Ethnic Prejudice and
Discrimination
Racism
• Racism is generally understood as
either belief that different racial
groups are characterized by intrinsic
characteristics or abilities and that
some such groups are therefore
naturally superior to others.
• See Biology as Ideology
Xenophobia
• A specific form of racism involving insiders
and outsiders…See Howard Becker (1963)
• Vilfred Pareto 1848-1923
Xenophobia
• A fear that “outsiders” are taking over the
place..
• Xenophobia occurs among those who
conceive of themselves as “the insiders”
• See “Nativism and Social Closure”
International Journal of Comparative
Sociology.
Orangeism
• In 19th century Toronto, Orange Order (pro
Protestant, Pro British, Anti-Catholic
faternity
• Worried about the influx of Roman
Catholics from Ireland to Canada and the
US.
• Orangeman create “social closure” to
demonstrate their superiority and right to
dominate.
Toronto Star
• For example, a Toronto Star article
published on 14 July 2006 authored by
Daniel Stoffman noted that 43% of
immigrants move to the Greater Toronto
Area and said "unless Canada cuts
immigrant numbers, our major cities will
not be able to maintain their social and
physical infrastructures".
Myths
• -Immigrants taking over the country
• 1986 16% of population were
immigrants the same figure reported in
1951.
• Quite a bit less than 22% reported in
1911.
• 40% of 200,000 per year through
Family Reunification.
Immigrants are uneducated
• - NO- immigrants are more likely than nonimmigrants to have a university education.
•
• -However, more immigrants have less than
grade 9 at 23% compared to 16% among
non immigrants• Due to low educational levels of women. patriarchy rather than ignorance.
•
From Asia/South Asia
• -Immigrants from Asia are taking over
the country.
• -I.epeople from Asia -East Indian,
Pakistan, China, Korea ect. are overrunning the country pretty soon there
will be no white folks.
• This is an urban myth & unfounded…
•
Visible Minorities
• -It is true that 40% of immigrants living
in Canada came from these areas
between 1978 and 1986.
• However, in terms of proportion in
Canada they only constitute 3% of the
total population.
• Currently, immigrants 11% of the pop
..(2006)
“Sap the welfare system”
• -Immigrants come over and sap the
welfare system. NO.
• Immigrants are only slightly less likely
to participate in the labour force 76.4
compared to 77.7%
Labour force participation
• Among young people-able bodiedimmigrants had a higher labour force
participation rate at 95.3% compared
to 94.8 among non-immigrants.
• -Immigrant men earn more than nonimmigrant men, although the same is
not true for women. (pink collar/pink
ghetto)
2006 Census
Canadian Population Total 31,241,030
Canadian Non Imm Populati 24,788,720
Canadian Immigrant Current 6,186,950
• Canadian Immigr pre 1991 3,408,420
Racism
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INVOLVES various combinations:
Stereotyping
Prejudice
Discrimination
Self Fulfilling Prophecy
Labeling
Stereotypes, Prejudice and
Discrimination
• To focus upon stereotyping, prejudice
and discrimination requires a socialpsychological level of analysis
• Social psychology is the study of how
people and groups interact.
• Micro sociological approach, small group
dynamics
Definitions
1. STEREOTYPE- refers to images in
our heads that compensate for the
limits of human perceptions.
Stereotype-prejudicial
views
descriptions of categories of people
or
PREJUDICE2. Prejudice -a rigid irrational generalization
about an entire category of people
• -an aversion fueled by ignorance.
• -social/psychological & personal
identity issues -faulty content of
stereotypes.
•
Discrimination3. Discrimination- treating various
categories of people unequally
• DISCRIMINATION- exists when ethnic
or racial group members are denied
equal treatment.
• The concept is often used
unreflectively
Merton, R.K. (1948). The Selffulfilling Prophecy
• Developed a typology of
prejudice and
discrimination which
suggested that they vary
independently of one
another
Merton’s Typology
• According to Merton there were four
logical
relationships
between
prejudice and discrimination:
• 1. Un-prejudice non -discriminators.
• 2. Prejudiced discriminators.
• 3. Unprejudiced discriminators.
• 4. Prejudiced non-discriminators
Merton’s Research
• Merton suggested that sociologists must
distinguish between actual and
perceived discrimination.
• Perceived definitions derive from labels.
• Labelling can lead to a self fulfilling
prophecy.
• Is there an objective measure?
The self-fulfilling prophecy
• Is a false definition of the situation
evoking a new behaviour which makes
the original false conception come
'true'.
• This specious validity of the self-fulfilling
prophecy perpetuates a reign of
error..
. Frustration-Aggression
hypothesis.
Gordon Alport The ABCs of
Scapegoating (1948) and in a
1954 book entitled The Nature of
Prejudice
Scapegoating
• (from the verb "to scapegoat ") is the
practice of singling out any party for
unmerited negative treatment
or blame as a scapegoat.
Scapegoating
• Scapegoating, displaced anger directed
towards another group.
Frustration/Aggression hypothesis holds
that from frustration or blockage the
individual directs his frustration on to other
groups.
Scapegoating Social
Psychology
•
Gordon Alport develops a social
psychological profile of the relationship
between:
1. Frustration (ie. Economic)
2. Aggression (hate crimes)
3. Social Outcomes
Frustration/Aggression
Hypoth:9 points
• 1. Every person faces a cluster of
propelling forces directing them to
certain goals.
• 2. No person can attain all the goals
he/she sets out for him/herself and
therefore major and minor frustrations
develop.
• Achievements can be blocked by a
lack of skills, by other persons, by
illness etc.
Frustration/Aggression Hypoth:
• 3. The blockage of goals leads to
frustration within individuals.
•
• 4. Often these cannot be directed
towards a clear source of frustration.
Frustration/Aggression
Hypoth:
• 5. Hostility is then directed towards a source
which cannot fight back.
•
• 6. The person then looks for a justification for
this scapegoating attitude.
•
7. He creates or accepts convincing reasons
(ideologies) for hating or discriminating
against the object of his/her hostility.
Frustration/Aggression Hypoth:
•
• 8. Discovers and believes many
kinds of evidence that prove that
the object of aggression deserve
the
treatment
they
receive.
(Ideology)
•
• 9. He projects upon the scapegoat
some of the evil behaviour that
characterize himself and his own
behaviour. (behaviour)
Forms of Discrimination in
Canada
Overt, Structural and Covert
1. Blatant or OvertBlatant discrimination is to… arbitrarily
deny opportunities to members of
ethnic groups whose qualifications are
equal to members of the dominant
group.
2. Structural
• The
impersonal
`perhaps’
unintentional operation of the Canadian
social system.
• -The exclusion of a substantial number
of members of some ethnic minorities
from the full participation in public life.
• The
unequal
distribution
of
opportunities and rewards.
3. Legislative discrimination
• -Phased out after WW2 I.e Internment
camps
• Yet until mid 1960's, some of Canadian
immigration laws were racist.
• E.g. policies regarding aboriginal
peoples
have
historically
been
paternalistic.
4. Cultural Discrimination • Operates
through
the
expectations of the dominant
culture and its attempts at
conformity in public life.
Cultural Discrimination
• Those groups whose attributes
(symbols, artifacts, cultural
practices) that deviate most
markedly from the dominant
group are the most severely
discriminated against
Cultural Discrimination
• Ethnic groups that approximate the
dominant ethno-cultural model in
appearance, religion, lifestyle symbols
etc. the more open and accessible are
the institutions of society.
5. Cultural Discrimination in
Education
• Nowhere
is
cultural
discrimination more evident
than in the hidden curriculum
of the Canadian educational
system.
• John Dewey University of Chicago
(1894-1904
ON THE ONE HAND:
• Education is a formalized aspect
of acculturation.
• A person develops the skills and
life ways appropriate for adult
participation in the society.
•
•
Hidden Curriculum
• Much of what teachers convey in this
regard is based upon the norms of the
dominant, white, urban, middle class.
•
• Students of lower social classes or
minority groups may not easily identify
with models offered by teachers.
See Henry and Tator
on Democratic Racism
• In a multi-cultural society like Canada
failure to depict the ethnic diversity of
Canada through the educational system
may be seen a violation of the basic
human rights of ethnic students.
6. Discrimination of Silence• 6. Discrimination of Silence• Refers to where people in power say
or do nothing about racism in Canada.
• -Fear of discussing, let alone teaching
principles of human rights.
• -Silence perpetuates the status quo
preserving racist thinking and victim
blaming.
Social distance Research
• Indicates that knowledge of racism
and prejudice alone does not
necessarily change behaviour nor
generate positive self images.
• The key variables are distance,
contact, integration.
Social distance
(Moreland, Levine, & Wingert,
1996).
• Where social distance is high the
relations between groups tends to be
impersonal.
• Insiders relate to outsiders in terms of
stereotypes rather than individual
personalities.
•
High Social Distance
• Groups do not get close enough to
outsiders to test the accuracy of their
preconceived, unsubstantiated
assumptions.
Social distance low
• Social relationships are more intimate, more
individualized.
• People become aware of similarities rather
than differences. This allows differences to
be celebrated rather than to be looked upon
negatively.
• Individuals are then looked upon on a
personal level as equals & individual human
personalities.
Reducing Discrimination
• Educational programs designed to
reduce ethnic prejudice must be aimed
at reducing social distance between
members of different ethnic groups.
•
• The promotion of contact between
groups enables members to share
mutual similarities as well as celebrate
differences.
R.C.Lewotin
• “There is not one iota of evidence of any kind
that differences in status, wealth and and
power between races in North America have
anything to do with genes”. (Brym 1999:64)
• 85 percent of all variation is between 2
individuals
• 8 percent between ethnic groups
• 7 percent between races
Biology as Ideology
• R.C Lewontin in his book, Biology as
Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (1991)
sums it up this way:
•
IDEOLOGY
• Conflict theorists define ideology as a
body of assumptions, ideas, and values the
combine into a coherent world view.
• Marx and Engels-ideas are social
creations, the appropriating class gives
dominance in the ideological as well as the
economic sphere.
Summary I.
• Prejudice and discrimination are
categories of sociological research requiring
a social psychological focus.
• Many myths can be generated by social
distance, misunderstanding and inaccurate
statistical data.
Summary II.
• There are various forms of discrimination
(action) within the Canadian system
• Some structural and systemic,
• Other cultural and symbolic.
• Discrimination is the result of prejudice and
stereotyping in action.
Ethnic Extremist Canada
Canadian Racial Supremacism
• The Contemporary Structure of Canadian Racial
Supremacism: Networks, Strategies and New
Technologies
• Sean P. Hier
• Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers
canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Autumn,
2000), pp. 471-494 (article consists of 24 pages)
• Published by: Canadian Journal of Sociology
•
Contemporary Structure
• The Contemporary Structure of Canadian
Racial Supremacism: Networks, Strategies
and New Technologies, by Sean P. Hier ©
2000
Abstract
• In the past five years, public debate has
ideology of racial supremacism.
• Right Wing-exclusion, social closure,
racism
• Left Wing-inclusion, collectivism, social
welfare in a competive, capitalistic context
Canada's racial supremacists
• In addition to updating the body of literature
concerned with Canada's racial supremacists,
three arguments are presented
• First, there exists a considerable gap between the
public images that racial supremacist groups
attempt to present on the internet and a far less
benign image that emerges upon closer analysis
• Second, exemplified by the Freedom-Site,
the internet has facilitated a greater degree
of solidarity between racial supremacist
organizations
• Third, given the impersonal nature of the
internet, there exists a certain degree of
danger that otherwise ordinary citizens will
become more susceptible to the ideology of
racial supremacism
• Review of literature by drawing on data
gathered from an investigation of the
Freedom-Site, a racial supremacist Web
site run out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
In 2001
• In 2001, 250,640 people immigrated to
Canada.
• Based on the Canada 2001 Census total
population of 30,007,094 people,
immigration represented 0.834% population
growth that year
Point System
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1.Education 5-25 H.S. -PhD
2.Official language knowledge English, French
3.Work experience 15-21 1-4 years
4.Age 10-21-49 years
5.Arranged Employment0- HRSDC confirmed
6.‘Adaptability’0-10*
* Spouse education, Canadian education or
experience, family contacts
2001 Census
• Data from the 2001 Census show that
between 1991 and 2000 alone,
• 2.2 million immigrants were admitted to
Canada, the highest number for any
decade in the past century.