Ch. 10: Race and Ethnicity

Question 1

Describe the salience principle.

Answer 1

The idea that we categorize people on the basis of what appears to be initially prominent and obvious

Question 2

What is race?

Answer 2

A group treated as distinct in society based on certain traits, some biological, that have been assigned social importance.

Question 3

Define racial formation.

Answer 3

The process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and/or destroyed

Question 4

What is racialization?

Answer 4

When some social category, such as a social class or nationality, takes on what is perceived to be racial characteristics

Question 5

What is an ethnic group?

Answer 5

A social category of people who share a common culture and who define themselves as having a collective identity.

Question 6

What is panethnicity?

Answer 6

When multiple ethnic groups come together to forge a new collective identity for some common purpose.

Question 7

What is a minority group?

Answer 7

Any distinct group in society that shares common group characteristics and occupies low status in society because of the power that a dominant group has over them.

Question 8

What is prejudice?

Answer 8

The evaluation of a social group and its members that is based on misconceptions and false generalizations

Question 9

What is discrimination?

Answer 9

The unequal treatment of members of some social group solely because of their membership in that group

Question 10

What are audit studies?

Answer 10

Research projects wherein two people identical in nearly all respects present themselves as potential tenants or employees

Question 11

What is a stereotype?

Answer 11

An oversimplified set of beliefs about members of a social group.

Question 12

What is the main difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 12

Prejudice is an attitude, while discrimination is overt behavior

Question 13

What is stereotype interchangeability?

Answer 13

The principle that negative stereotypes are often interchangable from one racial group to another

Question 14

What is stereotype threat?

Answer 14

The effect of a negative stereotype about one’s self upon one’s own test performance.

Question 15

Define racism.

Answer 15

The perception and treatment of a racial or ethnic group as inferior to the dominant group.

Question 16

What are the four types of racism?

Answer 16

Traditional, aversive, implicit bias, and colorblind

Question 17

What is traditional racism?

Answer 17

Racism that may include physical assaults, from beatings to lynching

Question 18

What is aversive racism?

Answer 18

Subtle, nonovert, and nonobvious racism.

Question 19

What is implicit bias?

Answer 19

An unconcious form of racism

Question 20

What is colorblind racism?

Answer 20

When individuals prefer to ignore legitimate differences and insist race problems will go away

Question 21

What is laissez-faire racism?

Answer 21

Maintaining the status quo of racial groups by persistent stereotyping and blaming on minority groups

Question 22

What is white privilege?

Answer 22

The benefits that white people receive in a society based on racial inequality

Question 23

What is institutional racism?

Answer 23

Racism involving notions of racial or ethnic inferiority that have become ingrained into society’s institutions

Question 24

What is the largest minority population in the United States?

Answer 24

Latinos/as

Question 25

Define anti-Semitism.

Answer 25

Prejudice, hostility, and discrimination against Jewish people.

Question 26

Define racial stratification.

Answer 26

A system of inequality in which race and ethnicity mark differential access to economic, social, political, and cultural resources.

Question 27

Define economic inequality.

Answer 27

The persistent income gap between white people and people of color.

Question 28

Define segregation.

Answer 28

The spatial and social separation of racial and ethnic groups

Question 29

Describe assimilation theory.

Answer 29

The process by which a minority group becomes absorbed into a host society.

Question 30

What question does the culture-structure debate ask about inequality?

Answer 30

Do people’s cultural values cause inequality?

Question 31

What is the basic premise of the class-race debate?

Answer 31

Class is now more important than ever in shaping people’s life chances.

Question 32

Describe intersectional theory.

Answer 32

Class, race, and gender combine to create a matrix of domination