Race and Ethnic inequality

Minority Group

Subordinate group who has significantly less control and power over lives than the dominant group

5 properties of minority group

1) unequal treatment, 2) physical and cultural traits, 3) ascribed status, 4) solidarity, 5) in-group marriage

Race is a…

social construction

Aspects of racial formation

1) racial categories are created and transformed, 2) those in power define the groups

One-drop rule

If you have one drop of blood that is not white then you are not white

Prejudice

Negative attitudes toward an entire group of people, usually racial or ethnic minority (perpetuates false narratives and based in ethnocentrism)

Forms of prejudice

Open expression, stereotyping, hate crimes

Stereotyping

unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that don’t recognize individual differences (are created by dominant majority)

Discrimination

Denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice (prejudiced attitudes are not equal to discriminatory behavior)

Experiment by Devah Pager

Studies racial discrimination in hiring, sent four 23-yr old students with similar job histories to apply to entry-level jobs (2 white 2 black 1 of each had prior record), people with criminal record got less callbacks but white men with criminal record got more callbacks than black men without criminal record.

Glass ceiling

invisible barrier that blocks promotion of qualifies individuals in work environment because of race, gender, or ethnicity

Racism

Belief that one race is supreme and all others ae innately inferior (minority groups feel discrimination and exploitation)

Color-blind racism

Principle of race neutrality to defend unequal status quo (claim everyone is treated equally) (class and citizenship become proxies for race ex. ice targeting “illegals” which really means Hispanics)

White privilege

Rights or immunities granted to people as a particular benefit of favor because white

Significance of Peggy McInotosh

Studied white privilege and finds that white people… don’t need to leave comfort zone, have easy access to good neighborhoods, get hair styled easily, browse stores without suspension and seated at restaurants, easier parenting cause less racist to children, don’t need to worry about appearance

Institutional discrimination

Denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operation of a society

Forms of institutional discrimination

1) rules that English be the only language spoken at work, 2) restrictive employment-leave policies 3) voting restrictions of felons

Redlining

Patterns of discrimination that consists of a systematic denial of services to residents of certain areas based on race/ethnicity (loans, mortgages etc.)

Affirmative Action

Positive efforts to recruit minority groups or women to jobs (education and promotions)

Functionalist perspective

Dominant majority benefits from the subordinates of racial minorities, creates dysfunction (aggrivates problems, undercuts diplomatic relationships)

Conflict perspective

Vested interests perpetuate racial inequality through economic exploitation, Racism keeps minorities in low paying jobs and rich then have low wages for all

Labeling theory perspective

People are profiled and stereotyped based on their racial and ethnic identity (Racial profiling by police (DWB-driving while black) airport security and customs

Interactionist perspective

cooperative interracial contacts can reduce hostility,

Contact Hypothesis

Ways that we can lower discrimination— in cooperative circumstances interracial contact will reduce prejudice

Genocide

Deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation

Expulsion

An effort to push individuals out of the nation (killing some of the targeted groups to get the rest to leave)

Extreme forms of intergroup relations

Genocide, Expulsion, Succession

Succession

Drawing formal boundaries of land between groups (succession of Pakistan and India)

Segregation

Physical separation of 2 groups of people (residence, workplace, and social events)

Apartheid

South African policy designed to maintain the separation of Blacks and Non-whites from Whites from 1948 to 1990

Nelson Mandela

1st Black president of South Africa in 1994 after 28 years in prison for activism

Singificance of American Apartheid book by Massey Denton

Talks about segregation in the US based on concentration of US neighborhoods (Segregation of suburbs— Ferguson MO)

Amalgamation

When a Majority group and minority group combine to form a new group (think of the US as a melting pot) (intergroup marriage over generations creates this)

Assimilation

Process through which a person forsakes his or her cultural traditions to become part of a new one (A+B+C=A) (Immigrants who move to US become “Americans”)

Pluralism

Mutual respect for one another’s culture among the various groups in society (also called multiculturalism) (allows expressing cultures without prejudice)

Problem with pluralism

It is an ideal but not a reality (need to learn English and must have a consensus on ideals, values, and beliefs for a society)

Massive racial disparities in the CJS

Black individuals are overrepresented in system compared to their population in the US, CJS perpetuates the mass incarceration of Black males through tough policies (several policies target behaviors more associates with certain groups of people — War on Drugs)

Mass Incarceration

Refers to the extremely high rate of incarceration in the US, some have referred to this as the New Jim Crow since minority groups were predominantly being incarcerated

Who wrote “The New Jim Crow” Book

Michelle Alexander

Anti-Drug abuse act of 1986

Created mandatory minimum sentences, created the 100-to-1 Rule

100-to-1 rule

For 100 grams of powder cocaine equals just one gram of crack because crack is a poor person’s drug (way of locking up poor minority groups)