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:
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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