Race, Culture and American
Society
All of the World Is a Stage
Saturday Reader
Identity
Who are WE really?
US Census
American is changing everyday. She is
becoming more “colorful”, has more
“accents,” and is older. Check out
census.
Who is a minority
Minority Group
Minority status has more to with wealth and
power.
Using Wagley and Harris (1958) there are 5
characteristics of minority
• The members of the group experience a pattern of
disadvantage or inequality.
• The members of the group share a visible trait or
characteristic that differentiates them from other groups.
• The minority group is a self-conscious social unit.
• Membership is the group is usually determined at birth.
• Members tend to marry within the group.
More
Ethnic minorities – use cultural
characteristics
Racial minorities –
use physical
characteristics
Race
The conception that people can be
classified into groups based on skin
color, hair texture, shape of head,
eyes, nose, and lips.
from Meaning of Difference (5th)
by Karen Rosenblum and ToniMichelle C. Travis
Ethnicity
Membership is a subgroup within an environment
dominated by another culture.
“Minority groups identified primarily by cultural
characteristics such as language or religion.”
(race, ethnicity, etc.)
“It is an an aspect of social relationship between
agents who consider themselves as being
culturally distinctive from members of other
groups with whom they have a minimum of
regular interaction. It can thus be defined as a
social identity (based on a contrast vis-à-vis
others) characterized by metaphoric or fictive
kinship (Yelvington, 1991:168).”
[http://folk.uio.no.geithe/Ethnicity.html]
Gender
Gender
What is it about men?
What is it about women?
Some Definitions
Prejudice
Is the tendency of an individual to think about
other groups in negative ways, to attach negative
emotions to those groups, and to prejudice
individuals on the basis of their group
membership.
• Individual prejudice has two parts
– Cognitive (thinking)
– Affective (feeling)
A prejudice person thinks about other groups in
terms of stereotypes which are generalizations
that are thought to apply to group members.
Four Concepts in Dominant-Minority
Relations
Level of Analysis
Dimension
Individual
Group or Societal
Thinking/feeling Prejudice
Ideological Racism
Doing
Discrimination Institutional
Discrimination
More Definitions
Discrimination
is the unequal treatment of a person or person
based on group membership.
Ideological Racism
A belief system that asserts that a particular group
is inferior; it is the group of societal equivalent of
individual prejudice.
Institutional Discrimination
Is a pattern of unequal treatment based on group
membership that is built into the daily operations
of society, whether or not it is consciously
intended.
Assimilation and Pluralism
Is resistance futile?
What is
Assimilation
“is a process in which formerly distinct and
separate groups come to share a common culture
and merge together socially. Differences in
among groups decrease.”
Pluralism
“exists when groups maintain their individual
identities. Groups remain separate and cultural
and social differences persist over time.”
Types of Assimilation
Melting Pot – is where groups come
together and contribute in roughly
equal amounts creating a common
culture and a new, unique society.
Questions
• Is this true of the US?
• Why or Why not?
• What is distinctive about US culture
and society?
• Who are the biggest contributors?
Another type -dominant in praxis
In the US
Americanization or Angloconformity
• Assimilation in the US
“was designed to
maintain the
predominance of the
British-type institutional
patterns created during
the early years of
American society.” In
this systems
“immigrants and
minority groups are
expected to adapt
Anglo-American culture
as quickly as possible.”
Milton Gordon
He developed 3 stages of assimilation.
Acculturation
Integration
• Secondary level
• Primary level
Intermarriage
Gordon’s Stages of Assimilation
Stage
Process
1. Acculturation (cultural
assimilation)
The group learns the
culture, language, and
value system of the
dominant society.
Gordon’s Stages of Assimilation
Stage
Process
2. Integration
(structural assimilation)
At the secondary level:
• Public, impersonal
At the primary level:
• Interpersonal, intimate
Members of the group
enter that public
institutions of the
dominant society
Members of the group
into into cliques, clubs,
and friendship groups of
the dominant society.
Gordon’s Stages (cont.)
Stage
Process
3. Intermarriage
(marital assimilation)
Members of the
group intermarry
with members of the
dominant group on
a large-scale basis.
Pluralism
Cultural pluralism
“Groups have not acculturated and each maintains
it own identity. The groups might speak different
languages, practice different religions, and have
different value systems.”
Structural pluralism
“Cultural differences are minimal but the groups
occupy different locations in the social structure.”
The has many of the same cultural practices as
the dominant group but they maintain separate
organizations.
Multiculturalism
This stresses mutual
respect for all
groups and
celebrates the
multiplicity of
heritages that have
contributed to the
development of the
United States.
Sources
2. Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender by Joseph Healy, (3rd edition).
Race http://www.providence.edu/polisci/rep/
What is race - Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender by Joseph Healy, (3rd
edition).
http://www.beijing-2008.org/eolympic/ztq/Downloadphotos/Ethnic%20Minorities%20support%20Beijing's%20Bid.jpg
http://www.network-democracy.org/socialsecurity/bb/adss/images/minorities_1a.gif
Gender http://www.manchester.edu/users/facstaff/DKMonaco/photos.html
Prejudice et al – Race, pp. 25-28
Borg pictures - http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/7900/BORGCUBE.htm
Sources
http://www.calstatela.edu/exed/aclp/images/aclpcover04.jpg
http://www.chamberlainsd.org/images/Photos/boydancer.gif
http://www.americanembassy.org.cy/armstr.jpg
http://www.wethepeople.gov/neh/images/culture-cover.gif
http://www.osia.org/public/images/ellisisland.jpg
http://www.austinitalians.org/aiflogow.jpg
Race, Ethnicity etc.