Race and Ethnicity: Understanding Prejudice, Discrimination, and Identity

1. Chapter 8 Race and Ethnicity

2. Chapter Outline • Defining Race and Ethnicity • Race and Ethnic Relations • Theories of Race and Ethnic Relations • Some Advantages of Ethnicity • The Future of Race and Ethnicity

3. Prejudice and Discrimination • Prejudice is an attitude that judges a person according to his or her group’s real or imagined characteristics. • Discrimination is unfair treatment of people because of their group membership.

4. The Social Construction of Race • Many scholars believe we belong to one human race which originated in Africa. • Migration, geographical separation, and inbreeding led to the formation of more or less distinct races.

5. The Social Construction of Race • Humanity has experienced so much intermixing that race as a biological category has lost meaning. • Sociologists use the term “race” because perceptions of race affect the lives of most people profoundly.

6. Race • Race refers to socially significant physical differences, such as skin color, rather than biological differences that determine behavioral traits. • Racial distinctions are social constructs, not biological “givens.”

7. Why Race Matters • Race allows social inequalities to be created and maintained. • Racial groups are often used as scapegoats for societies’ problems. • A scapegoat is a disadvantaged person or category of people whom others blame for their own problems.

8. The Vicious Cycle of Racism

9. Ethnic Group • An ethnic group is composed of people whose perceived cultural markers are deemed socially significant. • Ethic values effect the way people behave less than commonly believed, as social-structural differences underlie cultural differences.

10. Ethnic Groups • Differ in: • Language • Religion • Customs • Values

11. Minority Group • A group of people who are socially disadvantaged although they may be in the numerical majority.

12. Formation of Racial and Ethnic Identities • The nature of relations with members of other racial and ethnic groups shape one’s own racial and ethnic identity. • Changes in social context lead to changes in self-conception.

13. Hispanic Americans • According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 48 million Hispanic Americans lived in the United States in 2009. • The Bureau predicts they will number more than 133 million in 2050.

14. Racial and Ethnic Composition

15. Ethnic Enclave • A geographical concentration of ethnic group members who establish businesses that serve and employ mainly members of the ethnic group and reinvest profits in community businesses and organizations.

16. Population by Hispanic Origin and Region, 2002

17. Unification of Hispanic Americans • The term Hispanic American has become more popular for three main reasons: • Political clout flows from group size and unity. • The government uses the term for data collection. • It is a convenient label for non-Hispanic Americans.

18. Hispanic American Label • Hispanic American is a new ethnic label and identity despite the many differences that exist within the community. • This label, like all others, is socially constructed out of necessity.

19. Ethnic and Racial Labels • Although socially constructed, people are not always free to choose their identity • Ethnic minorities are freer to choose their identity than racial minorities • White Americans whose ancestors came from Europe more than two generation ago have the most freedom to choose their racial or ethnic identity.

20. Symbolic Ethnicity • A nostalgic allegiance to the culture of the immigrant generation, or that of the old country, that is not usually incorporated into everyday behavior.

21. Racism • The belief that a visible characteristic of a group, such as skin color, indicates group inferiority and justifies discrimination. • Institutional racism is bias that is inherent in social institutions and is often not noticed by members of the majority group.

22. Institutional Racism • Examples: • When police single out African Americans for car searches. • When department stores tell floorwalkers to watch for African American shoplifters.

23. Assimilation and Segregation • Assimilation is the process by which a minority group blends into the majority population and eventually disappears as a distinct group. • Segregation is the spatial and institutional separation of racial and ethnic groups.

24. Conflict Theories Several conflict theories explain why assimilation is more difficult for certain minority groups. These theories include: • Internal Colonialism • The Split Labor Market

25. Internal Colonialism • Involves one race or ethnic group subjugating another in the same country. • Prevents assimilation by segregating the subordinate group in terms of jobs, housing, and social contacts.

26. Split Labor Markets • In split labor markets, low-wage workers of one race and high-wage workers of another race compete for the same jobs. • High-wage workers resent the low-wage competitors, resulting in conflict and the development of racist attitudes

27. Native Americans • Expulsion and genocide best describe the treatment of Native Americans by European settlers in the 19th century. • Expulsion is the forcible removal of a population from a territory claimed by another population. • Genocide is the intentional extermination of an entire population defined as a race or a people.

28. Native Americans • 1830 Indian Removal Act - Called for relocation of all Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi. • In the “Trail of Tears,” the U.S. Army rounded up all 16,000 Cherokees and marched them to Oklahoma. • 4,000 Cherokees died.

29. Native Americans • Late 19th century - government adopted a policy of forced assimilation. • 1930’s and 40s - Roosevelt adopted a more liberal policy: • Prohibited further breakup of Native lands. • Encouraged Native self-rule and cultural preservation.

30. Native Americans • 1950s - government proposed to • end the reservation system • deny sovereign status of the tribes • cut off government services • stop protecting Indian lands held in trust for the tribes. • The proposal was not implemented due to strong resistance by the Native-American community.

31. Native Americans • Despite new sources of wealth, including revenue from casinos, Native Americans still suffer from internal colonialism. • The median household income for Native Americans is about half the national average. • On reservations, the unemployment rate is nearly 50%.

32. Chicanos • Chicanos, or Mexican-Americans live mostly in the South and West. • Until the 1970’s Chicanos lived in barrios, or ghettos, and many still do. • Most still work as agricultural and unskilled laborers. • Segregation has prevented Chicanos from assimilating into American culture.

33. Slavery • The ownership and control of people. • By about 1800, 24 million Africans had been transported on slave ships to North, Central, and South America. • 11 million survived the passage. • Fewer than 10% of the survivors arrived in the United States.

34. Slavery • Because the birthrate of African slaves in the U.S. was so high, nearly 30% of the black population in the New World was living in the U.S. by 1825. • By the outbreak of the Civil War, 4.4 million black slaves lived in the U.S. • The cotton and tobacco economy of depended on their labor.

35. Slavery • Even after slavery was banned in 1863, Jim Crow laws kept blacks from voting, attending white schools, and participating equally in social institutions. • In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court approved segregation when it ruled that separate facilities for blacks and whites were legal as long as they were of nominally equal quality.

36. African Americans • During the period of rapid industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many new jobs were created in the North. • The government could have encouraged African Americans to migrate north, which would have helped them integrate. • U.S. policy instead encouraged white European immigration.

37. African Americans • Some black migration did occur though and by the 1960’s four million African Americans were living in the northern and western urban centers. • Although segregation decreased and economic conditions improved, social-structural impediments have prevented assimilation.

38. Chinese Americans • In 1882 Congress passed an act prohibiting the immigration of three classes of people into the United States for 10 years: lunatics, idiots, and Chinese. • The act was extended for another decade in 1892, made permanent in 1907, and repealed in 1943, when Congress established a quota of a grand total of 105 Chinese immigrants per year.

39. Chinese Americans • Split labor markets prevented upward mobility and assimilation until the middle of the 20th century. • Chinese Americans have experienced considerable upward mobility in the past half century. • More than 30% of Chinese Americans now marry whites.

40. Advantages of Ethnicity Membership in an ethnic group has three main values for some Americans: • Economic— “Ethnic entrepreneurs” operate largely within their ethnic community. • Political—Political conflicts help strengthen ethnic group solidarity. • Emotional—Ethnic groups offer security in hostile environments.

41. Percent Foreign Born,United States, 1900–2050 INSERT FIGURE 8.3 FROM PAGE 190

42. Future of Race and Ethnicity Two factors will ensure the persistence of strong ethnic and racial identities in the United States: • Discrimination • Immigration

43. Consider this… Is race still a significant force in shaping the lives of African Americans?

44. Discrimination Some sociologists argue that race is declining in significance. • Civil Rights legislation • Weakening prejudice against blacks • Shrinking income gap Critics of this viewpoint note: • Racial profiling is well documented • Discrimination exists in the mortgage industry • Only 1/3 of African Americans are middle-class

45. INSERT FIGURE 8.4 FROM PAGE 191

46. Immigration • Immigration ensure the persistence of ethnic and racial identify. • New immigrants bring knowledge and appreciation of language, culture and community. • The current immigration rate is the highest it has been since the early 20th century.

47. Six Degrees of Separation: Ethnic and Racial Group Relations

48. Continuing Diversity • Although segregation persists, American society is now based more on assimilation and pluralism—the retention of racial and ethnic culture combined with equal access to basic social resources. • Intermarriage and immigration has led to a growth of tolerance in the United States.

49. % Opposed to Having a Neighbor of a Different Race, Selected Countries, 2006 – 2008 • INSERT FIGURE 8.6 FROM PAGE 193

50. Continuing Stratification • Despite the growth in tolerance, some racial and ethnic groups are disproportionately clustered at the bottom of American society • African Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, Chicanos and some Asian Americans remain the most disadvantaged groups in the country.