Chapter 11. Race and Ethnicity

Based on Notes

Visible minorities

Persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour

Settler society

A society historically based on colonization through foreign settlement and displacement of Aboriginal inhabitants - Ex. Canada

Race

refers to superficial physical differences that a particular society considers significant

Ethnicity

A term that describes shared culture - the practices, values, and beliefs of a group

Minority group

groups that are subordinate, or lacking power in society regardless of skin colour or country of origin - connotes discrimination

In the past race was based on

various geographic regions, ethnicities, skin colours, and more

Racialization

the social construction of race

Contemporary conceptions of race

based on socioeconomic assumptions and not biological qualities

Sociological use of the term subordinate

can be used interchangeably with the term minority

Sociological use of the dominant

substituted for the group that’s in the majority

Charles Wagley and Marvin Harris

• A minority group is distinguished by five characteristics:

• 1. Unequal treatment and less power over their lives

• 2. Distinguishing physical or cultural traits like skin colour or language

• 3. Involuntary membership in the group

• 4. Awareness of subordination

• 5. High rate of in-group marriage

Scapegoat theory

suggests that the dominant group will displace their unfocused aggression onto a subordinate group

Racial intermarriage (miscegenation)

extremely rare and in many places was illegal

Indian Act

effectively worked on a racial level to restrict the marriage between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people - would remove “Indian” status

Métis

a unique mixed-race culture of French fur traders and mostly Cree, Anishinabe, and Saulteaux people - known as “half breeds”

Stereotypes

oversimplified ideas about groups of people - can be positive or negative

Prejudice

refers to thoughts and feelings about those groups - prejudgement or biased thinking

Discrimination

refers to actions toward them

Racism

a type of prejudice that involves set beliefs about a specific racial group

Racial steering

in which real estate agents direct prospective homeowners toward or away from certain neighbourhoods based on their race

White privilege

refers to the fact that dominant groups often accept their experience as the normative (and hence, superior) experience

Institutional racism

when a societal system has developed with an embedded disenfranchisement of a group - Ex. residential schools

Labour participation rates

more or less equal for racialized and non-racialized individuals - however racialized individuals get paid less for their work

Issues of race and ethnicity can be observed through three major sociological perspectives

functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism

Functionalism

racial and ethnic inequalities must have served an important function in order to exist as long as they have

Critical sociological theories

often applied to inequalities of gender, social class, education, race, and ethnicity

Symbolic interactionists

race and ethnicity provide strong symbols as sources of identity

Internal colonialism

refers to the process of uneven regional development by which a dominant group establishes its control over existing populations within a country

Intersection theory

suggests we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes

Culture of prejudice

refers to the idea that prejudice is embedded in our culture

A strategy for the management of diversity

refers to the systematic methods used to resolve conflicts, or potential conflicts, between groups that arise based on perceived differences

Genocide

deliberate annihilation of a targeted (usually subordinate) group, is the most toxic intergroup relationship

Expulsion

refers to a dominant group forcing a subordinate group to leave a certain area or country

Segregation

refers to the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions

Assimilation

describes the process by which a minority individual or group gives up its own identity by taking on the characteristics of the dominant culture

Immigrants have assimilated to a new culture with four benchmarks

socioeconomic status, spatial concentration, language assimilation, and intermarriage

Multiculturalism

characterized by mutual respect on the part of all cultures, creating a polyethnic environment of mutual tolerance and acceptance

Group-specific rights - 3 ways

• as self-government rights in which culturally distinct nations within a society attain some degree of political autonomy

• as polyethnic rights in which culturally distinct groups are able to express their particular cultural beliefs

• as special representation rights in which the systematic underrepresentation of minorities in the political process

Ethical relativism

the idea that all cultures and all cultural practices have equal value

Hybridity

the process by which different racial and ethnic groups combine to create new or emergent cultural forms of life

Aboriginal cultures prior to European settlement are referred to as

pre-contact or pre-Columbian

History of Aboriginal relations with Europeans in Canada - four stages

• The relationship was largely mutually beneficial and profitable - knowledge, food, and supplies in exchange for European technologies

• Starting to rely on fur trading for their livelihood rather than their own indigenous economic activity

• The reserve system was established, clearing the way for full-scale European colonization, resource exploitation, agriculture, and settlement

• After World War II - Aboriginal Canadians began to challenge the conditions of oppression and forced assimilation they had been subjected to

Royal Proclamation of 1763

established that lands would be set aside for First Nations people and that they had sovereign rights to their territory

The Indian Act of 1876

• Trying to assimilate First Nation’s people even more - took away many rights:

  • The prohibition against owning, acquiring, or “pre-empting” land

  • Denial of the power to allocate funds and resources

  • The prohibition against hiring lawyers or seeking legal redress in pursuing land claims

The Québécois

descendants of the original settlers from France

French colonists began to settle New France

after Jacques Cartier’s exploration of the St. Lawrence River

“Black Canadian”

usually preferred to the term African Canadian - first black Canadians were slaves brought to Canada by the French

Although slavery became in illegal in Canada in 1834

faced discrimination and segregation - despite changes today - Black Canadian still make less money than the avg white worker and are subject to higher levels of racial profiling

Asian Canadians

Chinese workers died during the construction of the rail line - also had head taxes in an attempt to reduce immigration - led to riots in Vancouver

Japanese immigration

began in 1887 with the arrival of the first Japanese settler, Manzo Nagano

The Issei

First wave of Japanese immigrants to come to Canada - mostly men

The first South Asians in Canada

Sikhs whose origins were in the Punjab region of India

Model minority stereotype

applied to a minority group that is seen as reaching significant educational, professional, and socioeconomic levels without challenging the existing establishment