1 / 20

Race and ethnicity (continued)

Race and ethnicity (continued). Status of Race and Ethnic Groups in U.S. today Prejudice and discrimination Us and them Why prejudice? Why discrimination?. Status of Race and Ethnic Groups in U.S. today.

brad
Download Presentation

Race and ethnicity (continued)

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Race and ethnicity (continued) • Status of Race and Ethnic Groups in U.S. today • Prejudice and discrimination • Us and them • Why prejudice? • Why discrimination?

  2. Status of Race and Ethnic Groups in U.S. today • By 2000, the descendants of the Irish, Italians, Germans and all the other European groups were assimilated into white American society and culture. • Asians have done well also

  3. In terms of income and wealth, these two groups are best off • Native Americans and African Americans are worst off • Hispanics (generally more recent immigrants) also do not do as well as whites.

  4. Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanic Americans are much more likely to live in poverty than white Americans

  5. This is despite the fact that African American household income has been increasing recently

  6. Prejudice and Discrimination • In the history of America, why were people so willing to enslave Africans and deprive Native Americans of their land? • Why did each group of foreigners to America often face hostility and anti-immigrant legislation?

  7. Us and them • Researchers have found it very easy to experimentally create in-groups and out-groups. • E.g. Robber’s Cave experiment • 22 white, middle class boys divided into 2 groups of 11 and taken to a separate area of the Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma.

  8. Groups quickly became antagonistic • Things became so bad that the researchers had to end this phase of the experiment and move on to the next phase • Reconciling the two groups proved difficult

  9. Attending pleasant events together did not do the trick • Finally – an external threat of vandals interfering with the water system -brought the two groups together to solve the problem

  10. Why prejudice? • Is prejudice learned like any other part of culture? • Stereotypes about out-group members can be learned • Social distance (how close it is best to get to outgroup members) can be learned

  11. Problem is how to account for individual differences in prejudice. • Frustration/aggression hypothesis • Cognitive dissonance explanations

  12. Why discrimination? • Even prejudiced people may not discriminate • La Piere study • Hotel and restaurant proprietors did not discriminate against La Piere and his Chinese companions, even if they said they would (on a survey after the fact).

  13. La Piere study highlights the importance of the situation for discrimination • Often overlooked – fundamental attribution error

  14. Split labor market theory • Suggests that discrimination will be greatest by people who’s jobs are most threatened by the immigrant/ethnic group • More discrimination the more numerous the immigrant/ethnic group

  15. Statistical discrimination • When people in a group are judged according to the average characteristics of people in the group, not their own characteristics • Can be cost effective for business e.g. health insurance rates for sick people are higher than for healthier people

  16. Statistical discrimination can also lead to discrimination against race and ethnic group members.

More Related