Race and
Ethnicity
Sociology Ch. 14
Definitions
 Race–A
socially constructed
category composed of people who
share biologically transmitted traits
that members of a society consider
important
 Sociologists consider racial terms
misleading at best and harmful at
worst.
 No
society contains biologically “pure”
people.
Definitions
 Ethnicity–a
shared cultural heritage
 The
United States is a multiethnic society
 Like race, ethnicity is socially
constructed
 Remember:
Race is constructed
from biological traits and ethnicity is
constructed from cultural traits.
 For most people, ethnicity is more
complex than race.
 Table
14.1a
Racial and Ethnic Categories in the United
States, 2000
(Continued on next two slides)
Minority
Any category of people distinguished by physical or
cultural difference that a society sets apart and
subordinates
 General characteristics


Distinct identity: Race, sex, sexual
orientation, the poor
Subordination: Often saddled with lower
status
 Stereotypes,
stigma, and labeling
 Group size not always a factor


Women in US outnumber men.
Blacks in South Africa outnumber whites.

National Map 14.1
Where the Minority Majority
Already Exists
By 2004, minorities had become a majority in four states–
Hawaii, California, New Mexico, and Texas–and the District of
Columbia. At the other extreme, Vermont and Maine have the
lowest share of racial and ethnic minorities (about 4% each).
Why are states with high minority populations located in the
South and Southwest?
Prejudice
 Prejudice–A
rigid and unfair
generalization about an entire
category of people.
 Stereotype–An
exaggerated
description applied to every person
in some category
Measuring Prejudice
The Social Distance Scale
1.
2.
3.
Student opinion shows a trend toward
greater social acceptance.
People see less difference between
various minorities.
The terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001, might have reduced social
acceptance of Arabs and Muslims.
Figure 14.1 Bogardus Social Distance Research (Detail on next slide)
The social distance scale is a good way to measure prejudice. Part (a) illustrates the complete social distance scale,
from least social distance at the far left to greatest social distance at the far right. Part (b) shows the mean
(average) social distance score received by each category of people in 2001. Part (c) presents the overall mean
score (the average of the scores received by all racial and ethnic categories) in specific years. These scores have
fallen from 2.14 in 1925 to 1.44 in 2001, showing that students express less social distance toward minorities today
than they did in the past. Part (d) shows the range of averages, the difference between the highest and lowest
scores in given years (in 2001, for instance, it was 0.87, the difference between the high score of 1.94 for Arabs and
the low score of 1.07 for Americans). This figure has also become smaller since 1925, indicating that today’s students
tend to see fewer differences between various categories of people.
Source: Parrillo & Donoghue (2005).
Figure 14.1 Detail
Racism
The belief that one racial category is
innately superior or inferior to another
•
Racism has been widespread
throughout US history where ideas
about racial inferiority supported
slavery.
•
Overt racism in the US has
decreased, but remains a serious
social problem.
Theories of Prejudice

Scapegoat theory


Authoritarian personality theory


Disadvantaged people who unfairly blame
minorities for their own problems
Rigid moralists who see things in “black &
white”
Culture theory

Everyone has some prejudice because it’s
embedded in culture.
Theories of Prejudice
 Conflict
theory
 Self-justification
for the rich and
powerful in the United States
 Minorities
might cultivate climate of
race consciousness in order to win
greater power and privileges.
Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life
The Distribution of Intelligence.
Discrimination
Unequal treatment of various
categories of people

Institutional prejudice and
discrimination–Bias built into the
operation of society’s institutions

Carmichael and Hamilton: People
are slow to condemn or even
recognize institutional prejudice and
discrimination because it often
involves respected public officials
and long-established practices.
The Vicious Circle
1.
2.
3.
Prejudice and discrimination begin as
ethnocentric attitudes.
As a result, groups can be placed in a
situation where they are socially
disadvantaged and labeled.
A group’s situation, over time, is thus
explained as a result of innate inferiority
rather than looking at the social
structure. of reasons. The cycle then
repeats itself
Figure 14.2
Prejudice and
Discrimination: The
Vicious Circle
Prejudice and
discrimination can form
a vicious circle,
perpetuating
themselves.
Patterns of Interaction
 Pluralism–A
state in which people of all
races and ethnicities are distinct but have
equal social standing
 Assimilation–The
process by which
minorities gradually adopt patterns of the
dominant culture
 Miscegenation–Biological
reproduction
by partners of different racial categories
Patterns of Interaction
 Segregation–The
physical and social
separation of categories of people
 Genocide–The
systematic killing of
one category of people by another
National Map 14.2 Land Controlled by Native Americans, 1790 to Today
In 1790, Native Americans controlled three-fourths of the land (blue-shaded
areas) that eventually became the United States. Today, Native Americans
control 314 reservations, scattered across the United States, that account for
just 2% of the country’s land area. How would you characterize these
locations?
Race and Ethnicity in the US
 Native Americans
 White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
 African Americans
 Asian Americans
 Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipinos
 Hispanic Americans
 Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Cuban
Americans
 Arab Americans
 White Ethnic Americans
Table 14.3
The Social Standing of African
Americans, 2005
Table 14.4
The Social Standing of Asian Americans
Table 14.2
The Social Standing of Native
Americans, 2000
Table 14.4
The Social Standing of Asian Americans
Table 14.5
The Social Standing of Hispanic
Americans, 2005
Table 14.6
The Social Standing of Arab Americans,
1999
National Map 14.3 The Concentration of Hispanics or Latinos, African
Americans, Asian Americans, and Arab Americans, by County, 2000
In 2000, people of Hispanic or Latino descent represented 12.5 % of the US
population, compared with 12.3% African Americans, 3.6% Asian Americans,
and 0.4% Arab Americans. These maps show the geographic distribution of
these categories of people in 2000. Comparing them, we see that the southern
half of the US is home to far more minorities than the northern half. But do they
all concentrate in the same areas? What patterns do the maps reveal?
Race and Ethnicity:
Looking Ahead
 The
US will remain a land of immigrants.
 Most immigrants arrived in a wave that
peaked about 1910.
 Another wave of immigration began after
World War II and swelled as the
government relaxed immigration laws in
the 1960s.
 Today, about 1.5 million people come to
the United States each year