Race and Ethnicity

Race and Ethnicity

Race and ethnicity are complex social constructs that significantly shape our lived experiences. The following notes explore the definitions, consequences, and theories associated with these concepts.

Understanding Race

Race: Myth and Reality

With a global population of 7 billion, humanity exhibits a wide range of physical characteristics. Humans originated in Africa approximately 250,000 years ago. As humans migrated and adapted to diverse environments, variations in skin color, hair texture, and other physical traits emerged. It is crucial to recognize that:

• There are no "pure" races.

• Race is a social construct, not a biological reality.

• The concept of racial superiority is a myth.

Defining Race

Race is a socially constructed category of people who share physical characteristics that distinguish them from other groups. Societies have historically categorized people based on traits like skin color, hair texture, facial features, and body shape.

Sociologists view race and ethnicity as social constructs because:

• They are not based on biological differences.

• They evolve over time.

• They lack clear boundaries.

Examples of racial categories include White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic.

Understanding Ethnicity

Defining Ethnicity

Ethnicity refers to a shared cultural heritage or characteristics, often involving common language, religion, nationality, history, or other cultural elements.

Race vs. Ethnicity

A key distinction is that ethnicity can be displayed or concealed based on individual preferences, whereas racial identities are typically always visible.

Consequences of Race and Ethnicity

Genocide

Genocide is defined as the annihilation or attempted annihilation of a people based on their presumed race or ethnicity.

Minority and Dominant Groups

• Minority Group: A group singled out for unequal treatment, whose members view themselves as objects of collective discrimination. Minority group status can arise through:

  • Expansion of political boundaries.

  • Migration.

• Dominant Group: The group with the most power, privileges, and highest social status.

Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination

• Racism: Prejudice and discrimination based on race. It involves:

  • Beliefs about the superiority of one racial or ethnic group.

  • Justification of inequality.

  • Often rooted in the assumption that group differences are genetic.

  • Rooted in white supremacy.

  • Combined with structural and systemic power, and functions as an ideology.

• Prejudice: A negative attitude or prejudgment, often applied to all members of a group, and unlikely to change despite evidence to the contrary. Prejudice can be positive, but is typically negative.

• Discrimination: Unfair treatment directed against an individual or group due to their social group. It involves unequal treatment based on characteristics like age, sex, weight, skin color, or sexual orientation. Usually motivated by prejudice.

Learning Prejudice & Contact Theory

Contact theory suggests that prejudice and negative stereotypes decrease, and racial-ethnic relations improve, when people from different backgrounds interact frequently under equal status conditions.

Internalizing Dominant Norms

Individuals can sometimes hold prejudiced views against their own group.

Individual vs. Institutional Discrimination

• Individual Discrimination: Discrimination carried out by one person against another.

• Institutional Discrimination: Discrimination systematically carried out by social institutions (political, economic, educational) that affects all members of a group. For example:

  • Home Mortgages (bank loans)

  • Health Care

  • Employment

Institutional racism is pervasive and can persist even if individual racist attitudes disappear because it is embedded in social structures.

White Privilege

White privilege refers to the social advantages that white people enjoy relative to minority groups. These advantages are often invisible to those who possess them. It can be understood as an "invisible knapsack" of unearned resources, including special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.

Examples of white privilege include:

• Feeling safe and welcome in most neighborhoods.

• Not being followed or harassed while shopping.

• Seeing people of one's own race widely represented in media.

• Not being singled out by law enforcement or government agencies because of race.

Invisible Knapsack: unearned resources that are not in broad view or intended to be seen.

Theories of Prejudice

Psychological Perspectives

• Frustration and Scapegoats: People displace aggression onto unfairly blamed groups when they cannot address the real source of their frustration.

• The Authoritarian Personality: Characterized by high levels of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, and submissiveness. Individuals with authoritarian personalities tend to be older, less educated, less intelligent, and from lower social classes.

Sociological Perspectives

• Functionalism: Racial and ethnic differences are a necessary part of society, and even inequality has functions that help maintain social order.

• Conflict Theory: Racial and ethnic differences create intergroup conflict, as minority and majority groups have different interests and compete for resources (split labor force and reserve labor force).

• Symbolic Interactionism: Focuses on the role of labels and stereotypes in shaping perceptions and interactions.

Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations

Intergroup relations exist on a continuum ranging from inhumanity to acceptance:

• Genocide: The dominant group tries to destroy the minority group (e.g., Germany and Rwanda).

• Population Transfer: The dominant group expels the minority group (e.g., Native Americans forced onto reservations).

• Internal Colonialism: The dominant group exploits the minority group (e.g., low-paid, menial work).

• Segregation: The dominant group structures social institutions to maintain minimal contact with the minority group (e.g., the U.S. South before the 1960s).

• Assimilation: The dominant group absorbs the minority group (e.g., American Czechoslovakians).

• Multiculturalism (Pluralism): The dominant group encourages racial and ethnic variation, ideally leading to a society where there is no longer a dominant group (e.g., Switzerland).

Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States

Racial Makeup

• Whites: 62%

• Latinos: 17%

• African Americans: 13%

• Asian Americans: 5%

• Native Americans: 1%

• Claim two or more races: 2%

Largest European Descent Groups

• European Descent Americans: 197,706,000 or 61.9\%

• German: 47,715,000 or 14.9\%

• Irish: 34,521,000 or 10.8\%

• English/British: 26,890,000 or 8.4\%

• Italian: 17,446,000 or 5.5\%

• Polish: 9,448,000 or 3.0\%

Minority Populations

• Latino: 53,028,000 or 16.6%

• African American: 41,205,000 or 12.9%

• Asian American: 16,146,000 or 5.1%

• Native American: 3,857,000 or 1.2%

Indigenous Peoples

Conflict between American Indians and Europeans led to the destruction of Native American civilization. The Trail of Tears involved the forced removal of Natives from their homelands, resulting in thousands of deaths. Native Americans endured forced assimilation and were moved to reservations. They did not gain full citizenship until 1924. Many Native Americans still live on reservations with high rates of poverty, abuse, depression, and suicide.

African Americans

• Up to 1808: Slave traders brought 500,000 Africans to the United States as slaves.

• 1857: The Dred Scott case affirmed that slaves were not citizens entitled to rights.

• 1863: Emancipation Proclamation.

• 1865: Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery.

• 1868: Fourteenth Amendment granting citizenship to everyone born in the United States.

• After the Civil War: "Jim Crow laws" passed by states.

• After World War I: "Great Migration" brought thousands to the North; Harlem Renaissance.

• 1954: Brown versus Board of Education ended school segregation.

• 1960s: Civil Rights Acts and Voting Rights Act brought an end to most legal discrimination.

• Today, African Americans still face disadvantages, including below-average income, a poverty rate nearly three times that of white poverty rate, and issues around inequitable education.

Asian Americans

Asian Americans include people with ties to dozens of Asian nations. The largest groups have roots in China, the Philippines, India, South Korea, and Japan. Immigration from China and Japan began with the California Gold Rush of 1849. Economic slowdowns led to discrimination and restrictions against Asians. During World War II, President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 relocated 100,000 Japanese Americans to military camps. Citizenship was granted to Chinese Americans in 1943 and to Japanese Americans in 1952. By the 1980s, Asian Americans were often called the "model minority" due to their cultural commitment to study and hard work.

Hispanic Americans/Latinos

Hispanic Americans/Latinos: The largest U.S. minority group: 55.2 million people; 17.3\% of the total population. Spanish has become the unofficial second language of the United States. Overall standing is below U.S. average. Mexican Americans have the lowest relative ranking with the language barrier leading to limited job opportunities. Hispanic Americans are a hugely important segment of our society.

Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances

Race and ethnicity influence all aspects of our lives, including:

• Health

• Education

• Work

• Family

• Interactions with the criminal justice system

Key Takeaways

• Race and ethnicity are social constructions.

• They do not exist in the natural world but only in the social world.

• They have real consequences and are used as the basis for inequality.

• Like social class, they have effects on life chances.