Chapter 10
Race & Ethnicity
Javier Navedo, Greg Bolden,
Lorien Velasquez, Chedene
Ewert, Erin Walsh
Race
 Race – category of people who share inherited physical
characteristics and whom others see as a distinct group

Scholars have placed people into three racial
groups
 Caucasoids
= whites with fair skin and straight or
wavy hair
 Mongoloids = Asians with yellowish or brownish skin
and distinctive folds on the eyelids
 Negroids = blacks with dark skin and tightly curled
hair

Doesn’t always describe complexity of race
 More
concerned with how people react to
characteristics and how they affect society
Ethnicity


1.
2.
3.
4.
The set of cultural characteristics that
distinguishes one group from another group.
Examples are:
German Americans
Hispanics
Asian
African Americans

Ethnic Group - People who share a common
cultural background and a common sense of
identity.

Minority Group - A group of people who –
because of physical characteristics or cultural
practices – are singled out and unequally
treated.
Discrimination

Discrimination – denial of equal treatment to individuals
based on their group membership
Discrimination is based on behavior and
prejudice is based on attitude
 Discrimination ranges from name-calling
and rudeness to acts of violence

 Between
1882 and 1970, more than 1,170
African Americans were lynched by white mobs
because whites didn’t like them
Discrimination


Legal Discrimination: Upheld by law
Institutionalized Discrimination: Outgrowth of the structure of
Society.

Example of Legal Discrimination= The Jim Crow laws passed in
southern states during the late 1800s required African American and
white Americans to use separate public facilities and to attend
separate schools.

Example of Institutionalized Discrimination= Minority groups are
denied access to jobs and housing because of a prejudiced
employer or landlord. Over time, group members may become
concentrated in low-income communities.
Prejudice



Prejudice – unsupported generalization about a category
of people
Stereotypes – oversimplified, exaggerated, or
unfavorable generalization about a group of people
Negative forms of prejudice often involve
stereotypes
 A person
will form an image of a particular
group and then apply that to every member of
the group

Many Americans hold the stereotype that all Irish
people are hot-tempered
Prejudice



Self-fulfilling prophecy – a prediction that results in
behavior that makes the prediction come true
Racism – the belief that one’s own race or ethnic group
is naturally superior to other races or ethnic groups
Individuals combine discrimination and prejudice
in four ways




Active bigot prejudiced and openly discriminatory
Timid bigot is prejudiced but afraid to show discrimination
Fair-weather liberal not prejudice but still discriminates
All-weather liberal not prejudice and does not discriminate
Sources of Discrimination

Scapegoating: Practice of placing blame for one’s
troubles on an innocent individual or group.

By focusing on Scapegoats, people gain a sense of
superiority at a time when they are feeling
powerless.
Minority Groups BECOME Scapegoats :

 Easy
to recognize
 Lack Power in Society & may be unlikely to fight back
 Concentrated on one geographic area
 Target of Scapegoating in the past
Minority
Group
Treatment
Cultural Pluralism: Policy that allows each group within society to



keep its unique cultural identity.
Assimilation: Blending of culturally distinct groups into a single group
with a common culture and identity.
Segregation: Physical separation of a minority group from the
dominant group.






De jure segregation: Based on Laws
de facto segregation: Informal Norms
Subjugation: Maintaining of control over a group through force.
Slavery: Ownership of one person by another.
Genocide: Extermination aimed at intentionally destroying an entire
targeted population.
Ethnic Cleansing: Removing a group from a particular area through
terror, explosion, and mass murder.



African Americans – More than 12% of the population,
largest minority group in the country. 31% of African
Americans under 18 live below the poverty level and the
unemployment rate is twice the rate of unemployment
among white workers.
German Americans – German Americans who were
raised in America no longer feel ties to their ancestral
homeland or its cultural traditions.
Hispanics/Asians – Both of these groups have strong
ethnic roots unlike the German Americans; They still feel
ties to their ancestral homeland and its cultural traditions.
White ethnics

White ethnics – collective reference to immigrants from the
predominantly Catholic countries of Ireland, Italy, France, Poland,
and Greece

During the 1800s and 1900s, white ethnics entered the
United States and often faced open discrimination at the
hands of the American-born Protestant majority




Based on cultural and economic concerns
Opposition vocal and violent (Anti-Catholic riots and lynching)
Some chose to assimilate while others came together in order to
hold their identities
White ethnics have been accepted but are still facing
discriminations