Notes to Race and Ethnic Relations and Stratification

I. RACE AND ETHNICITY

         A.  Race is a category of people who have been singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis of physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape. (Race ex:  Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, white Anglo Saxons)

         B. An ethnic group is a collection of people distinguished, by others or by themselves, primarily on the basis of cultural or nationality characteristics. (ex: Jewish Americans, Irish, Italian Americans, Japanese, Chinese)

• Ethnic Groups Share 5 main characteristics:
• cultural traits (language, clothing, holidays)
• sense of community
• felling of ethnocentrism
• ascribed membership from birth
• territoriality

        C. Social significance of race and ethnicity:

• Race and ethnicity are bases of hierarchical ranking in society; the dominant group holds power over other (subordinate) ethnic groups.

         D. A majority (or dominant) group : one that is advantaged and has superior resources and rights in a society (In US, whites with northern-European ancestry)

         E.  A minority (or subordinate) group : one whose members, because of physical or cultural characteristics, are disadvantaged and subjected to unequal treatment by the dominant group and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination (all persons of color and white women)

• Majority and Minority refer to relationships of advantage/disadvantage, and power/exploitation.
•  
• In Hawaii: may be more about the local/non-local distinction.

II. PREJUDICE

A. Prejudice

• Prejudice: a negative attitude based on faulty generalizations about members of selected racial and ethnic groups. Can be positive (bias in favor of a group, often our own) or negative (bias against a group, one we think less worthy than our own).
• Prejudice is often rooted in ethnocentrism and stereotypes:
• overgeneralizations about the appearance, behavior, or other characteristics of all members of a category (positive or negative)

B. Racism

• Racism is the belief (includes attitudes, beliefs, practices) that some racial or ethnic groups are superior while others are inferior.
• May be overt or subtle

C. Theories of prejudice

• Theories of prejudice include:
• The frustration - aggression hypothesis :states that people who are frustrated in their efforts to achieve a highly desired goal will respond with a pattern of aggression toward a scapegoat-a person or group that is incapable of offering resistance to the hostility or aggression of others. Here, we take it out on people of that same racial/ethnic group, even though it had nothing to do with them.
•  
• Social learning theory: Prejudice results from observing and imitating significant others, like parents and peers (attitudes are reinforced when they are rewarded for telling racist jokes, etc.)
•  
• Theory of the authoritarian personality: Characterized by excessive conformity, submissiveness to authority, intolerance, insecurity, a high level of superstition, and rigid, stereotypic thinking.
• Family environment with dominating parents, anxious about status, use physical discipline but show little love in raising kids.

D. Measuring prejudice

1. Social distance

• Based on the work of Emory Bogardus, social distance is the extent to which people are willing to interact and establish relationships with members of racial and ethnic groups other than their own.
• But most studies have been done on how comfortable white people feel about others.  Not enough studies done from how other races feel about interacting with one and other.

III. DISCRIMINATION

A. Discrimination

1.  varies

• Discrimination is defined as actions or practices of dominant group members that have a harmful impact on members of a subordinate group.
•  
• Robert Merton identified four combinations of attitudes and responses:

         1. Unprejudiced nondiscriminators-persons who are not personally prejudiced and do not discriminate against others;

         2. Unprejudiced discriminators-persons who may have no personal prejudice but still engage in discriminatory behavior because of peer­group prejudice or economic, political, or social interests;

         3. Prejudiced nondiscriminators-persons who hold personal prejudices but do not discriminate due to peer pressure, legal demands, or a desire for profits;

         4. Prejudiced discriminators-persons who hold personal prejudices and actively discriminate against others.

• Discriminatory actions vary in severity from the use of derogatory labels to violence against individuals and groups:

         1. Genocide is the deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation.

         2."Ethnic cleansing" : has been used to define a policy of "cleansing" geographic areas (such as in Bosnia-­Herzegovina) by forcing persons of other races or religions to flee-or die.

• According to sociologist Joe R. Feagin (and others), discrimination also varies in how it is carried out.

         1. Individual discrimination consists of one-­on-­one acts by members of the dominant group that harm members of the subordinate group or their property.

         2. Institutional discrimination is the day-­to-­day practices of organizations and institutions that have a harmful impact on members of subordinate groups.

IV. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RACE

AND ETHNIC RELATIONS

A. Interactionist Perspectives

         1. The contact hypothesis suggests that contact between people from divergent groups should lead to favorable attitudes and behavior when a specific set of criteria is met:

• members must have equal status
• pursue the same goals
• cooperate to achieve those goals
• receive positive feedback when they interact with one another in positive, nondiscriminatory ways

Spend time with someone from that group and you may develop a more positive attitude about them.

         2. However, scholars have found that increasing contact may have little or no effect on existing prejudices.

• Thus, intergroup contact may either intensify or reduce racial-ethnic stereotyping and prejudice.

B. Functionalist Perspectives

1. assimilation

• Assimilation is a process by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups become absorbed into the dominant culture: 5 main types:
•  
• Cultural (acculturation): when members of an ethnic group adopts dominant group traits, such as language, dress, values, religion, and food preferences (in this country, we expect Anglo-conformity, but some groups refuse) (Native Hawaiians)
•  
• Structural assimilation (integration): when members of subordinate racial or ethnic groups gain acceptance in everyday social interactions with members of dominant group (begins in large, impersonal settings, like schools, churches)
•  
• Biological Assimilation (amalgamation): when one marries the other
  
  
• Psychological Assimilation: involves a change in racial or ethnic self-identification on the part of the individual (rejection by dominant groups may prevent this, especially when the visual shows you’re different…)

2. ethnic pluralism

• Ethnic pluralism is the coexistence of a variety of distinct racial and ethnic groups within one society.
•  
• Equalitarian pluralism (accommodation): ethnic groups coexist equally with each other
• Inequalitarian pluralism (segregation): when specific ethnic groups are set apart from the dominant group and have unequal access to power and privilege
• segregation: the special and social separation of categories of people by race, ethnicity, class, gender, and/or religion.

• May be enforced by law: Jim Crow laws in the southern United States after the civil war, legalized the separation of races in public accommodations (hotels, restaurants, hospitals, transportation, jails, etc.)

• May also be enforced by custom
• residential segregation

C. Conflict Perspectives

1. The caste perspective views racial and ethnic inequality as a permanent feature of U.S. society, partly due to structural features like the law.

• unique experience of African Americans and slavery
• Antimiscegenation laws: prohibited sexual intercourse or marriage between persons of different races (not declared unconstitutional until 1967).

2. Class perspectives emphasize the role of the capitalist class in racial exploitation.

• African Americans enslaved because they were cheapest and best workers capitalists could find  for the mines and plantations they owned.
• Profit motivation for the capitalists accounted for slavery

3. Internal colonialism occurs when members of a racial or ethnic group are conquered, or colonized, and forcibly placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group (Native Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Hawaiians)

• In the process, indigenous groups lost property, political rights, aspects of their culture, and often their lives.

4. Split labor market refers to the division of the economy into two areas of employment:

• a primary sector:  composed of higher ­paid (usually dominant group) workers in more secure jobs
•  secondary sector:  comprised of lower­ paid (often subordinate group) workers in jobs with little security and frequently hazardous working conditions.
• White workers use racial discrimination against non-whites to protect their positions
• do away with immigration and cheap labor

5. Gendered racism refers to the interactive effect of racism and sexism in the exploitation of women of color.

• Women’s experiences must be explored within each racial or ethnic group, because their experiences will not be the same as men’s.
• All workers are not equally exploited by capitalism
• Gender and race or ethnicity
• Historically, the higher-paying primary labor market has been monopolized by white men
• People of color and most white women more often hold lower-tier jobs
• Also the underground sector of the economy, characterized by illegal activities (drug trafficking, prostitution,) where many undocumented workers and some white women and people of color attempt to earn a living.

6. The theory of racial formation states that actions of the government substantially define racial and ethnic relations in the United States.

• Ranging from race-related legislation to imprisonment of members of groups believed to be a threat to society.
• Immigration legislation reflects racial biases:
• The Naturalization law of 1790 permitted only white immigrants to qualify for naturalization
• The Immigration Act of 1924 favored Northern Europeans and excluded Asians and Southern and Eastern Europeans.
• Social protest movements have challenged the government’s actions
• restructures public understanding of race:
• EX: African American protest movements of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s helped redefine the rights of people of color in the USA.

IV. GLOBAL RACIAL AND ETHNIC

INEQUALITY IN THE TWENTY­FIRST CENTURY

A. Worldwide Racial and Ethnic Struggles

1. The cost of self-determination-the right to choose one's own way of life-often is the loss of life and property in ethnic warfare (ex: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Spain, Romania, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America).

2. However, some analysts predict that the "superpower" nations, including the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Germany, will suppress ethnic violence with the assistance of the United Nations, which will serve a peacekeeping function by monitoring and enforcing agreements between rival factions.

B. Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the

United States

1. Racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in the United States:

• Predicted that by 2056, the roots of the average U.S. resident will be Africa, Asia, Hispanic countries, the Pacific Islands, or Arabia-not white Europe.

2. Interethnic tensions may ensue between whites and people of color:

• people may continue to employ sincere fictions-personal beliefs that are a reflection of larger societal mythologies, such as "I am not a racist"-even when these are inaccurate perceptions.

3. Some analysts believe that there is reason for cautious optimism:

• throughout U.S. history subordinate racial and ethnic groups have struggled to gain the freedom and rights which were previously withheld from them, and movements comprised of both whites and people of color will continue to oppose racism in everyday life, to aim at healing divisions among racial groups, and to teach children about racial tolerance.

RESOURCES

Websites:
Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Media

Books:
Growing Up Jim Crow: The Racial Socialization of Black and White Southern Children, 1890-1940 by Jennifer Ritterhouse (2006)

Books at the WCC Library:
Women, Race, and Class, Angela Davis