Chapter 8: Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience

Question 1

Race

Answer 1

a socially defined category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people

(i.e. the physical differences between groups such as skin color or hair texture)

Question 2

Ethnicity

Answer 2

a socially defined category based on a common language, religion, nationality, history, or some other cultural factor

(i.e. Jews share a religious and cultural background but are dispersed in many parts of the world)

Question 3

Symbolic Ethnicity

Answer 3

a socially defined category based on a common language, religion, nationality, history, or some other cultural factor

(i.e. celebrating Irish ancestry on St. Patrick’s Day instead of everyday)

Question 4

Situational Ethnicity

Answer 4

an ethnic identity that can be either displayed or concealed depending on its usefulness in a given situation

(i.e. we need to appraise each situation to determine whether or not it favors our ethnicity)

Question 5

Minority Group

Answer 5

a social group that is systemically denied the same access to power and resources available to society’s dominant groups though its members are not necessarily fewer in number than the dominant groups

(i.e. before the 1994 election of President Nelson Mandela, a small white minority controlled the country while Black people occupied the lowest status in that society in South Africa)

Question 6

Racism

Answer 6

a set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial or ethnic group; used to justify inequality and often rooted in the assumption that differences among groups are genetic

(i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic brought a new wave of xenophobia an anti-Asian racism)

Question 7

Prejudice

Answer 7

an idea about the characteristics of a groups that is applied to all members of that group and is unlikely to change regardless of the evidence against it

(i.e. all Asians are good at math or all Mexicans are lazy)

Question 8

Discrimination

Answer 8

unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice

(i.e. a person being turned down for a job promotion or a home loan because they’re Black or Hispanic)

Question 9

Implicit Bias

Answer 9

attitudes or stereotypes that are embedded at an unconscious level and may influence out perceptions, decisions, and actions

(i.e. White patients get more pain management than Black patients)

Question 10

Individual Discrimination

Answer 10

discrimination carried out by one person against another

(i.e. a racist teacher might discriminate against a Hispanic student by assigning them a lower grade than they deserve)

Question 11

Institutional Discrimination

Answer 11

discrimination carried out systemically by institutions that affects all members of a group who come into contact with it

(i.e. The Department of Justice confirmed that Ferguson Police Department had violated the civil rights of Black residents)

Question 12

White Nationalism

Answer 12

the belief that the nation should be built around a white identity that is reflected in religion, politics, economics, and culture

(i.e. Trump’s anti-immigrant ideas)

Question 13

Privilege

Answer 13

unearned advantage accorded to members of dominant social groups

(i.e. people who are male, white, heterosexual, physically able, etc.)

Question 14

Color-Blind Racism

Answer 14

an ideology that removes race as an explanation for any form of unequal treatment

(i.e. when people claim to not see race)

Question 15

Race Consciousness

Answer 15

an ideology that acknowledges race as a powerful social construct that shapes our individual and social experiences

(i.e. Whites and others might find that their own racial privilege plays a part in the social structure of racial inequality)

Question 16

Microaggressions

Answer 16

everyday uses of subtle verbal and nonverbal and communications that convey denigrating or dismissive messages to members of certain social groups

(i.e. questions like “What are you?” or “Where are you really from?”)

Question 17

Cultural Appropriation

Answer 17

the adoption of cultural elements belonging to an oppressed group by members of the dominant group, without permission and often for the dominant group’s gain

(i.e. American Indian mascots in sports, high-fashion using cultural symbols from various Native peoples)

Question 18

Reverse Racism

Answer 18

the claim by whites that they suffer discrimination based upon their race, and therefore, experience social disadvantages

Question 19

Antiracist Allies

Answer 19

whites and others working toward the goal of ending racial injustice

(i.e. lending more than just support and sympathy to the BLM movement and confronting racism in their own everyday lives)

Question 20

Critical Race Theory

Answer 20

the study of the relationships among race, racism, and power

(i.e. encourages the inclusion of narratives from a multitude of intersecting voices and viewpoints)

Question 21

Passing

Answer 21

presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group to which you belong

(i.e. some light-skinned African Americans attempted to live as whites in order to avoid the dire consequences of being Black in a racist society)

Question 22

Double-Consciousness

Answer 22

W.E.B. Du Bois’s term for the divided identity experienced by Black people in the United States

(i.e. code-switching, minority groups attempting to pass in a white-dominated society)

Question 23

Code-Switching

Answer 23

involves adjusting one’s behavior in accordance with the norms and expectations of the dominant group, particularly whites

(i.e. nearly half of Black college graduates say that they feel the need to change how they talk when around people of other races)

Question 24

Embodied Identity

Answer 24

those elements of identity that are generated through others’ perceptions of our physical traits

(i.e. they way we’re perceived in the physical world)

Question 25

Miscegenation

Answer 25

romantic, sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races

(i.e. Mildred and Richard Loving)

Question 26

Genocide

Answer 26

the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, national, or cultural group

(i.e. Adolf Hitler’s rule killed 2/3 of the Jews of Europe)

Question 27

Population Transfer

Answer 27

the forcible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied

(i.e. American Indians who had not perished in battles with U.S. soldiers were forced by the U.S. government to move onto Indian reservations)

Question 28

Settler Colonialism

Answer 28

the economic and political subjugation of the minority group by the dominant group within a nation

(i.e. segregation)

Question 29

Segregation

Answer 29

the physical and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity

(i.e. Black people were restricted to “coloreds”-only sections)

Question 30

Assimilation

Answer 30

a pattern of relations between ethnic or racial groups in which the minority group is absorbed into the mainstream or dominant group, making society more homogeneous

(i.e. immigrants to the U.S. were eager to adopt an American way of life, become citizens, learn English and lose any trace of their “foreignness”)

Question 31

Racial Assimilation

Answer 31

the process by which racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage

(i.e. having children with the dominant group until the different races are completely mixed)

Question 32

Cultural Assimilation

Answer 32

the process by which racial or ethnic groups are absorbed into the dominant group by adopting the dominant group’s culture

(i.e. members learn the cultural practices of the dominant group)

Question 33

Pluralism

Answer 33

a cultural pattern of inter group relations that encourages racial and ethnic variation and acceptance within a society

(i.e. Jackie Robinson is most often cited as the first athlete to break the “color barrier” in profession sports)