Ch. 6 Race and Racism Flashcards
race
a flawed system of classification, with no biological basis, that uses certain physical characteristics to divide the human population into supposedly discrete groups
racism
individual thoughts and actions and institutional patterns and policies that create unequal access to power, resources and opportunities based on imagined differences among groups
genotype
the inherited genetic factors that provide the framework for an organism’s physical form
phenotype
the way genes are expressed in an organism’s physical form as a result of genotype interaction with environmental factors
colonialism
the practice by which a nation-state extends political, economic, and military power beyond its own borders over an extended period of time to secure access to raw materials, cheap labor and markets in other countries or regions
miscegenation
a demeaning historical term for interracial marriage
white supremacy
the belief that whites are biologically different and superior to people of other races
whiteness
a culturally constructed concept originating in 1691 Virginia designed to establish clear boundaries of who is white and who is not, a process central to the formation of U.S. racial stratification
Jim Crow
laws implemented after the U.S. Civil War to leglly enforce segregation, particularly in the South, after the end of slavery
hypodescent
sometimes called the “one drop of blood rule”; the assignment of children of racially “mixed” unions to the subordinate group
nativism
favoring certain long-term inhabitants over new immigrants
eugenics
a pseudoscience attempting to scientifically prove that existence of separate human races to improve the population’s genetic composition by favoring some races over others
racialization
to categorize, differentiate and attribute a particular racial character to a person or group of people
individual racism
personal prejudiced beliefs and discriminatory actions based on race
institutional racism
patterns by which racial inequality is structured through key cultural institutions, policies and systems