Chapter 13
Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity
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The Meaning of Race and Ethnicity
When Worlds Collide: Patterns of Intergroup
Relations
Culture and Intergroup Relations
Theories of Racial and Ethnic Inequality
A Piece of the Pie
Race and Ethnicity
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Race refers to an inbreeding population that
develops distinctive physical characteristics.
Human groups have exchanged genes through
mating to such an extent that it is impossible to
identify “pure” races.
Race and Ethnicity
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Racism is based on the belief that an inherited
trait is a mark of inferiority.
Ethnic groups are populations that have a
sense of group identity based on a distinctive
cultural pattern and shared ancestry.
Intergroup Relations
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Range from intolerance to tolerance and from
genocide through assimilation.
Genocide is almost always rationalized by the
belief that the people who are being
slaughtered are less than human.
Expulsion in U.S. History
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Removal of Native Americans from their
ancestral lands.
Oriental exclusion movement of the nineteenth
century.
Detention of Japanese Americans during world
war II.
Slavery
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Called “the peculiar institution” because it has
existed in some of the world’s greatest
civilizations.
Although African-American slaves gained their
freedom during the Civil War, a long period of
segregation followed.
Assimilation: 3 Views
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Anglo-conformity - culturally distinct groups
give up their culture and adopt the dominant
culture.
Melting pot - a social and biological merging
of ethnic and racial groups.
Cultural pluralism - culturally distinct groups
retain their communities and their culture and
still integrate into U.S. Society.
Theories of Racial and Ethnic
Inequality
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Social-psychological - patterns of
discrimination stem from psychological
orientations toward members of out-groups.
Interactionist - see how hostility or sympathy
toward other groups is produced by norms of
interaction within and between groups.
Theories of Racial and Ethnic
Inequality
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Functionalist - seeks patterns of social
integration that help maintain stability in a
society.
Conflict - traces the origins of racial inequality
to conflict between classes in capitalist
societies.
Ecological - explore how conflict between
groups develops and is resolved.
Racial Inequality in the U.S.
Factors:
 Racial prejudice and discrimination.
 High rates of family breakup.
 Structural changes in the U.S. Economy.
 Majority of blacks are in insecure working-class
jobs or unemployed.