Chapter 10: Racial and Ethnic Inequality Flashcards
Racial group
is set apart from others by physical differences
Ethnic group
is set apart primarily by national origin or cultural patterns.
minority group
concerned primarily with the economic and political power, or powerlessness, of the group.
Stereotypes.
The meaning people attach to the physical differences between races gives social significance to race, producing
Prejudice
often but not always leads to discrimination. Sometimes, through color-blind racism, prejudiced people try to use the principle of racial neutrality to defend a racially unequal status quo.
Institutional discrimination
The denial of opportunities to individuals and/or groups
results from the normal operations of a society
Affirmative action
Positive efforts to recruit minority group members or women for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities.
Amalgamation
The process through which a majority group and a minority group combine to form a new group.
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Jewish prejudice.
Apartheid
A former policy of the South African government, designed to maintain the separation of Blacks and other non-Whites from the dominant Whites.
Assimilation
The process through which a person forsakes his or her cultural tradition to become part of a different culture.
Asylees
Foreigners who have already entered a receiving country because of persecution of a well-founded fear of persecution.
Black power
A political philosophy, promoted by many younger Blacks in the 1960s, that supported the creation of Black-controlled political and economic institutions.
Color-blind racism
The use of the principle of race neutrality to defend a racially unequal status quo.
White privilege Rights
or immunities granted to people as a particular benefit or favor simply because they are White.
Symbolic ethnicity
An ethnic identity that emphasizes concerns such as ethnic food or political issues rather than deeper ties to one’s ethnic heritage.
Stereotype
An unreliable generalization about all members of a group that does not recognize individual differences within the group.
Segregation
The physical separation of two groups of people in terms of residence, workplace, and social events; often imposed on a minority group by a dominant group.
Remittances
The monies that immigrants return to their families of origin.
Refugee
People living outside their country of citizenship for fear of political or religious persecution.
Racial profiling
Any arbitrary action initiated by an authority based on race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on a person’s behavior.
Racism
The belief that one race is supreme and all others are innately inferior.
Redlining
The pattern of discrimination against people who try to buy homes in minority and racially changing neighborhoods.
Contact hypothesis
An interactionist perspective which states that in cooperative circumstances, interracial contact between people of equal status will reduce prejudice.
Racial group
A group that is set apart from others because of physical differences that have taken on social significance.
Racial formation
A sociohistorical process in which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed.
Prejudice
A negative attitude toward an entire category of people, often an ethnic or racial minority.
Pluralism
Mutual respect for one another’s cultures among the various groups in a society, which allows minorities to express their cultures without experiencing prejudice.
Minority group
A subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their own lives than the members of a dominant or majority group have over theirs.
Institutional discrimination
The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operations of a society.
Discrimination
The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or other arbitrary reasons.
Ethnic group
A group that is set apart from others primarily because of its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns.
Glass ceiling
An invisible barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified individual in a work environment because of the individual’s gender, race, or ethnicity.
Genocide
The deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation.
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others.
Exploitation theory
A Marxist theory that views racial subordination in the United States as a manifestation of the class system inherent in capitalism.
