You May
Ask Yourself
An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist
Dalton Conley
SECOND EDITION
Chapter 9
Race
The Myth of Race
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• Race can be defined as a group of
people who share a set of
characteristics — usually physical
ones — and are said to share a
common bloodline.
• Racism is the belief that members
of separate races possess different
and unequal human traits.
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The Myth of Race
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
• Race is a social construct that
changes over time and across
different contexts.
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The Concept of Race
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• Many historical efforts to
explain race were biased due to
ethnocentrism (the judgment of
other groups by one’s own
standards and values).
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The Concept of Race
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• Social Darwinism, another
nineteenth-century theory, was the
notion that some groups or races
evolved more than others and were
better fit to survive and even rule
other races.
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The Concept of Race
• Backers of eugenics (the science of
genetic lines and the inheritable
traits they pass on from generation
to generation) claimed that traits
could be traced through bloodlines
and bred into populations (for
positive traits) or out of them
(for negative traits).
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The Concept of Race
• The one-drop rule, which evolved
from U.S. laws forbidding
miscegenation, was the belief that
“one drop” of black blood makes a
person black. Application of this
rule kept the white population
“pure” and lumped anyone with black
blood into one category.
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The Concept of Race
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
• Miscegenation is the technical term
for a multiracial marriage.
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The Concept of Race
• Today DNA testing is
used to determine
people’s racial makeup,
and while this process
may be more accurate on
some level than
nineteenth-century
racial measures, it
still supports the
notion of fixed,
biological racial
differences.
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Racial Realities
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• Racialization is the formation of
a new racial identity in which
new ideological boundaries of
difference are drawn around a
formerly unnoticed group of
people.
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Racial Realities
Jen’nan Read discusses her research
on the experience of Muslims in the
United States.
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Race versus Ethnicity
• Race is imposed (usually based on
physical differences), hierarchical,
exclusive, and unequal.
• Ethnicity is voluntary, selfdefined, nonhierarchical, fluid,
cultural, and not so closely linked
with power differences.
• An ethnic identity becomes
racialized when it is subsumed under
a forced label, racial marker, or
“otherness.”
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Race versus Ethnicity
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• Symbolic ethnicity is
ethnicity that is
individualistic in nature and
without real social cost for
the individual.
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Minority––Majority
Group Relations
• Pluralism, in the context of
race and ethnicity, refers to
the presence and engaged
coexistence of numerous
distinct groups in one
society, with no one group
being in the majority.
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Minority–Majority
Group Relations
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• Segregation is the legal or social
practice of separating people on
the basis of their race or
ethnicity.
– Segregation was official policy in the
United States, particularly in the
South, until the 1960s.
– Despite being illegal for over 40
years, there is still ample evidence
of segregation in American society
today, particularly in schools,
housing, and prisons.
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Group Responses
to Domination
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• Four ways that groups respond
to oppression are withdrawal,
passing, acceptance, and
resistance.
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Prejudice, Discrimination,
and the New Racism
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• Prejudice refers to negative
thoughts and feelings about an
ethnic or racial group.
• Discrimination refers to harmful or
negative acts against people deemed
inferior on the basis of their
racial category.
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Prejudice, Discrimination,
and the New Racism
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• While overt racism is, for the most
part, considered unacceptable in
America today, there is a new kind
of racism on the rise in America
and elsewhere that focuses on
cultural and national differences,
rather than racial ones.
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How Race Matters:
The Case of Wealth
• A wealth gap exists between whites
and minority groups in America that
has historical roots and that
cannot be overcome simply through
income equality. Public policies
formulated to address whitenonwhite disparities have not paid
close enough attention to this
particular legacy of racism.
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The Future of Race
• The 2000 Census created separate
categories for race and ethnicity
and for the first time allowed
people to check off more than one
box for racial identity. These
changes have given us a better idea
of the diversity of the American
population.
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Studying Race
Jennifer Lee explains how
sociologists think about race and
describes the differences between
race and ethnicity.
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Studying Race
Jennifer Lee describes her research
on the shifting color line in the
United States.
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Concept Quiz
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1. Ethnocentrism is _______.
a) the notion that ethnic ties are fixed in a
deeply felt connection to one’s homeland
culture
b) the idea that we should recognize differences
across cultures without passing judgment on,
or assigning value to, those differences
c) the judgment of other groups by one’s own
standards and values
d) the adoption of a symbolic ethnicity for
certain holidays or cultural events
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Concept Quiz
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
2. How was the one-drop rule related to laws
forbidding miscegenation in the United
States?
a) The one-drop rule reinforced antimiscegenation laws because any offspring
of a mixed-race union would be categorized
as black.
b) The one-drop rule was a precursor to
formal laws forbidding miscegenation.
c) When anti-miscegenation laws were struck
down in the courts, the one-drop rule was
an informal way of enforcing the same
policy.
d) all of the above
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Concept Quiz
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
3. A pluralistic society is one in which
_______.
a) numerous distinct cultures engage and coexist
peacefully within one large sociocultural
framework
b) numerous distinct cultures live within the
same political boundaries but do not interact
c) numerous distinct cultures live within the
same political boundaries but may experience
great tension and inequality
d) numerous distinct cultures vie for power and
domination within one large sociocultural
framework
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Concept Quiz
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
4. __________ is the least explored,
and perhaps the most striking, of the
disparities in social outcomes
between blacks and whites in the
United States.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Income disparity
High incarceration rates among blacks
The wealth gap
The difference in educational
attainment
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Concept Quiz
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
5. The “new racism” couches its
rhetoric in terms of _______ between
groups rather than _______.
a) religious differences; intellectual
differences
b) learned differences; innate ones
c) behavioral differences; physical
differences
d) cultural differences; physical
differences
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Discussion Questions
1. Would you consider yourself to be from a
multiracial background?
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a) yes
b) no
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Discussion Questions
2. If you met a person of a different racial
background than yourself but with whom you
seem to have a lot in common, would you
consider dating that person?
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a) yes
b) no
c) I’m not sure.
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Discussion Questions
3. If you fell in love with a person of a
different racial background than yourself,
would your family be accepting of that
person?
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
a) yes
b) no
c) I’m not sure.
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You May Ask Yourself
Video Interview Presentations
Chapter 9
Jennifer Lee — Color line
Jennifer Lee — Color
line
Jennifer Lee — Color
line
Jennifer Lee — Color
line
Chapter Opener
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
An anti-immigration cartoon from an 1871 issue of
Harper’s Weekly. How have attitudes about race
changed over the course of American history?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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A medieval illustration depicting Ham as a black man.
How did Europeans use the biblical story to defend
colonialism?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Charts like this one helped phrenologists interpret the shapes
of human skulls. How did nineteenth-century theorists use
this sort of pseudoscience to justify racism?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Herbert Spencer coined the term “survival of the fittest.” How
did Spencer draw from the work of Darwin to justify racism?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Howard Knox (left), the creator of intelligence test puzzle
questions, examines an immigrant (far right) at Ellis
Island in 1910.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Bhagat Singh Thind
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Marion West (center) embraces Vy Higgensen (right). The
distant cousins discovered their relationship after results of
separate DNA tests were entered into a database.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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The Burakumin are a minority who can be distinguished from the
rest of the Japanese population only by genealogical detectives. You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
Prejudice against this group often leads to homelessness.
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To see more of my interview with Jen’nan Read,
visit wwnorton.com/studyspace.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
A group of Sikhs protest after the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi.Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Crowds line the streets at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in
New York City. How is this an example of symbolic ethnicity?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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The Oglala Nation Pow Wow and Rodeo parade is a bright spot
for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which, like many federal
reservations, is plagued by problems linked to low socioeconomicYou May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
status.
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Wiley College student body president Kabamba Kiboko dances at
a pep rally. Her family came to the United States from the Congo.
For the first time, more Africans are entering the country than You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
during the slave trade.
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Figure 9.1 Hispanic Population by Region of Origin, 2008
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Many Chinese immigrated to the United States
during the 1850s to build the railroad and work in mines.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Former Klansman David Duke stands under a Confederate
battle flag. How was Duke able to cast the NAAWP as a
pro-white movement instead of a racist organization?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Table 9.1 Gordon’s Stages of Assimilation
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Black actor, singer, and civil rights leader Paul Robeson leads
Oakland dockworkers in singing the national anthem in 1942.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Figure 9.2 (left) Five Largest Foreign-Born Populations in the
United States, 1850 to the Present (in thousands)
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Figure 9.2 (right) Five Largest Foreign-Born Populations in the
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
United States, 1850 to the Present (in thousands)
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Elementary-school students in Ft. Myer, Virginia, face each otherYou May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
on the first day of desegregation.
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Figure 9.3 Index of Dissimilarity
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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In 1942, a race riot broke out in Detroit, Michigan, during
an attempt by white residents to force African Americans
out of the neighborhood.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Ethnic Tutsi troops overlook a pile of skulls that will be
reburied in a memorial to approximately 12,000 Tutsi
massacred by Hutu militias.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Survivors of Hurricane Katrina search for higher ground.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
Survivors gathered at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 9.4 Merton’s Chart of Prejudice and Discrimination
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Right-wing National Democratic party members protest
German immigration and refugee policies. How is this an
example of cultural racism?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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What were the consequences of the Japanese internment
camps? How are they an example of equity inequality?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Figure 9.5 Race Questions from the 2010 U.S. Census
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Figure 9.6 An Ethnic Snapshot of America Today
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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To watch more of the interview with Jennifer Lee about
the color line, visit wwnorton.com/studyspace.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Frank Ricci
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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This concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint Presentation for
Chapter 9: Race
For more learning resources, please visit our
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