12 Stratification - Race/ethnicity Flashcards
What is the biological definition of “Race”?
A subspecies with distinct characteristics and greater genetic similarity
Define “ethnicity.”
behavioral, [sub]cultural, and organizational differences that allow us to categorize members of a population as distinctive
Define “xenophobia.”
Fear of that which is merely different from oneself
What is ethnic stratification?
The division of valued resources on the basis of ethnicity
Define and distinguish between “prejudice” and “discrimination.”
Prejudice - Beliefs about the undesirable qualities of others
Discrimination - Differential treatment of others, especially those of an ethnic group or a gender category, so they receive less valued resources.
What is the Implicit Association Test?
An Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a psychological test that aims to reveal unconscious attitudes, automatic preferences, and hidden biases by measuring the time that takes an individual to classify concepts into two categories.
What is the historical practice known as “redlining?”
The discriminatory practice of denying services (typically financial) to residents of certain areas based on their race or ethnicity.
What is “cultural lag,” and how does it help us understand modern-day stratification based on race?
Cultural lag refers to the fact that day-to-day cultural practices take longer to change than laws and formal rules. This helps us understand why there is still significant stratification based on race today, despite racial discrimination largely being outlawed in the 1960s.
According to the biological definition, do distinct human races exist today?
No; modern humans to not have enough genetic variation to be considered distinct races
Why do modern humans vary so much in terms of skin pigmentation?
Darkly pigmented skin evolved near the equator to protect individuals from ultraviolet light exposure. Ancestral humans who moved away from the equator evolved lighter skin to facilitate the catalyzation of vitamin D.
How do Native Americans compare to other ethnic groups today on various valued dimensions? (teen pregnancy, high school graduation, occupational status, life expectancy)
Native Americans rank either worst or close to worst on all valued dimensions, including teen pregnancy rates, high school graduation rates, unemployment rate, and life expectancy
Explain Rogers & Prentice-Dunn’s (1981) experiment.
What does this experiment tell us about ethnic stratification?
All participants were white college students. Participants played the role of doctor and were instructed to shock patients to increase their heart rate when needed. Randomly, half the participants worked with a white patient and half with a black patient. Also randomly, half of the doctors were insulted by the patient during the process and half were not insulted. For doctors who were not insulted, white patients received higher levels of shock relative to black patients. In the insult condition, black patients received higher levels of shock relative to white patients.
This experiment cues us into the fact that we make different cultural associations with different racial & ethnic groups. In this specific case, there is clearly something more threatening about being insulted by a black person than a white person.
Explain how the Implicit Association Task (IAT) measures unconscious bias.
The IAT measures the strength of automatic associations between various objects and concepts. Typically, the IAT measures how closely associated an object is with a particular evaluation (good/bad). The assumption is that the closer the association, the stronger the implicit bias.
Explain how “redlining” and residential segregation was implemented during the 1920s in northern states. Why was this so important for the maintenance of ethnic stratification?
Redlining refers to the discriminatory practice of excluding poor communities from access to financial services. One of the most important financial services that were restricted was home mortgages. This made it difficult for many ethnic minorities to purchase a home which during most of the 20th century was the best way to develop long-term wealth. This is one of the major factors that can explain the large gaps in wealth between ethnic groups that we see today.
Explain how dissimilarity (how many people would have to switch places to establish equal racial neighborhood representation) and exposure (having white neighbors) have changed since the 1940s in predominantly African American neighborhoods.
How do we explain the fact that neighborhoods are less segregated overall (dissimilarity), but African Americans are just about as likely today as in 1940 to have Caucasian neighbors (exposure)?
Dissimilarity has declined overall as neighborhoods have become more diverse. However, exposure has largely remained the same going all the way back to the 1940s.
African American neighborhoods are more diverse today but not because Caucasians have been moving in but rather because other ethnic minorities have moved in.
Fill in Turner’s model of ethnic stratification.
