Part 2 - Race and Ethnicity Flashcards
What is race?
- 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.
Ozawa versus the United States (1922):
Outcome: Caucasians are white
Thind versus the United States (1922):
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
5 Characteristics of Minority Groups
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
What factors affect whether or not a certain group will be included within American society?
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)
The consequences of minority group status
EXTERMINATION
EXPULSION
SECESSION
SEGREGATION
FUSION
ASSIMILATION
PLURALISM
EXTERMINATION:
The most extreme way to deal with a minority group is to eliminate it.
EXPULSION
The dominant group may choose to force a specific subordinate group to leave certain areas or even vacate a country.
SECESSION
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.
SEGREGATION
Physical separation of two groups in residence, workplace, and social functions.
FUSION
Fusion occurs when a minority and a majority group combine to form a new group (melting pot)
ASSIMILATION
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.
PLURALISM
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)
Cultural Assimilation
Members of a subordinate group gradually relinquish their own culture, at the same time, slowly adopting the culture of the dominant group
Secondary Assimilation
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).
Primary Assimilation
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’)
Marital Assimilation
The final step of minority ‘disappearance.’ Marriage between the members of the dominant and subordinate groups.
external colonialism
external colonialism involves the running of a country’s economy and politics by an outside colonial power
internal colonialism
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
What is the race relation cycle?
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
What are some key assumptions in the race relations cycle?
The immigrants come here voluntarily
genocide
The deliberate and systematic attempt by one group to exterminate another group
egalitarian symbiosis
Peaceful coexistence and a rough economic and political equality between two racial-ethnic groups.
migrant superordination
Occurs when the migrating group imposes its will on indigenous groups, usually through more advanced weaponry and political or military organization.
inigenous superordination
Occurs when groups immigrating into a new society become subordinate to groups already there.
The Principle of third generation interest
The pattern of grandchildren of immigrants increasing their interests in their ethnicity.
