RACE AND ETHNICITY
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Defining Race and Ethnicity • Race • The division of people based on certain physical characteristics • The U.S. Census Bureau outlines six different racial categories (see next slide) • Discussion: Who gets to be white?
• Ethnicity • The classification of people who share a common cultural, linguistic, or ancestral heritage • The U.S. Census Bureau does not classify Hispanic or Latino as a race, but as an ethnicity • Discussion: Are Hispanics white? • Discussion: Is Hispanic a race?
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Majority and Minority Groups • Majority Group • Not only has greater numerical representation in society but also holds significant power and privilege • Discussion: Are whites in South Africa a majority group or minority group? • Minority Group • Refers to any group that holds less power than the majority group • Often experiences unequal treatment compared to dominant group, giving them collective sense of discrimination • Discussion: Are whites a minority group? • Discussion: Are women a minority group?
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Racism • Racism • Prejudice that asserts that members of one race are inferior to another • Makes them less worthy of fair treatment
• In the U.S., racism long used to justify mistreatment of certain
groups of people • From Native Americans to African Americans to immigrant laborers • Discussion: If you oppose welfare spending, are you a racist?
• Hate groups • Organizations that promote hostility or violence toward others, based on race and other factors • Discussion: Which group is more racist, today’s white separatists or average whites during Jim Crow?
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Prejudice • Usually refers to rigid generalizations, often negative, about an entire category of people • Minority groups often face prejudice from the dominant group • Studies support the notion prejudice is learned • Assuming that prejudice is a learned behavior, it can be unlearned • Discussion: Do whites face prejudice from racial and ethnic minorities?
• Stereotypes • Simplified and extreme perceptions people have of an entire group • Usually based on false assumptions and reinforces prejudice • Discussion: What about good stereotypes, are they bad as well?
• Discrimination • Deliberate and unfair treatment of people based on a prejudice • E.g., 2006 film Glory Road
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Institutional Discrimination • Maintains advantage for dominant group while providing appearance of fairness to others • Personal biases carry over into structures of society and often go
unnoticed by others who don’t even hold those views • E.g., “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws of the early to mid-1900s • Caused disparities in institutions such as education and housing
• Discussion: Voter identification laws, institutional discrimination? • (see http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/09/23/hispanics -voting-photo-identification-laws/70000954/1#.UF_Mm41lQlQ)
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • John Dollard • Scapegoating • In situations in which we feel powerless, we unfairly accuse another
group as being the cause of our problem • Discussion: What social problems do we blame racial or ethnic
minorities for? Economy? High taxes? National debt? Crime? Drugs?
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Minority Success • Many minorities, despite suffering from prejudice and
discrimination, become successful • Beverly Tatum • Assimilation Blues: Black Families in a White Community • Investigates what it means to be black and middle class in a mostly
white neighborhood • Parents of middle-income blacks are generally happy with their choice to move into mostly white areas. • Schools are the place where the children and their parents say they have experienced the most overt racism.
Minority Success • Isolated from others of their race • W.E.B. Du Bois • Families experience “double consciousness” • Must live in a white and black world and be able to keep these worlds separate
Minority Success • Ellis Cose • The Rage of the Privileged Class • Issues that even the most successful African Americans must confront: • • • • • • • •
Inability to fit in Lack of respect Low expectations Faint praise Identity troubles Self-censorship and silence Collective guilt Exclusion from the club
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Racial Stratification in the United States • There are significant disparities between racial groups • Many people of color in the United States remain in disadvantaged positions • poorer, achieve lower educational outcomes, live shorter lives, attend
under-funded schools, experience problems with assimilation, and generally believe that police and other social institutions work to increase their disadvantage • Some minorities tend to be over-represented in poverty statistics • African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics
Racial Stratification in the United States • Higher education continues to be stratified by race • One of the most important factors in determining income is education • Few minorities earn doctorate degrees (see next slide) • Minorities made up only 15 percent of faculty members in U.S. colleges and universities in 2003
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Symbolic interactionists stress the importance of
symbolism and language in the creation of society • Color-blind Racism • Idea that racism still exists in more subtle ways
Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Eduardo Bonilla-Silva • Suggests that color-blind racism occurs when whites use a series of excuses to justify the status quo and keep races separate • “some of my best friends are black” • “racist, but funny” • E.g., watermelon and fried chicken painted on Air Force One
• Color-blind racism excuses racist tendencies under the guise that
we are color blind
Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Four key factors: • Whites hold onto ideals such as equality, individualism, and choice in an effort to explain why racial groups are disadvantaged • White people often use cultural stereotypes to rationalize racial inequality • False belief that segregation is a personal choice • Many whites in the U.S. believe that racism is a thing of the past and deny that it has any impact on minorities’ lives today
Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Laissez-faire Racism • Notion that blacks are responsible for their own problems, particularly economic ones, and no longer deserve government help and support • Ignores structural problems of the poor and minorities
• Ignores the fact that choices people make occur within a social context
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Sociologist William J. Wilson • Overt racism has declined in the U.S. • Forms of institutional racism continue to affect schools, jobs, health care, and other aspects of the lives of poor and minority members • Cannot ignore reality of structural racism
• Out of these structures spring cultures that can lead the individual
to poor choices and negative outcomes • Inner-city youths develop cultural values counterproductive to achieving
success
Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Elijah Anderson • Code of the Street: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City • Inner-city youths often adopt this code • Alternative to pro-social paths to success • Focuses: • Appearing tough • Having the “right” look • Talking in the “right” way
• Inner-city youths frequently develop negative attitudes toward
authority, police, and education • Attitudes hinder ability to assimilate into the larger culture
Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • The social structures of poverty, crime, and joblessness
help create a “code of the street” culture • Change in those structures is required to attack it
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Conflict Theory • W.E.B. Du Bois • African Americans will always be faced with a dominant majority that wants to exploit them • To survive: • They develop a double consciousness • Make a distinction between two worlds: one white and one black • Minorities may unconsciously adopt racist attitudes held by the dominant group
• Sociologists find that members of the dominant group do not think
much about race
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
Social Problems and Racial Segregation • Enforced separation is called segregation when factors of
race, gender, or ethnicity are involved • E.g., housing, workplace, and social settings
• Massey and Denton • Blacks of various income levels experience similar segregation from whites • Racial segregation linked to a number of factors, including personal choice
Race and Ethnicity • Defining Race and Ethnicity
• Majority and Minority Groups • Racism • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Institutional Discrimination in the U.S. • Causes for Prejudice and Discrimination • Minority Success • Racial Stratification in the United States • Symbolic Interactionism: Color-blind Racism • Functionalism: The Interaction of Culture and Structure • Conflict Theory • Social Problems and Racial Segregation
