Lesson 11: Race, Racism and
Privilege
Social Problems
Robert Wonser
1

Race
Social construction that uses certain traits to
organize people into hierarchies
 Traits may be physical, religious, cultural, or
socioeconomic
Constructions entrenched in social structures
and organizations
3
What Does “Black” and “White”
Look Like Anyway?
 What race is this man?
 What marks him as
Black?
4
What Does “Black” and “White” Look Like
Anyway? Obama and his Grandfather
Other Examples of Race as a Social
Construction
 One drop rule in the United States
 “Money whitens” saying in Latin
American cultures
 Jews considered a separate race in
Nazi Germany
 “White Ethnics”
Ethnicity
Social construction based on Cultural
heritage
 Often connected to nationality
 May be associated with languages,
surnames, holidays, clothing styles
Ranges on a continuum of strength from
thick to thin (symbolic ethnicity)
Minority Group
Refers to the group’s share of power and
resources not size
 Women are a numerical majority of the
population but lack the income and
political power of men.
 People of color are the numerical
majority globally, but they hold minority
status in the United States
Racism
A system of advantage and
disadvantage based on race
Colorblind Racism
Race is irrelevant
Racial discrimination a thing of the past
 Problems minorities encounter must
stem from individual inadequacies
Tokenistic Fallacy
Assumption that because a few members
of a minority group have achieved
equality with majority counterparts, the
group no longer experiences racial
disadvantage
 Examples: Oprah, Barack Obama
Institutional Discrimination
Policies and practices embedded in social
institutions that favor members of the majority
group while systematically disadvantaging
people of color
 May not be racially intended
 Sometimes difficult to identify
 Results in “sedimentation of racial
inequality”
Jim Crow
System of racialized segregation that existed from
the Emancipation Proclamation of 1865 to the
landmark civil rights legislations of the late 1960s.
Blacks often remained unable to:
 own their own labor
 testify as witnesses
 obtain an equal education
 vote
New Jim Crow (Alexander 2012)
Criminal justice system acts as the major
enforcer of Jim Crow today
Example: White crack users more likely to be
sentenced to treatment than prison; only 25
percent were arrested, compared to 63 percent
of black users (Beckett et al 2005).
Internalized Racism
Occurs when people of color buy into
the dominant ideology and view
themselves as inferior
Race and Structural Functionalism
Minorities must assimilate into the dominant
culture
 Poor integration harmful to social equilibrium
Segmented assimilation: traditional, downward,
or hybrid
Bumpy line assimilation: individuals can have
“thick” or “thin” ties to parents’ culture of origin.
Race and Conflict Theory
W.E.B. DuBois’s double consciousness
 Blacks possess a dual understanding of (1)
themselves as fully capable human beings,
and (2) the majority group’s obscured
perception of them.
 Similar to white privilege
Race and Symbolic Interaction
Contact hypothesis (Allport 1954)
 the more intergroup contact between whites
and racial/ethnic minorities, the less likely they
are to be prejudiced
Contact most effective when:
 People are of equal status
 Contact is regular and sanctioned by an
authority
Race and Symbolic Interaction
Stereotype threat (Steele 1995; 1997)
 Occurs when minorities’ self-concepts
and performance on tasks are harmed
by societal stereotypes that portray
them as less competent than other
racial groups