Chapter 9: Race Flashcards
a group of people who share a set of characteristics - typically, but not always, physical ones - and are said to share a common bloodline
Race
race is a social construction, a set of stories that we tell ourselves to organize reality and make sense of the world, RATHER THAN a fixed biological or natural reality
The Myth of Race
the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits
Racism
3 Key Beliefs of Racist Thinking
- That humans are divided into distinct bloodlines and/or physical types
- That these bloodlines or physical traits are linked to distinct cultures, behaviors, personalities, and intellectual abilities
- That certain groups are superior to others
19th century theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race
Scientific Racism
the belief that one’s own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one’s own
Ethnocentrism
the notion that everyone is created equal in the eyes of God
Ontological Equality
the application of Darwinian ideas to society, namely, the evolutionary “survival of the fittest”
Social Darwinism
literally meaning “well born” the theory of controlling the fertility of populations to influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation
Eugenics
movement to protect and preserve indigenous land or culture from the so-called dangerous and polluting effects of new immigrants
Nativism
the belief that ‘one drop’ of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from US laws forbidding miscegenation
One-Drop Rule
the technical term for multiracial marriage; literally meaning ‘a mixing of kinds;’ it is politically and historically charged - sociologists generally prefer exogamy or outmarriage
Miscegenation
the formation of a new racial identity, in which new ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people
Racialization
one’s ethnic quality or affiliation. It is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchal, fluid and multiple, and based on cultural differences not physical ones.
Ethnicity
Difference between Race vs Ethnicity?
Race:
externally imposed - someone else defines you as black, white, or other
involuntary - it’s not up to you to decidew hich category you belong, someone else puts you there
usually based on physical difference - skin tone, hair, facial features, etc
hierarchal - races are stratified or ordered (in the US white is at the top of the hierarchy)
exclusive - you are only one race
unequal - there’s a power dimension
Ethnicity:
voluntary - you decide what you identify with
self-defined - embraced by group members
nonhierarchal - no order
fluid and multiple - you can have multiple ethnicities
cultural - based on differences in practices such as language, food, music, etc (not biological or physical differences)
planar - not about unequal power
a nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but identifying with a past or future nationality.
Symbolic Inequality
unseen benefits of being white such as not having to think about race
White Privilege
4 Forms of Minority-Majority Group Relations
- Assimilation- the blending or fusing of minority groups into the dominant society
- Pluralism -coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society
- Segregation -the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity
- Conflict - when antagonistic groups wtihin a society live integrated int he same neighborhoods, hold the same jobs, and go to the same schools; typically results in diastrous results
Robert Park’s 1920 universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate: first they arrive, then settle in, and achieve full assimilation in a newly homogenous country
Straight-Line Assimilation
4 Stages of Race Relations Cycle
- Contact
- Competition
- Accomodation
- Assimilation
Milton Gordon’s 7 Stages of Assimilation
- Cultural
- Structural
- Marital
- Identificational
- Attitude Receptional
- Behavior Receptional
- Civic Assimilation
Clifford Geertz’s term to explain the persistence of ethnic ties because they are fixed in deeply felt or primordial ties to one’s homeland culture
Primordialism
the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society
Pluralism
the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity
Segregation
Plessy vs Ferguson case
- 1896 Supreme Court ruling upheld the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine
- this court ruling stated that separate facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were equal (in reality, this court ruling legalized UNequal facilities for blacks)
Brown vs Board of Education case
- 1954 Supreme Court ruling that rules segregated schools were ‘inherently unequal’
- struck down the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine
the mass killing of a group of people
Genocide
What are some group responses to domination?
- withdrawal - an oppressed group may leave
- passing - oppressed group members may ‘pass’ or blend in with the dominant group by making physical changes to their appearance or changing their names to names similar to the dominant group
- acceptance - oppressed group feigns compliance and hides true feelings of resentment
- collective resistance - an organized effort to change a power hierarchy on the part of a less-powerful group in a society
thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group
Prejudice
harmful or negative acts (not merely thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category without regard to their individual merit
Discrimination
prejudice refers to THOUGHTS/FEELINGS towards an ethnic or racial group whereas discrimination refers to ACTS against an ethnic or racial group
Difference between Prejudice and Discrimination?
