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UNDERSTANDING RACE AND ETHNICITY

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Implies mutual respect between diverse groups. Assimilation and pluralism are significant for racial and ethnic oppression in the US today ... Amalgamation ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: UNDERSTANDING RACE AND ETHNICITY


1
UNDERSTANDING RACE AND ETHNICITY
  • CHAPTER 1

2
SOCIOLOGY OF INTERGROUP RELATIONS
  • THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
  • Functionalism
  • Conflict Theory
  • Labeling Theory
  • Subordinate groups created by processes of
  • Immigration
  • Annexation
  • Colonialism

3
  • Process of expulsion may remove the presence of a
    subordinate group
  • ASSIMILATION
  • Demands subordinate-group conformity
  • PLURALISM
  • Implies mutual respect between diverse groups
  • Assimilation and pluralism are significant for
    racial and ethnic oppression in the US today

4
What is a Subordinate group?
  • What does and does not determine minority group
    status?
  • Minority status is not based on the size of a
    group
  • Minority/Majority group membership is not
    necessarily mutually exclusive
  • Minority status may vary according to
    geopolitical boundaries
  • Minority/Majority is related to the distribution
    of power

5
  • What are the five characteristics that defines a
    minority/subordinate group?
  • 1. Unequal treatment and less power over ones
    life
  • 2. Distinguishing physical or cultural traits
    that the dominant group holds in low regard
  • 3. Involuntary membership or ascribed status
  • 4. Group solidarity awareness of subordinate
    status and oppression
  • 5. Marital endogamy - patterns of in-group
    marriage

6
Types of Subordinate Groups
  • Racial groups - are groups that are set apart on
    the basis of obvious physical differences within
    a society
  • What is obvious is relative to the group or
    society
  • Ethnic groups - are groups that are set apart on
    the basis of cultural traits and nationality
  • Religious groups - consists of religious
    associations that are set apart from the dominant
    religion
  • Gender groups - such as women who are set apart
    on the basis of sex
  • Other subordinate groups - are those that are set
    apart on the basis of age, disability or sexual
    orientation

7
Does Race Matter?
  • Biological school of thought and meaning of race
  • Racial groups as genetically discrete population
    groups are based on the following
  • There are subpopulations within the human race
  • That one sub-group may be distinguished
    biologically from another on the basis of genetic
    traits

8
Criticisms of the Biological View
  • Idea of Biological Race is based on mistaken
    notion of a genetically isolated human group
  • Genetic traits are continuous so it is impossible
    to state where one group begins and ends and
    another starts
  • Within group, variations are greater than
    differences between groups
  • Each trait is independent from the other
  • Human species contain no subgroups

9
Social Construction of Race
  • Race is important because of the social meaning
    people have attached to it
  • Race is a social construct based on how people
    define themselves and others on physical and
    social characteristics
  • Racial classifications are a function of how
    people define, label and categorize themselves
    and others into groups
  • Racism
  • The feeling that certain groups or races are
    inherently superior to others

10
Racial Formation
  • A socio-historical process by which racial
    categories are created, inhibited, transformed,
    and destroyed
  • Powerful define groups of people in a way that
    depends on a racist social structure
  • Dominant group has the power to impose its racial
    definitions onto others
  • In Southern U.S., social construction was known
    as the one-drop rule

11
Stratification by Class and Gender
  • Stratification
  • The structured ranking of entire groups that
    perpetuates unequal rewards and power in a
    society
  • Class or Social Ranking
  • People who share similar wealth, according to
    Webers definition
  • Upward mobility may be difficult for subordinate
    group members faced with lifelong prejudice and
    discrimination

12
Sociology and the Study of Race and Ethnicity
  • Ethnic and racial stratification
  • The structure and process by which race and
    ethnicity determines life chances and access to
    socially desirable resources such as housing,
    justice, education, wealth, power, etc.
  • Stratification is interconnected by
  • Racial
  • Ethnic
  • Religious
  • Age
  • Gender

13
Theoretical Perspectives
  • Functionalist Perspective
  • society is like a living organism in which each
    part contributes to the whole and emphasizes how
    the parts of society are structured to maintain
    its stability
  • The five functions of racial inequality
  • Racist ideologies provides justification for
    unequal treatment
  • Discourages subordinate people from attempting to
    question their low status
  • Justify existing practices but also serves as a
    rallying point for social movements
  • Racists beliefs provide support for the existing
    social order
  • Relieve the dominant group of responsibility to
    address the economic and educational problems
    faced by subordinate groups

14
  • Dysfunctions of racial inequality
  • Fail to utilize all human potential and limits
    the search for talent and leadership to the
    dominant group
  • Aggravates social problems and places the
    financial burden of alleviating those problems on
    the dominant group
  • Investment of time and money to defend barriers
    that prevent full participation of all
  • Undermines diplomatic ties between nations and
    affect efforts to increase global trade
  • Inhibits social change because this may assist a
    subordinate group
  • Promotes disrespect for law enforcement and the
    peaceful settlements of disputes

15
Conflict Perspective
  • Assumes the social structure is best understood
    in terms of conflict or tension between competing
    groups
  • The subordinate group is criticized for its low
    status and the dominants group responsibility is
    often ignored
  • Ryan (1976)
  • Blaming the Victim portraying the problems of
    racial and ethnic minorities as their fault
    rather than recognizing societys responsibility

16
Labeling Approach
  • Related to the conflict perspective and its
    concern over blaming the victim and is titled
    labeling theory
  • Labeling Theory
  • Concept introduced by Howard Becker
  • Attempt to explain why certain people are viewed
    as deviant and others engaging in the same
    behavior are not
  • Stereotypes
  • Unreliable generalizations about all members of a
    group that do not take individual differences
    into account and is not limited to racial and
    ethnic groups

17
The Creation of Subordinate-Group Status
  • Population Migration 1st Pattern
  • Emigration or leaving an area to move elsewhere
    such as the Irish leaving Ireland
  • Immigration or coming into an area such as the
    Irish coming to the United States.
  • Immigration may be voluntary or it may be
    involuntary
  • Populations usually migrate because of a
    combination of push and pull factors

18
  • Annexation 2nd Pattern
  • An indigenous group is incorporated into another
    society
  • Colonialism 3rd Pattern
  • The political, socio-cultural and economic
    domination of an indigenous population by a
    foreign power
  • Internal Colonialism
  • Relations between the colonizer and the colony
    are similar to those between the dominant and
    subordinate people within the same country

19
The Consequences of Subordinate-Group Status
  • Genocide
  • Systematic extermination of subordinate group at
    the hands of the dominant group
  • Extermination
  • The forcing of a specific subordinate group to
    leave certain areas or even vacate a country
  • Secession
  • A group ceases to be a subordinate group when it
    secedes to form a new nation or moves to an
    established nation, where it becomes dominant

20
  • Segregation
  • The physical separation of two groups in
    residence, workplace, and social functions,
    generally imposed by the dominant group
  • Fusion
  • Occurs when a minority and majority group combine
    to form a new group
  • Amalgamation
  • The process by which a dominant group and a
    subordinate group combine through intermarriage
  • Melting Pot
  • Diverse racial or ethnic groups form a new
    creation, a new cultural identity

21
  • Assimilation
  • The process by which a subordinate individual or
    group takes on the characteristics of the
    dominant group and is eventually accepted as part
    of that group
  • Five reasons assimilation would take longer
  • Differences between minority and majority are
    large
  • Majority is not receptive or minority retains its
    culture
  • Minority group arrives over a short period of
    time
  • Minority group residents are concentrated rather
    than dispersed
  • Arrival is recent and the homeland is accessible

22
The Pluralist Perspective
  • Pluralism
  • Implies that various groups in a society have
    mutual respect for one anothers culture, a
    respect that allows minorities to express their
    own culture without prejudice or hostility
  • Bilingualism
  • The use of two or more languages in places of
    work or education with each language being
    treated as equally legitimate

23
Who Am I?
  • Ethnic Identity
  • Non-ethnics
  • Panethnicity
  • Ethnicity as a political and bureaucratic
    administrative process
  • Marginality
  • The status of being between two cultures
  • DuBois Double-Consciousness
  • Also caused by incomplete assimilation

24
Resistance and Change
  • Dominant group define the terms by which all
    members of society operate
  • Continuing theme in dominant-subordinate
    relations is the minority groups challenge to
    its subordination
  • Resistance is seen in efforts by racial and
    ethnic groups to maintain their identity through
    newspapers, organizations, and modern technology

25
  • Resistance may begin through small actions that
    leads into a broader investigation
  • Change is occurring
  • Hate-crime legislation
  • Afrocentric Perspective
  • Emphasizes the customs of African Cultures and
    how they pervaded the history, culture, and
    behavior of Blacks in the U.S. and around the
    world
  • In considering todays inequalities, it is easy
    to forget how much change has taken place

26
Questions
27
  • What are three examples of the Social
    Construction of race in U.S. Culture?

28
  • Describe the process of racial formation in
    America. How was it designed?

29
  • What is the Function(alism) of racism in human
    society?

30
  • Provide an example of the Conflict Perspective of
    race in human society.

31
  • Besides racial groups, what other groups can be
    stereotyped?

32
  • Was there ever a genocidal action in America?
    Describe how and against whom.

33
  • Why is it difficult for racial minorities to
    assimilate in the dominant group of America?
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