Lecture 7 - Racial Inequality Flashcards
What does race commonly refer to in society?
- Nationality
- Region
- Religion
- Skin colour
- Thought to be biological, but it’s a social construct*
- Race is unstable, unreliable, creates cultural division, has no biological purpose*
Define race.
Category of ppl. who are perceived to share distinct physical characteristics that are deemed socially significant
- Classification is learned
- Categorizing by ascriptive traits
- Used to justify diff. treatment
Define ethnicity.
Shared cultural heritage/nationality
- More abt. identity
- Based on language, family structures + roles, religion, diet, artistic expression, national origin, the origin of parents/ancestors
What are the differences between race and ethnicity?
- Both are socially defined, derived from history
- Race is less fluid, harder to hide
- Race is more based on other’s perceptions (ethnicity is based on one’s own identification)
Define immigration.
Movement of pp. into a country from another
- Based on push/pull factors
Why has immigration become a bigger political issue?
- Increasing # of immigrants due to them being accepted legally VS illegally
- Needed due to lower birth rates (3.98 in 1960, 1.47 now, 2.1 replacement rate) –> bc of higher education, double income household, cost of raising kids, etc.
- Economically, the population needs to be retained, so reliance on immigrants is needed to be sustainable economically
Define racism.
The belief that race is a fundamental detriment of human traits + capacities, racial differences = superiority of one race)
Define prejudice.
Preconceived feeling/opinion formed w/o knowledge/reason/thought that prevents objective consideration of an idea/individual/group/thing
Why is immigration opposed?
- Ties to racism + prejudice
- Mostly white immigrants in the 60s, but not it’s from Asia/Middle East
- Combined w/ decline bias (tendency to compare past to present, leading to the conclusion that things are worse bc of change)
Define scapegoating.
Act of blaming a person/group for something bad, even if they aren’t at fault
Define assimilation.
Groups absorbed into the dominant culture (Melting Pot)
- Preferred over pluralism
Define pluralism.
Mixing of cultures, but each culture retains its unique identity (Cultural Mosaic)
Why is there a slight shift to negative views of immigration?
- False perceptions are created through echo chambers, creating a skewed view of current immigration
Does immigration hurt Canada?
- Immigrants contribute more in tax revenue than they take in gov’t benefits
- Low unemployment rates compared to Canadian-born workers
- Less likely to be arrested/convicted of a crime
- Better health, less illness/disability
- Children of immigrants have higher average rates of education
Define brain drain.
Emigration of highly trained/intelligent ppl. from a particular country (value of traits like health, education)
- Benefits host country, hurts developing countries
What are the 4 tenets of critical race theory?
- Race is socially constructed (used to oppress + exploit POC)
- Racism is institutional
- Progress on racial issues occurs during periods of interest convergence (when marginalized group interests align with dominant group interests)
- Marginalization is intersectional (statistical interactions create a unique experience of each individual groups)
Define adaptive discrimination.
Based on the prejudice of others (Discrimination bc they know others hold the belief)
Define cultural racism.
The culture of society perpetuates the subordination of ppl. based on race
Why should we look at the results of opinion polls skeptically?
- Social desirability bias –> tendency to underreport socially undesirable behaviours/attitudes, overreport desirable ones
- Sampling bias –> survey not including specifics groups of ppl. (intentionally or not)
