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Ethnicity, “Race”

Ethnicity, “Race”. Concepts are key Race and ethnic relations: structured inequality. Concepts: “race”. “physical variations singled out by the members of a community or society as socially significant.” (Giddens & Duneier, 2003: 333). “race”.

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Ethnicity, “Race”

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  1. Ethnicity, “Race” • Concepts are key • Race and ethnic relations: structured inequality

  2. Concepts: “race” • “physical variations singled out by the members of a community or society as socially significant.” (Giddens & Duneier, 2003: 333)

  3. “race” • A century of failed attempts to designate races as biological categories (scientific racism) • So does this mean race doesn’t exist? Was W. E. B. DuBois wrong to say the “color line” was the problem of the twentieth century?

  4. W. I. Thomas on the definition of the situation: “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” (1928)

  5. So “race” as a concept is a social construct. Differences in skin color have been singled out as significant, and have been made significant in their consequences.

  6. Concepts: ethnicity • “cultural practices and outlooks of a given community that have emerged historically” (Giddens & Duneier: 334) • Since they are cultural, ethnicities are learned.

  7. Choice and ethnicity • Situational ethnicity: assertion of ethnic identity is chosen when it may have positive results (e.g., affirmative action) • Symbolic ethnicity: occasional use of only the symbolic features of ethnicity (e.g., “kiss me I’m Irish” button on St. Patrick’s Day)

  8. Concepts: prejudice • Preconceived opinions or attitudes about a group • Attitudes are learned • Substantial psychological research on prejudice

  9. Psychology of prejudice • Prejudice based on stereotypical thinking: using rigid, inflexible categories • Involves displacement: misdirected anger toward scapegoats • Involves projection: unconscious attribution of one’s own desires to others • Authoritarian personality type prone to prejudice

  10. Concepts: discrimination • Acts that deny members of a group or category access to valued resources or opportunities • Discrimination is behavior • May or may not be based on prejudice

  11. Concepts: racism • Shafer: racism is an ideology supporting stratification based on the social construction of race • Giddens: a system of domination in institutions or individual consciousness

  12. Concepts: racism • Review: ideology is a system of ideas which are used to justify a system of power and the actions of the powerful (Giddens, et. al. p. 20) • Racism developed historically • Along with the very concept of race • To justify slavery, conquest, racial prejudice and discrimination

  13. Concepts: individual racism • Giddens/Duneier/Appelbaum: “Racism is commonly thought of as behavior or attitudes held by certain individuals or groups.” (2002: 336) • This is the direct form of racism experienced in everyday life.

  14. individual racism prejudice minority group racist discrimination

  15. Concepts: institutional racism • Giddens/Duneier/Appelbaum: “racism pervades all of society’s structures in a systematic manner.” (336) • Shafer: patterns of racial stratification woven into the social structure (may include latent, unintended consequences)

  16. institutional racism

  17. Racial stratification: explanations

  18. Historical explanation: Blauner Lowest ranking minorities (Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos) were oppressed by colonization.

  19. Pluralism: separate identities, equal rights Genocide: systematic destruction of a group Ethnic cleansing: forced migration Assimilation: minority accepted when they adapt majority culture Constitutional recognition of native nations, treaty rights Bioterrorism: smallpox blankets Trail of Tears Dawes Act (allotment), boarding schools (Haskell) Types of race/ethnic relations: United States and Native Americans

  20. Racial stratification: why still unequal? • Prejudice has declined • Discrimination is illegal • Black middle class has improved • Asian Americans are the “model minority”

  21. William Julius Wilson: the significance of class • Conditions of the urban underclass have deteriorated • Primarily because of economic shifts, loss of job opportunities • Critics: prejudice and discrimination persist

  22. Wilson responds: meaning and significance of race • Disappearance of work is the central problem of the ghetto • These problems have aggravated race relations • Employers exclude inner city blacks (especially men) from applicant pools: statistical discrimination

  23. Recently, sociologists analyzing interaction of race, class, and gender in social inequality. race class gender

  24. Figure 9.5

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