Untitled Flashcards Set

• Ascriptive difference

  • Ascription occurs when social class or stratum placement is primarily hereditary. In other words, people are placed in positions in a stratification system because of qualities beyond their control.

• Model Minority

  • In a nutshell, the model minority stereotype is the belief that Asian Americans are an exemplar among racial minority groups by virtue of cultural traits like valuing education and hard work and knowing to keep out of trouble, and by virtue of the assumed benefits that come with those traits like high socioeconomic attainment.

• Principle-implementation gap

  • The gap between policy and the principle (the principle being “the people”). The principle-implementation gap refers to the disparity between the ideals or principles that are established (often in laws, policies, or organizational missions) and the actual implementation or practice of those principles in real-world situations.

• Racial resentment

  • Resentment over minority gains which are viewed as a loss for white groups

• Social desirability bias

  • response bias in which people tend to answer questions or present themselves in a way that they believe will be viewed favorably by others. This often occurs in surveys, interviews, or research studies when individuals provide answers that align with social norms, values, or expectations, rather than their true feelings, beliefs, or behaviors.

• Unassimilable 

  • Not able to assimilate

Chapter 7: 

Conventional acts of participation: Voting

Unconventional acts of participation: Protests, demonstrations, marches (diff racial & ethnic groups participate in first 3 more often than Whites) , write letters, attending town/county meetings, contact officials 

Free riding: 

Gerrymandering: Manipulating district lines for personal gain

Partisan Gerrymandering: Form of gerrymandering where intent is one political party over the other 

Voting Rights Act of 1965: Act enforces the 15th amendment, prohibiting racial discrimination 

Group identity/consciousness: A shared sense of belonging to a group. 

Logic of collective action: 

On cycle election: Every 4 years, presidency election!!

Poll tax: kept many Black folk from voting by imposing a tax to vote (came from Jim Crow laws)

Mobilization: Group of people with the same goal, working together to achieve a goal! 

Psychological benefit of voting: you feel as if your voice is heard! 

Chapter 8 

• Agenda setting 

  • Media can shape public opinion by determining what issues are given the most attention

• Framing 

  • How the introduction/presentation of a topic can shape or influence how they process it (whether they see it as good or bad)

• Priming 

  • Media can influence the thoughts and decisions of an audience by activating related topics in their minds. 

  • Ex. climate change being associated with extreme weather. 

• Racial priming 

  • Media can influence the thoughts of the audience on race. 

Chapter 9 

• Linked fate model 

  • Belief that individuals well being is tied to racial groups success

• Racial realignment

  • Seeing realignment of different race groups based on racial issues. 

  • Lindon Johnson openly declared the Democrat party would be a party of racial progressivism. Barry Goldwater declared the republican party pro racial conservatism. 

• Racial threat 

  • When minority groups' populations increase, the majority group will respond by imposing more social control.  

• Southern strat. 

  • 1960s tactics used by republicans to attract white support by opposing much of the civil rights agenda including criticizing blacks, disparaging violence in the community, and highlighting minority use of welfare and other public resources 

Chapter 10 

• At large districts 

  • citywide/countywide contest to determine members of city council for a county rather than having district wide contests. Therefore, the minority vote is diluted. 

• Cumulative voting 

  • Helps strengthen the ability of minority votes, where a voter can cast multiple votes and can lump votes on a specific candidate or spread them out. 

• Description representation

  • Degree to which elected officials demographically resembles the voters they represent  

• Substantive representation 

  • The degree to which policies of elected officials favor the interests of some groups more than others 

• Majority-minority localities 

  • Minority candidates generally win office in majority-minority localities, where the majority of the population is of a minority group 

• Plurality rules 

  • Candidate who gets the popular vote wins 

• Proportional representation system 

  • distribute electoral offices and political power roughly in proportion to the vote

• Racial gerrymandering 

  • Drawing districts in unusual ways to dilute the minority vote 

• Ranked choice voting

  • Allows voters to rank candidates in preference  

• Staggered elections 

  • When only some of the places of an elected body are up for election at the same time 

• Symbolic representation 

  • The very presence of an underrepresented group in elected office can have a transformative impact. 

• Tyranny of the majority 

  • There is no overwhelming tyranny of the majority. Most members of both groups end up on the winning side, but at the same time there is a clear racial hierarchy to American democracy. Whites often end up on top and african americans on the bottom

Chapter 11

• Electoral representation

  • The degree to which voters from different groups vote for candidates that ultimately win their electoral contests

• Substantive representation

  • Substantive representation refers to the idea that elected officials advocate for the interests and concerns of their constituents, regardless of whether they share similar demographic characteristics

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Cracking: Separate voters (usually minorities) to different districts to ensure their vote is diluted

Packing: Putting voters in one district to reduce their influence in other districts

Preclearance provisions: If a court determines a state or electoral process to violate the 14th and 15th amendment, the court can require the jurisdiction to obtain an approval from the court before making any change. 

Senate malapportionment: A legislative body is malapportioned if their districts contain substantively different sized populations.