Chapter 10 Sociology

Ethnicity

Shared cultural heritage often deriving from a common ancestry and homeland.

Cultural heritage can include common language, traditions, customs, symbols, and distinctive foods and music.

Socially constructed, vary across cultures, change over time.

Race

A category of people widely perceived as sharing socially significant physical characteristics such as skin color.

Socially constructed, vary across cultures, change over time.

Homo Sapien Subspecies

Europeanus: White-Skinned (Described as creative and governed by laws)

Americanus: Copper-Skinned (Described as stubborn, easily angered, and governed by customs)

Asiaticus: Sallow-Skinned (Described as greedy and governed by opinions)

Africanus: Dark-Skinned (Described as lazy, negligent, and governed only by impulse)

Created by Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)

Racism

The belief that one race is inherently superior to another.

Racial Essentialism

The idea that supposedly natural and immutable difference separate the races.

Racial Integrity Act of 1924

Virginia mandated that all newborns be classified as either “white” or “colored.” “Colored” included anyone with black or American Indian ancestry.

Minority Group

A collection of people who suffer disadvantages and have less power because of identifiable physical or cultural characteristics.

Tend to have lower incomes, less education, less political influence, and poorer health.

Majority Group

A collection of people who enjoy privileges and have more access to power because of identifiable characteristics.

Have the power to create and enforce the labels used to designate minority groups.

Take their status for granted and are unaware of their relative privilege.

Prejudice

Means to “pre-judge” someone or some group negatively based on inadequate information.

Often based on stereotypes.

Stereotypes

Exaggerated, distorted, or untrue generalization about categories of people that do not acknowledge individual variation.

Discrimination

The unequal treatment that gives advantages to one group of people over another without justifiable cause.

Pluralism

When the distinct ethnic and racial groups coexist on equal terms and have equal social standing.

Amalgamation

The process by which a majority and a minority blend or mix to form a new group.

Assimilation

The process by which members of a minority group come to adopt the culture of the majority group.

Segregation

Keeping distinct social groups physically and socially separate and unequal.

Genocide

The systematic killing of a group of people based on their race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.

Withdrawal

Physically escaping the worst oppression.

Passing

Blending in with the dominant group.

Code-Switching

Complying with social expectations of the majority in public but not in private.

Resistance

Actively asserting oneself in defiance of majority discrimination.

Transnational Migrants

Immigrants who retain strong personal, cultural, and economic ties to both their country f birth and their newly adopted home.

Often make remittances (money transfers back home), which make up significant share of the national economies of some countries.

Institutional Discrimination

Unequal treatment that results from the structural organization, policies, and procedures of social institutions such as the government, businesses, and schools.

Split Labor Market Theory

Argues that ethnic and racial conflicts often emerge when two racial or ethnic groups compete for the same jobs.

Scapegoat

An individual or a group of people falsely blamed for a negative situation.

Racialization of the State

The implementation of government and private-sector policies that discriminated against minorities and provided whites with numerous advantages.

Affirmative Action

Policies and programs that aim to avoid discrimination and redress past discrimination through the active recruitment of qualified minorities for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities.

Color-Blind Racism

A form of bias in which the promotion of race neutrality helps maintain existing racial and ethnic inequality.