (ex. Eugenics Movement in Nazi Germany)

• The use of pseudo-scientific techniques, data, and theories to justify racial inequality, promote racial hierarchy, and establish racial superiority or inferiority

Desegregation

• Elimination of spatial barriers between group who do not necessarily want to interact with one another

• Ending the systematic separation of racial, ethnic, or religious groups in public facilities, neighborhoods, and institutions (particularly schools) to aim for equal access to public spaces

Jim Crow Laws

• A series of segregation laws passed by southern state legislatures after the Civil War to ensure segregation at the State level; considered “constitutional”

• Enforcing racial segregation in the Southern U.S., legalizing white supremacy and marginalizing African Americans

Selective Perception

• The process by which individuals perceive what they want to see in news or social media presentations while ignoring all opposing viewpoints

• Individuals filter their environment, noticing only stimuli that support their existing beliefs, attitudes, or needs while ignoring contradictory information

Spillover Bigotry

• Occurs when stereotypes lump different ethnic groups as “one and the same” (ex. “All African Americans are criminals.”)

• Prejudice and discrimination directed at one specific group "spill over" to affect another, often unrelated, ethnic or racial group, usually because they are perceived to resemble one another or share similar characteristics

Minority Group

• A category of people who often face differential treatment because they lack political and economic influence; numerical size has nothing to do with the classification

• People who may be treated differently and unequally because of their physical, cultural, or other characteristics

Expulsion

• Forced removal of minority populatiom from their land or territory to a less desirable geographic location (ex. “The Trails of Tears” when Native Americans had to relocate from their homelands to Oklahoma)

• Forced removal of a subordinate group from a specific area or country by a dominant group

Internal Colonialism

• Policy of a dominant group exploiting minority groups within a nation or territory for political or economic gain (ex. Slavery)

• Dominant group within a nation-state exploits, subjugates, and marginalizes minority groups

Assimilation

• Process in which a minority group is absorbed into the larger society; either voluntary or forced. In time, the group will lose many of its unique cultural characteristics as it adopts those of the dominant groups.

• Conforming to the dominant group’s culture, adopting its language and values, and intermarrying with that group

Institutional Discrimination

• Often built into society’s social structure; practice may be intentional or unintentional. Minorities argued that it makes it difficult for them to get hired in many job fields

• Unequal treatment because of a society’s everyday laws, policies, practices, and customs

Discrimination

• An action that disqualifies members of a particular group from social opportunities (ex. College admission, employment, etc.)

• Behavior that treats people unequally because of some characteristic

Split-Labor Market

• Minority job exploitation results from employers creating unnatural working conditions that require minorities to compete against each other for low wage labor jobs

• Racial and ethnic antagonism arises when two or more groups of workers compete for the same jobs, but one group is paid significantly less than the other

Ethnic Identity

• Experiences of childhood socialization that minority group members experienced living in a society that favors dominant group values

• An individual's sense of belonging to a specific group, defined by shared culture, language, history, religion, or ancestry

Social Distance

• Level of tolerance one has for a group or category of people who are different from themselves; often used as a measurement of prejudice

• Measures the perceived degree of intimacy, understanding, or separation between individuals, social groups, or classes

Affirmative Action

• Required employers to activeky seek out qualified minority candidates and to hire them over dominant group applicants if they were equally qualified for the job; part of Civil Right Act of 1964 but ended on June 29, 2023

• Policies and practices designed to increase the representation of historically marginalized groups (specifically women and minorities)

Prejudice

• A positive or negative bias or attitude toward a group or category of people

• An attitude that prejudges people, usually in a negative way

Racial Formation

• Process in which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed (ex. Native American assimilation)

• Defining race as a fluid, socially constructed category shaped by historical, political, and economic forces, rather than a fixed biological truth

Nativism

• Political position of preserving higher status for certain established inhabitants of a nation as compared to newcomers or immigrants

• Prioritizes the interests and rights of native-born inhabitants over immigrants, often resulting in xenophobia, prejudice, and discrimination

Implicit Bias

• Refers to the relatively unconscious and automatic features of prejudicial judgement towards members of socially stigmatized groups

• The unconscious, automatic attitudes or stereotypes that affect understanding, actions, and decisions regarding social groups

De Facto Segregation

• Informal segregation

• Segregation resulting from personal choice or circumstance; (ex. people preferring living in small “ethnic sections” of town because they feel more comfortable being with people like themselves)

• The separation of groups (especially racial or ethnic) that occurs "in fact" or in reality, rather than by legal requirement

Dominant Group

• Category of people whose values, language, customs, and traditions are practiced and enforced in a given society over that of others

• A physically or culturally distinctive group that has the most economic and political power, the greatest privileges, and the highest social status

Contact Hypothesis

• Argues that the more people get to know members of a minority group personally, the less likely they are to be prejudiced against that group

• The more people get to know members of a minority group personally, the less likely they are to be prejudiced against that group

Stereotype

• An exaggerated and inaccurate mental image people often develop in regards to groups of people who are different from themselves

• An oversimplified or exaggerated generalization about a group of people

Genocide

• Systematic murder of a population for biological, political, religious, territorial, and economic reasons

• The systematic effort to kill all members of a particular ethnic, religious, political, racial, or national group

De Jure Segregation

• Legal segregation

• Segregation that is required by law and punished with a criminal penalty for those who did not comply with the legal mandate

• Legal, state-mandated separation of individuals based on characteristics like race, religion, or ethnicity