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Race and Ethnicity. Sociology Ch. 14. Definitions. Race –A socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important Sociologists consider racial terms misleading at best and harmful at worst.
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Race and Ethnicity Sociology Ch. 14
Definitions • Race–A socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important • Sociologists consider racial terms misleading at best and harmful at worst. • No society contains biologically “pure” people.
Definitions • Ethnicity–a shared cultural heritage • The United States is a multiethnic society • Like race, ethnicity is socially constructed • Remember: Race is constructed from biological traits and ethnicity is constructed from cultural traits. • For most people, ethnicity is more complex than race.
Table 14.1a Racial and Ethnic Categories in the United States, 2000(Continued on next two slides)
MinorityAny category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates • General characteristics • Distinct identity: Race, sex, sexual orientation, the poor • Subordination: Often saddled with lower status • Stereotypes, stigma, and labeling • Group size not always a factor • Women in US outnumber men. • Blacks in South Africa outnumber whites.
National Map 14.1 Where the Minority Majority Already ExistsBy 2004, minorities had become a majority in four states–Hawaii, California, New Mexico, and Texas–and the District of Columbia. At the other extreme, Vermont and Maine have the lowest share of racial and ethnic minorities (about 4% each). Why are states with high minority populations located in the South and Southwest?
Prejudice • Prejudice–A rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people. • Stereotype–An exaggerated description applied to every person in some category
Measuring Prejudice The Social Distance Scale • Student opinion shows a trend toward greater social acceptance. • People see less difference between various minorities. • The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, might have reduced social acceptance of Arabs and Muslims.
Figure 14.1 Bogardus Social Distance Research (Detail on next slide)The social distance scale is a good way to measure prejudice. Part (a) illustrates the complete social distance scale, from least social distance at the far left to greatest social distance at the far right. Part (b) shows the mean (average) social distance score received by each category of people in 2001. Part (c) presents the overall mean score (the average of the scores received by all racial and ethnic categories) in specific years. These scores have fallen from 2.14 in 1925 to 1.44 in 2001, showing that students express less social distance toward minorities today than they did in the past. Part (d) shows the range of averages, the difference between the highest and lowest scores in given years (in 2001, for instance, it was 0.87, the difference between the high score of 1.94 for Arabs and the low score of 1.07 for Americans). This figure has also become smaller since 1925, indicating that today’s students tend to see fewer differences between various categories of people. Source: Parrillo & Donoghue (2005).
RacismThe belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another • Racism has been widespread throughout US history where ideas about racial inferiority supported slavery. • Overt racism in the US has decreased, but remains a serious social problem.
Theories of Prejudice • Scapegoat theory • Disadvantaged people who unfairly blame minorities for their own problems • Authoritarian personality theory • Rigid moralists who see things in “black & white” • Culture theory • Everyone has some prejudice because it’s embedded in culture.
Theories of Prejudice • Conflict theory • Self-justification for the rich and powerful in the United States • Minorities might cultivate climate of race consciousness in order to win greater power and privileges.
Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life The Distribution of Intelligence.
DiscriminationUnequal treatment of various categories of people • Institutional prejudice and discrimination–Bias built into the operation of society’s institutions • Carmichael and Hamilton: People are slow to condemn or even recognize institutional prejudice and discrimination because it often involves respected public officials and long-established practices.
The Vicious Circle • Prejudice and discrimination begin as ethnocentric attitudes. • As a result, groups can be placed in a situation where they are socially disadvantaged and labeled. • A group’s situation, over time, is thus explained as a result of innate inferiority rather than looking at the social structure. of reasons. The cycle then repeats itself
Figure 14.2 Prejudice and Discrimination: The Vicious CirclePrejudice and discrimination can form a vicious circle, perpetuating themselves.
Patterns of Interaction • Pluralism–A state in which people of all races and ethnicities are distinct but have equal social standing • Assimilation–The process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture • Miscegenation–Biological reproduction by partners of different racial categories
Patterns of Interaction • Segregation–The physical and social separation of categories of people • Genocide–The systematic killing of one category of people by another
National Map 14.2 Land Controlled by Native Americans, 1790 to TodayIn 1790, Native Americans controlled three-fourths of the land (blue-shaded areas) that eventually became the United States. Today, Native Americans control 314 reservations, scattered across the United States, that account for just 2% of the country’s land area. How would you characterize these locations?
Race and Ethnicity in the US • Native Americans • White Anglo-Saxon Protestants • African Americans • Asian Americans • Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipinos • Hispanic Americans • Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans • Arab Americans • White Ethnic Americans
National Map 14.3 The Concentration of Hispanics or Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Arab Americans, by County, 2000In 2000, people of Hispanic or Latino descent represented 12.5 % of the US population, compared with 12.3% African Americans, 3.6% Asian Americans, and 0.4% Arab Americans. These maps show the geographic distribution of these categories of people in 2000. Comparing them, we see that the southern half of the US is home to far more minorities than the northern half. But do they all concentrate in the same areas? What patterns do the maps reveal?
Race and Ethnicity:Looking Ahead • The US will remain a land of immigrants. • Most immigrants arrived in a wave that peaked about 1910. • Another wave of immigration began after World War II and swelled as the government relaxed immigration laws in the 1960s. • Today, about 1.5 million people come to the United States each year
