Ch. 8 Race and Ethnicity

Question 1

Why is blood type more significant than the differences between a light and dark skinned person?

Answer 1

There is no race chromosome in DNA and there are more differences amongst members of the same race rather than opposing ones (Chinese and Asians, whites)

Question 2

What causes the physical differences we see between groups?

Answer 2

Geographical adaptations; people living closer to equator have more melanin to protect from sun while people living closer to the poles have less melanin to absorb enough sunlight

Question 3

How do sociologists define race?

Answer 3

A social category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people

Question 4

What is Ethnicity?

Answer 4

Another social category that is applied to a group with a shared ancestry for cultural heritage like language, religion, or history (scotch Irish, Jews)

Question 5

How was race a determining factor for native born Americans during the early 1900s?

Answer 5

Irish, Italians, and Jews were not considered white and forced to clutter in neighborhoods “ghettos”

Question 6

Are middle easterns considered white?

Answer 6

Currently in debate ; despite wide range of skin color and facial features it may be their symbolic labeling that makes them “non white”(911)

Question 7

How do we display our racial and group membership?

Answer 7

Dress, language, food, religious preferences, music, art, literature, interests at school

Question 8

Symbolic ethnicity

Answer 8

Enactments of ethnic identity that occur only on special occasions (st. Patrick’s day: green clothing, parades, hats)

Question 9

Situational ethnicity

Answer 9

When we assert our ethnicity in some situations and downplay it in others; governed by larger forces (middle easterns)

Question 10

How does sociologist Mary Waters address the lack of “ethnic options” for nonwhites?

Answer 10

The social and political consequences for being Asian of Hispanic or black are not symbolic or voluntary, rather real, unavoidable, and sometimes hurtful

Question 11

How do sociologists define a minority group?

Answer 11

People who are recognized as belonging to a social category and suffer from unequal treatment as a result of that status

Question 12

Why is it possible to be in the numerical majority and still have minority status with regard to power and opportunity?

Answer 12

A minority group is denied the access to power and resources generally accorded to others in the dominant groups (small group of whites controlling South Africa)

Question 13

What is a majority-minority state?

Answer 13

When there are more nonwhites than whites yet whites still remain the dominant group in terms of power, resources, and representation (California, Texas)

Question 14

How might membership in a minority group serve as a “master status”?

Answer 14

It overrides any other status, such a gender or age, and suffer from social discrimination and unfair treatment; results in a strong sense of common identity and solidarity among members of the group

Question 15

What is necessary in order for social inequality to persist?

Answer 15

The unequal treatment that minority groups suffer must be supported by the dominant groups

Question 16

Racism

Answer 16

Set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial or ethnic group over another

Question 17

Why are people racist?

Answer 17

To justify unequal social arrangements while presuming that one group is better than another

Question 18

Where are racists beliefs rooted?

Answer 18

In the assumption that differences amongst groups are innate or biologically based; also can arise from negative views of group’s cultural characteristics

Question 19

Prejudice

Answer 19

Inflexible attitude, usually negative, about a particular group of people that is rooted in generalizations or stereotypes; “Prejudgment”(all Mexicans are lazy)

Question 20

What is “internalized racism”?

Answer 20

When members of a minority group are prejudiced against themselves

Question 21

Do prejudiced ideas always flow from the dominant groups towards minorities?

Answer 21

No, minorities can hold negative stereotypes about the dominant groups

Question 22

What does prejudice usually lead to?

Answer 22

Discrimination….. but not always (teacher thinks Asians are better at math, but doesn’t yet this belief influence his grading)

Question 23

Discrimination

Answer 23

Action or behavior that results in the unequal treatment of individuals because of their membership in a certain racial or ethnic group

Question 24

How might a person not be prejudiced but still unknowingly participate in discrimination?

Answer 24

U.S.: Whites enjoy certain benefits denied to minorities yet believe in equality; act in such a way to challenge the injustices perpetuated by our systems of stratification

Question 25

Individual discrimination

Answer 25

When one person treats others unfairly because of their race or ethnicity (assign Hispanic student worse grade than deserved)

Question 26

Institutional Discrimination

Answer 26

More systematic, widespread and occurs when institutions practice discriminatory policies that affect whole groups of individuals (Ferguson)

Question 27

What did social commentator, Ta-Nehisi, write about is his book “Between the World and Me”?

Answer 27

Written as a letter to 15 year old son to warn about the omnipresent dangers facing black men

Question 28

What is white privilege?

Answer 28

The idea that one group (whites) in a society enjoy certain unearned advantages not available to others (nonwhites) and that group members (whites) are unaware of the unequal benefits they posses

Question 29

Color-blind racism

Answer 29

Dismisses the factor of race from the equation of social inequality; implies that race should be invisible and inconsequential (new form of racism)

Question 30

Race consciousness

Answer 30

Awareness of the importance of race in everyday lives and in our dealings with social institutions

Question 31

Cultural Appropriation

Answer 31

When members of the dominant group adopt cultural elements from an alternative group and use them for their own advantage (art, music, dance, clothing)

Question 32

What are some consequences of cultural appropriation?

Answer 32

It can be insensitive, perpetuate negative stereotypes, and exacerbate interracial relations

Question 33

How is cultural appropriation a form of postmodernism cultural imperialism?

Answer 33

It usually benefits dominant group, which takes an oppressed groups cultural symbols and turns them into a commodity for profit

Question 34

Why was affirmative action established?

Answer 34

To help create opportunities for underrepresented minorities in housing, education, and employment

Question 35

What are the goals of affirmative action?

Answer 35

Promote diversity & inclusion, provide equal access, and reduce the effects of historical discrimination

Question 36

How does functionalism help address race?

Answer 36

Explains how prejudice and discrimination develop by focusing on social solidarity and group cohesion

Question 37

How can groups serve as a barrier to society?

Answer 37

Groups tend towards ethnocentrism and this cohesiveness can lead members to see other races and ethnicities in an unfavorable light

Question 38

What did Edna Bonacich believe racism is driven by?

Answer 38

By economic competition and the struggle over scarce resources

Question 39

Split Labor Market

Answer 39

One group of workers is paid less than other groups, keeping wages low for racial and ethnic minorities, intensifying the effects of racism with those of poverty

Question 40

How did William Julius Wilson feel about racism and its driving forces?

Answer 40

Openly racist government policies and individual racist attitudes were the driving forces behind creation of a black underclass. However, now it is perpetuated by economic factors, not racial ones.

Question 41

How do sociologists address race and its relationship with class?

Answer 41

Race permeates both lived experience and larger scale activity, such as the economy & government

Question 42

Critical Race Theory

Answer 42

Believes that racism permeates social institutions, especially our judicial system and must be addressed as such

Question 43

What is the critical race theory focus on?

Answer 43

Intersectionality, or taking into account how race is modified by class, gender, sexuality, and other social structures

Question 44

What does the critical race theory encourage?

Answer 44

Inclusion of narratives from many intersections of voices and viewpoints

Question 45

How does the critical race theory stand in conjunction with the criminal system?

Answer 45

It challenges racist laws and policies to engage in a kind of activism that critiques the status quo and push forward the agenda for social justice

Question 46

Public sociology

Answer 46

Figure of the critical race theory; bridges legal and scholarly works with the front line involvement in solutions to the real world problems of racial and gender oppression

Question 47

Passing

Answer 47

Living as if one member of a different racial catergory; involves manufacturing or maintaining a new identity that is more beneficial than one’s real identity (blacks, gays)

Question 48

Embodied Identity

Answer 48

The way we are perceived in the physical world