Introduction to Sociology
SOC-101
Unit 9 – Race and Ethnicity
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Race is a reality in the sense that humans do come in
different colors and shapes
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However, two of the myths regarding race are that one race is
superior to another and that a pure race exists
These myths make a difference in social life because people
believe they are real and act on their beliefs
Race and ethnicity are often confused due to the cultural
differences people see and the way they define race
Ethnicity refers to cultural characteristics that distinguish
a people
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Minority groups are people singled out for unequal
treatment
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They regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination
The shared characteristics of minorities worldwide are:
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Physical or cultural traits that distinguish them are held in low
esteem by the dominant group, which treats them unequally
They tend to marry within their own group
They tend to feel strong group solidarity
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Minority groups are not necessarily in the numerical
minority
Dominant Group
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Those who do the discriminating
They have greater power, more privileges, and higher social
status
The dominant group attributes its privileged position to its
superiority, not to discrimination
A group becomes a minority through the expansion of
political boundaries by another group
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Another way for a group to become a minority, either
voluntarily or involuntarily, is by migration into a territory
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Individuals vary considerably in terms of how they
construct their racial-ethnic identity
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Some people feel an intense sense of ethnic identity, while
others feel very little
Ethnic identity is influenced by the relative size and power
of the ethnic group, its appearance, and the level of
discrimination aimed at the group
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If a group is relatively small, has little power, has a distinctive
appearance, and is an object of discrimination, its members will
have a heightened sense of ethnic identity
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Ethnic work
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Refers to how people construct their ethnic identity and
includes enhancing and maintaining a group’s distinctiveness or
attempting to recover their ethnic heritage
The idea of the U.S. as a melting pot?
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Different groups quietly blending together into an ethnic stew, is
undermined by the fact that many people today are engaged in ethnic
work
A better metaphor would be “tossed salad”
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Prejudice and discrimination are common throughout the
world
Discrimination
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Unfair treatment directed toward someone
When based on race, it is known as racism
It can also be based on features such as age, sex, sexual
preference, religion, or politics
Prejudice
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Prejudging of some sort, usually in a negative way
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Ethnocentrism
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Using one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of
other individuals or societies
Is so common that each racial/ethnic group views other groups
as inferior in some way
Studies confirm that there is less prejudice among the
more educated and among younger people
Laying the Sociological Foundation
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Sociologists distinguish between individual and
institutional discrimination:
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Individual discrimination is negative treatment of one person
by another
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Too limited a perspective because it focuses only on individual
treatment
Institutional discrimination is negative treatment of a minority
group that is built into a society’s institutions
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Focuses on human behavior at the group level
Examples include certain mortgage lending practices and health care
availability
Theories of Prejudice
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Psychological Perspectives:
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According to John Dollard, prejudice results from frustration:
people unable to strike out at the real source of their
frustration find scapegoats to unfairly blame
According to Theodor Adorno, highly prejudiced people are
characterized by excess conformity, intolerance, insecurity,
heightened respect for authority, and submission to superiors
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He called this complex of personality traits the authoritarian
personality
Subsequent studies have generally concluded that people who are
older, less educated, less intelligent, and from a lower social class are
more likely to be authoritarian
Theories of Prejudice
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Functionalists
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The social environment can be deliberately arranged to
generate either positive or negative feelings about people
Prejudice can be a product of pitting groups against each other
in an “I win/you lose” situation
It is functional in that it creates in-group solidarity and outgroup antagonism
It is dysfunctional in that prejudice destroys social relationships
and intensifies conflict
Theories of Prejudice
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Conflict Theorists
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The ruling class benefits when it systematically pits group
against group by:
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Creating a split labor market which divides workers along racialethnic lines and weakens solidarity among the workers
Maintaining higher unemployment rates for minorities, creating a
reserve labor force from which owners can draw when they need to
temporarily expand production
Workers from different racial-ethnic groups learn to fear and
distrust one another instead of recognizing common interests
and working for their mutual benefit
Theories of Prejudice
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Symbolic Interactionists
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The labels people learn color their perception and lead them
to see certain things and be blind to others
Racial and ethnic labels are especially powerful because they
are shorthand for emotionally laden stereotypes
The stereotypes that we learn not only justify prejudice and
discrimination, but they also lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
about it
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Genocide
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The actual, or attempted, systematic annihilation of a race or
ethnic group who has been labeled as less than fully human by
the dominant group
Dehumanizing labels are powerful forces that help people to
compartmentalize—separate their acts from any feelings that
would threaten their self-concept—thereby making it difficult
for them to participate in the act
The Holocaust and the treatment of Native Americans are
examples of genocide.
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Population transfer
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The involuntary movement of a minority group
Indirect transfer involves making life so unbearable that the
minority group members leave
Direct transfer involves forced expulsion
A combination of genocide and population transfer occurred in
Bosnia (a part of the former Yugoslavia) when Serbs engaged in
ethnic cleansing—the wholesale slaughter of Muslims and
Croats, which forced survivors to flee the area
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Internal colonialism
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A society’s policy of exploiting a minority by using social
institutions to deny it access to full benefits
Slavery is an extreme example
Segregation
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The formal separation of groups
Often accompanies internal colonialism
The dominant group exploits the labor of the minority while
maintaining social distance
Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations
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Assimilation
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The process by which a minority is absorbed into the
mainstream
Forced assimilation occurs when the dominant group prohibits
the minority from using its own religion, language, and customs
Permissive assimilation is when the minority adopts the
dominant group’s patterns in its own way, at its own speed
Multiculturalism (pluralism)
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Permits or encourages racial and ethnic variation
Switzerland provides an outstanding example of this
Racial-Ethnic Relations in the U.S.
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The major racial-ethnic groups in the U.S. are White
European Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asian
Americans, and Native Americans
In the U.S., the dominant group is made up of whites
whose ancestors emigrated here from European
countries
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White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) were highly
ethnocentric and viewed white ethnics—the Irish, Germans,
Poles, Jews, and Italians—as inferior
Racial-Ethnic Relations in the U.S.
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Immigrants were expected to blend into the mainstream,
speak English, and adopt the dominant group’s way of life
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It was the grandchildren of the immigrants, the third
generation, who most easily adjusted
As these white ethnics assimilated into Anglo culture, the
definition of WASP was expanded to include them
Because the English first settled the colonies, they
established the institutions and culture to which later
immigrants had to conform
Latinos
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The largest ethnic group in the U.S.
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Concentrated primarily in four states: California, Texas,
New York, and Florida
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Includes Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and
people from Central or South America
They are causing major demographic shifts
The Spanish language distinguishes them from other
minorities
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Perhaps half are unable to speak English without difficulty
This is a major obstacle to getting well-paid jobs.
Latinos
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Divisions based on social class and country of origin
prevent political unity among these Latino groups
Compared with non-Hispanic whites and Asian
Americans, Latinos are worse off on all indicators of wellbeing
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The country of origin is significant, with Cuban Americans
scoring the highest on indicators of well-being and PuertoRican Americans scoring the lowest
African Americans
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Face a legacy of racism
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In 1955, African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, using
the nonviolent tactics advocated by Martin Luther King,
Jr., protested laws they believed to be unjust
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Following the end of the Civil War, southern states passed Jim
Crow laws that separated blacks and whites
This led to the civil rights movement that challenged existing
patterns of racial segregation throughout the south
The 1964 Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in public
facilities
The 1965 Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests used to
prevent African Americans from voting
African Americans
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Frustration over the slow pace of change led to urban
riots and passage of the 1968 Civil Rights Act
Since then, African Americans have made political and
economic progress
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For example, African Americans have quadrupled their
membership in the U.S. House of Representatives in the past
25 years
As college enrollment continues to increase, the middle class
has expanded so that now one of every four African American
families makes more than $40,000 annually
African Americans such as Jesse Jackson, Douglas Wilder, Deval
Patrick, Condoleezza Rice, and Barack Obama are politically
prominent
African Americans
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Despite these gains, however, African Americans continue
to lag behind in politics, economics, and education
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They average 59% of whites’ incomes
Only 17% graduate from college
About one of every five African American families makes less
than $15,000 annually
According to William J. Wilson, social class (not race) is
the major determinant of quality of life
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The African American community today is divided into two
groups
African Americans
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Middle-class African Americans
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Poorly educated and unskilled African Americans
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As opportunities for unskilled labor declined, they were left behind
They still live in poverty, face violent crime and dead-end jobs, attend
terrible schools, and live in hopelessness and despair
Willie challenges Wilson, arguing that discrimination
based on race persists
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Seized opportunities created by civil rights legislation and advanced
economically, moving out of the inner city
They have moved up the class ladder, live in good housing, have wellpaid jobs, and send their children to good schools
This is despite gains made by some African Americans
It is likely that both discrimination and social class
contribute to the African American experience
Asian Americans
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They too have long faced discrimination in the U.S.
The history of Asian Americans is one of discrimination
and prejudice
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Chinese Americans were frequently the victims of vigilante
groups and anti-Chinese legislation
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, hostilities
increased, with many Japanese Americans being imprisoned in
“relocation camps”
When immigrants from Japan began to arrive in the United
States they experienced “spillover bigotry”
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A stereotype that lumped all Asians together, depicting them as
sneaky, lazy, and untrustworthy
Asian Americans
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Asian Americans are a diverse group divided by separate
cultures
Although there are variations in income among Asian
American groups, on the average Asian Americans have
been extremely successful
This success can be traced to three factors:
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A close family life
Educational achievement
Assimilation into the mainstream
Asian Americans are becoming more prominent in
politics, serving as governors of Hawaii, Louisiana, and
Washington
Native Americans
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Due to the influence of old movie westerns, many
Americans tend to hold stereotypes of Native Americans
as uncivilized savages and a single group of people
subdivided into separate bands
In reality, Native Americans represent a diverse group of
people with a variety of cultures and languages
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Although originally numbering between 5 and 10 million, their
numbers were reduced to a low of 250,000 at the end of the
nineteenth century due to a lack of immunity to European
diseases and warfare
Today there are about 3 million Native Americans
Native Americans
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At first, relations between European settlers and the
Native Americans were peaceful
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However, as the number of settlers increased, tensions grew
Because they stood in the way of expansion, many Native
Americans were slaughtered
Government policy shifted to population transfer, and Native
Americans were confined to reservations
Today they are an invisible minority
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Almost half live in rural areas, with one-third concentrated in
Oklahoma, California, and Arizona
They have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, suicide,
and alcoholism of any U.S. minority
These negative conditions are the result of Anglo domination
Native Americans
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In the 1960s Native Americans won a series of legal
victories that restored their control over the land and
their right to determine economic policy
Many Native American tribes have opened businesses,
ranging from industrial parks to casinos
Today, many Native Americans are interested in
recovering their own traditions
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Pan-Indianism emphasizes common elements that run through
Native American cultures in order to develop self-identification
that goes beyond any one tribe
Looking Towards the Future
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As U.S. society is now in the 21st century, two issues that
will have to be resolved are immigration and affirmative
action
Immigration
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The first great wave of immigrants arrived from Europe at the
end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries
The second wave, since 1980, has brought immigrants from
around the world and is contributing to the changing U.S.
racial/ethnic mix
In some states, such as California, all minorities combined
represent the majority of the population
Many are concerned that this influx of immigrants will change
the character of U.S. society, including the primacy of the
English language
Looking Towards the Future
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Affirmative action is at the core of the national debate
about how to steer a course in race and ethnic relations
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Some see affirmative action as the more direct way to level the
playing field of economic opportunity, while others say that it
results in reverse discrimination
There is still no consensus about the proper role of affirmative
action in a multicultural society
In order to achieve a multicultural society will require that
groups with different histories and cultures learn to accept one
another
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We must begin to examine our history and question many of its
assumptions and symbols