10/02, 10/7, 10/9

8.1 - Race & Ethnicity

Race: Based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people

Ethnicity: Based on a common language, religion, nationality, history, or some other cultural factor

  • Categorized as civilized or uncivilized or “other”

  • In the 16th century(1500s)/17th Century(1600s), Religion was used by Europeans to racially categorize people

  • People of color are classified as savages or “non-Christian”

  • In the 17th century, Jamestown: indigenous people were grouped and labeled as Indians and Europeans

  • Indigenous Population: 1492 - 5 million, 1650 - 2 million, 1800 - 500,000

  • Science is falsely used to biologically define race in the 18th and 19th century (Social Darwinism & Eugenics)

  • Socio-political agenda dictates racial classifications. Who is free vs unfree? / Who is considered white vs nonwhite? 

Symbolic Ethnicity: Special occasions, and doesn’t affect everyday life 

Situational Ethnicity:  the concept refers to the idea that ethnic identity can be adopted or emphasized depending on the social context, allowing individuals to navigate multiple ethnic identities based on circumstances.

8.2 - The US population by race 

Minority Group: a social group that is systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to society’s dominant groups, though its members are not fewer in number than the members of the dominant groups 

  • Membership in a minority group may serve a master status 

  • Unequal treatment and lack of power and resources often generate a strong sense of identity 

Racism: A set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial or ethnic group; used to justify inequality and often rooted in the assumption that differences among groups are genetic 

  • Part of America’s national legacy and persists within our social institutions 

  • Can be subtle, casual, and even unintentional

Prejudice: An idea about the characteristics of a group that is applied to all members of the group and is unlikely to change 

Discrimination: Unequal treatment based on membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice 

Implicit Bias: Attitudes or stereotypes that are embedded at an unconscious level and may influence our perceptions, decisions, and actions 

Individual Discrimination: Carried out by one person against another 

Institutional Discrimination: Carried out systematically by institutions (political, educational, etc) that affect all members of a group who come into contact with it 

White Nationalism: The belief that a nation should be built around a white identity that is reflected in religion, politics, economics, and culture 

  • Tempting to write off white nationalism as deviant from American values and the views of a fringe minority 

Privilege: Unearned advantage accorded to members of dominant social groups (male, white, heterosexual, physically able, etc) 

  • Is the idea that one group in a society enjoys certain unearned advantages not available to others 

  • Includes a wide range of advantages in both large institutions and everyday interactions 

Micro-aggressions: Everyday uses of subtle verbal and nonverbal communications that convey dismissive messages about a person's identity or experiences, often unintentionally perpetuating stereotypes that reinforce social hierarchies.

Cultural Appropriation: The adoption of cultural elements belonging to an oppressed group by members of the dominant group, without permission and often for the dominant group’s gain

Reverse Racism: The claim by whites that they suffer discrimination based upon race and therefore experience social disadvantages

  • Would not affect white people’s ability to get an education or thrive in society, as systemic advantages still largely favor them in various aspects of life.

  • The heart of the debate over affirmative action, which led to the Supreme Court overturning the legal basis for these programs in 2023

Antiracist Allies: Whites and others working toward the goal of ending racial injustice

8.4 - Theoretical Approaches to Understand Race

Structural Functionalism

  • The early 1900s eventually became assimilated into the larger society, it has proved less successful in explaining the persistence of racial divisions

  • Functionalists explain how prejudice and discrimination develop by focusing on social solidarity and group cohesion

Conflict Theory

  • Edna Bonacich noted a link between race and class, arguing that racism is partly driven by economic competition and the struggle over scarce resources

  • Conflict theorists have developed new approaches to understanding race that implicate social institutions

Critical Race Theory: The study of the relationships among race, racism, and power

  • Legal scholars in the 1980s drew upon writings in the social sciences to argue that racism permeates our social institutions

  • Kimberly Crenshaw coined CRT

  • Ex: Late 2022, 17 states had laws preventing the teaching of concepts related to CRT

Symbolic Interactionism

  • Approaches race and ethnicity as part of our identity as displayed through our presentation of self

  • Interactionists see race not as a preexisting biological category but as a social one that is framed in terms of biological features and established through interaction

Racial Passing and Double Consciousness

  • Passing: Presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group to which you belong

  • Code switching is an attempt to pass by adjusting one’s behavior in accordance with the norms and expectations of the dominant group

  • Double-Consciousness: W.E.B. Dubois’s term for the divided identity experienced by black people in the US

8.5 - Race, Ethnicity, and Life Changes

Miscegenation: Romantic, sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races

  • Was illegal in the US until 1967

Family

  • Race, ethnicity, and their correlates shape family life in a variety of ways

  • The decline has been steeper for black Americans than white Americans - only 41% of black children live with 2 parents

Health

  • Widespread disparity among racial and ethnic groups

  • Infant mortality for black babies is more than double that of white babies

  • People of color have been disproportionately affected by Covid

Education

  • The school-to-prison pipeline describes how school authorities label Latino and black deviant or at-risk early in their schooling

  • Stereotype threat describes the negative psychological effect

Work and income

  • Inequality can also be seen in the workplace and in income distribution

  • Black and Hispanic Americans are also more likely to live in poverty

Criminal Justice

  • Black and Hispanic people are imprisoned at much higher rates than white people

8.6 - Intergroup Relations

Genocide: Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group

  • The 20th century witnessed numerous incidents of genocide, ex: the holocaust

Population Transfer: the forcible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied

  • Sometimes takes a more indirect form

Settler Colonialism: The economic subjugation of the minority group by the minority by thr dominant group within a nation

Segregation: The physical and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity

  • refers to a powerful nation seizing control of another place in order ti extend its territory

Assimilation: a pattern of relationships between ethnic or racial groups that leads to the absorption of one group into another, often resulting in making society more homogeneous

  • not always entered into voluntarily

  • Racial Assimilation: The Process by which racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant groups

  • Cultural Assimilation: Racial or ethnic groups are absorbed into the dominant group by adopting the dominannt culture

Pluralism: Pattern of intergroup relations that encourages racial and ethnic variation and acceptance within a society