SOCI 101 CH 8

Ethnic and Racialized Groups

Multiculturalism

A political and social policy that promotes ethnic tolerance and diversity in communities.

Discrimination

Includes distinctions, exclusions, and preferential treatment based on an arbitrary trait (e.g. racialization) that jeopardizes a person’s human rights and fundamental freedoms

Racialization

The way that others categorize people by visible characteristics and features such as hair colour, hair type, skin colour, and facial features

Ethnicity

Belonging to a group or category of people that are bound together by common ties of national tradition, language, or cultural heritage

Ethnic group

A group of people who share a common homeland, language, or culture

Racism

Is 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

Racialized minority

Includes 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 toward those who have features distinct from the majority group that holds social power in a society.

BIPOC

Black, Indigenous, and People Of Colour (BIPOC)

Ethnic enclave

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

ex) Vancouver’s Chinatown

White supremacy

The belief that the white “race” is superior to all others, particularly in culture and intelligence

Racialized (or ethnic) socialization

The process by which we learn to perceive and evaluate people (including ourselves) according to presumed racialized or ethnic differences

Ethnic solidarity

A process in which members of self-conscious communities interact with each other to achieve common purposes

Code-switching

A situation in which a speaker effortlessly switches to a different language, dialect, class, and often culture

Orientalism

emphasizes, exaggerates, and distorts characteristics, features, and cultures of people and cultures from Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East and compares their characteristics to that of Europeans

“Third-culture kids” (TCK)

Are children who have been socialized into a culture different than the one their parents were socialized into

Tokenism

The policy or practice of making only a token or symbolic effort toward equality and integration without any real change

Social distance

Is the perceived extent to which social groups are isolated from one another, measured by factors such as whether a member of one social class, racialized group, or ethnicity would be welcomed in the meeting place of another social class, racialized group, or ethnicity

Tolerance

Is the idea that people from different ethnic and racialized backgrounds can come together in a single nation-state and show high levels of trust and reciprocity.

Homophily

Is a relationship joining actors who have the same or similar attributes or statuses

Cognitive

Thought processes that recognize and reflect upon processes of discrimination

Evaluative

A sense that minority groups fit into the culture of the host society and if given the opportunity make a positive contribution

Political

Preparedness to welcome additional immigrants and aid them in relocation

Diaspora

Is 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 of diasporas:

1. Dispersion

2. Homeland orientation

3. Boundary maintenance

Dispersion

Diasporas are communities that are dispersed and divided by national borders

Homeland orientation

Diasporas are oriented toward an either real or imagined homeland, which they are committed to and to which ideally they would one day return to

Boundary maintenance

Members of the diaspora are connected through tightly knit networks of solidarity based on their roots in the homeland

Institutional racism

A form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions

Expressed racism

Explicit discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their racialization or ethnicity

Internalized racism

The conscious or unconscious acceptance of racist attitudes, including stereotypes and biases, towards members of one’s own ethnic group, including oneself

Prejudice

A negative or hostile attitude towards members of a particular group simply because they belong to that group, based on untested assumptions about their characteristics

Discrimination

The denial of access to opportunities that would be available to equally qualified people who are part of the dominant group

Racial profiling

Is the practice of racializing people and using their appearance and assumed background to predict their engagement in criminal activities

Scientific racism

Emerged at the intersection of evolutionary science and the notion that northern European or white “races” are superior to all others

Eugenics

The selective mating of individuals with specific desirable hereditary traits.

Microaggressions

Are everyday, routine interactions with subtle, indirect, or unintentional forms of discrimination at their root