Patterns of Minority Groups Treatment

1. Patterns of Minority Groups Treatment

2. Minority • What does the word “minority” mean?

3. Minorities • Minority: group of people with physical or cultural traits different from those of the dominant group in society • Distinctive physical or cultural characteristics that can be used to separate from society • Dominated by majority • Often believed to inferior • Common sense of identity, strong group loyalty • Majority determines who belongs to minority

4. Minority • Women out number men in the United States…so why are women a minority? (Think about what the previous slide said)

5. Race & Ethnicity • RACE: People sharing certain inherited physical characteristics that are considered important within a society (how you look) • ETHNICITY: group identified by cultural, religious, or national characteristics (where you come from)

6. Assimilation • Assimilation is the blending or fusing of minority groups into the dominant society • Anglo-conformity is the most common pattern of assimilation • Cultural pluralism is the desire of a group to maintain some sense of identity separate from the dominant group

7. Patterns of Conflict • Genocide (most extreme): systematic effort to destroy an entire population • Examples from history? • Population transfer: minority is forced to move to a remote location or leave entirely • Subjugation (most common): minority group is denied equal access to the benefits of society • De jure segregation = by law • De facto segregation = everyday practice

8. Pluralism • Policy that allows each group within a society to keep its unique cultural identity • Example: Switzerland; three official languages, loyalty to Switzerland, one group doesn’t not have a dominate or minority role in Swiss society

9. Assimilation • Blending of culturally distinct groups into a single group with a common culture and identity • Voluntary, occurs naturally over time due to daily interactions, or forced • Example: Native American children sent to mission schools to help them adopt the English language, European styles of dress, and learn about Christianity

10. Legal Protection • Legal steps taken to ensure that they rights of minority groups are protected • Example: Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Affirmative Action

11. Segregation • Policies that physically separate a minority group from the dominate group • De jure (by law) or De Facto (societal norms like economics) • Example: Jewish ghettos; Jim Crow Laws

12. Subjugation • Maintaining control over a group through force • Example: slavery; apartheid in South Africa

13. Population Transfer • Indirect or direct transfer of a minority group to a new territory by the dominate group • Indirect—dominate group makes life so miserable for the minority group they choose to leave the area • Direct—movement to a new location with use of force or laws • Example: Native American Reservations; Japanese Internment

14. Extermination/Genocide • Intentional destruction of the entire targeted population • Also known as genocide or ethnic cleansing • Example: Holocaust

15. Reasons for Discrimination & Prejudice • Social norms: lays out ways in which members of society are expected to relate to members of certain groups • Personality: authoritarians, conformists, angry, likely to blame others • Scapegoating: blaming others when cause or resolution to problems is unknown or out of one’s reach • Competition for scarce resources: JOBS