Part 2 - Race and Ethnicity

Question 1

What is race?

Answer 1

• Race has been culturally associated with some inherited physical characteristic, but these traits are not different in principle from other physical traits that have no racial significance, such as height.
• Race is a socio-political construct. It is socially constructed.

Question 2

Ozawa versus the United States (1922):

Answer 2

Outcome: Caucasians are white

Question 3

Thind versus the United States (1922):

Answer 3

Outcome: White is not something that can be scientifically determined, but white is something that is subjectively understood by who they called the common person, the common man

Question 4

5 Characteristics of Minority Groups

Answer 4

1) The group receives unequal treatment as a group
2) The group is easily identifiable because of distinguishing physical or cultural characteristics that are held in low self-esteem
3) The group feels a sense of ‘peoplehood’
4) Ascribed characteristics
5) Group members practice endogamy

Question 5

What factors affect whether or not a certain group will be included within American society?

Answer 5

1) Differences in social power- How powerful each group is at the time of entrance
2) Voluntary or involuntary entrance- Immigrant model versus Colonialism
3) Group size, concentration, and time of entry
4) Ethnic and racial similarity (culture and physical characteristics)

Question 6

The consequences of minority group status

Answer 6

EXTERMINATION

EXPULSION

SECESSION

SEGREGATION

FUSION

ASSIMILATION

PLURALISM

Question 7

EXTERMINATION:

Answer 7

The most extreme way to deal with a minority group is to eliminate it.

Question 8

EXPULSION

Answer 8

The dominant group may choose to force a specific subordinate group to leave certain areas or even vacate a country.

Question 9

SECESSION

Answer 9

A group ceases to be a subordinate group when it secedes to form a new nation or moves to an already established nation, where it becomes dominant.

Question 10

SEGREGATION

Answer 10

Physical separation of two groups in residence, workplace, and social functions.

Question 11

FUSION

Answer 11

Fusion occurs when a minority and a majority group combine to form a new group (melting pot)

Question 12

ASSIMILATION

Answer 12

The process by which a subordinate individual or group takes on the characteristics of the dominant group and is eventually accepted as part of that group.

Question 13

PLURALISM

Answer 13

Implies that various groups in society have mutual respect for one another’s culture, a respect that allows minorities to express their own culture without suffering negative consequences (e.g., prejudice and discrimination)

Question 14

Cultural Assimilation

Answer 14

Members of a subordinate group gradually relinquish their own culture, at the same time, slowly adopting the culture of the dominant group

Question 15

Secondary Assimilation

Answer 15

Equal-status status relationships between subordinate- and dominant-group members in the ‘public’ sphere (e.g., relationships at work, in schools, in commercial transactions, at political meetings, and in places of public recreation).

Question 16

Primary Assimilation

Answer 16

Equal-status status relationships between subordinate- and dominant-group members in the ‘private’ sphere (e.g., relationships within the families, friendship groups, and ‘social clubs’)

Question 17

Marital Assimilation

Answer 17

The final step of minority ‘disappearance.’ Marriage between the members of the dominant and subordinate groups.

Question 18

external colonialism

Answer 18

external colonialism involves the running of a country’s economy and politics by an outside colonial power

Question 19

internal colonialism

Answer 19

a form of colonialism in which the control and exploitation of non-European groups in the colonized country passes from whites in the home country overseas to white immigrant groups within the independent country

Question 20

What is the race relation cycle?

Answer 20

Intergroup contacts regularly go through stages of a race relations cycle, in which fundamental social forces, such as out-migrant, lead to recurring cycles of contact and assimilation in intergroup history.

1) contact
2) competition
3) accomodation
4) assimilation

Question 21

What are some key assumptions in the race relations cycle?

Answer 21

The immigrants come here voluntarily

Question 22

genocide

Answer 22

The deliberate and systematic attempt by one group to exterminate another group

Question 23

egalitarian symbiosis

Answer 23

Peaceful coexistence and a rough economic and political equality between two racial-ethnic groups.

Question 24

migrant superordination

Answer 24

Occurs when the migrating group imposes its will on indigenous groups, usually through more advanced weaponry and political or military organization.

Question 25

inigenous superordination

Answer 25

Occurs when groups immigrating into a new society become subordinate to groups already there.

Question 26

The Principle of third generation interest

Answer 26

The pattern of grandchildren of immigrants increasing their interests in their ethnicity.