race and ethnicity

Question 1

what is race?

Answer 1

a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.
race allows people to rank people in a hierarchy.

Question 2

what is the trend toward mixture?

Answer 2

1st generation Canadian immigrants identify primarily as single-ethnic origin: almost half of the 2nd generation children identify as multiple-ethnic origins

Question 3

what is ethnicity?

Answer 3

a shared cultural heritage

Question 4

what is the minority?

Answer 4

a category of people, distinguished by physical or cultural traits, that society sets apart and is subordinated

Question 5

what is prejudice?

Answer 5

a rigid or irrational generalization about an entire category of people

Question 6

what is a stereotype?

Answer 6

a simplified description applied to every person in some category
- minority can be a stereotype too

Question 7

what is the social distance scale?

Answer 7

measures how closely people are willing to interact with members of some category

Question 8

what is Bogardus?

Answer 8

created a 7-point scale
barred from country (most negative prejudice) to accept into family through marriage (most social acceptance)

Question 9

what were the results after measuring college and university students?

Answer 9

they showed great acceptance and sees less difference among minorities.
9/11 brought less acceptance of Arabs and Muslims

Question 10

what is racism?

Answer 10

the belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another

Question 11

what is Canadians’ history of racism?

Answer 11

1. slavery practiced before the confederation
2. evidence of the interplay between racism, sexism, and immigration
   racism is from the environment not biologically

Question 12

what is the scapegoat theory?

Answer 12

holds that prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves disadvantaged

Question 13

what is a scapegoat?

Answer 13

a person or category of people, whom people unfairly blame for their own troubles
ex: Jews during WW2

Question 14

what is the authoritarian personality theory?

Answer 14

rigidly conform to conventional cultural values and see moral issues as clear
- cut matters of right and wrong

Question 15

what is culture theory?

Answer 15

everyone has some prejudice because it is embedded in the culture
ex: Bogardus scale shows this

Question 16

what is conflict theory?

Answer 16

a tool used by the powerful not only to justify privilege for themselves but also to oppress others
ex: white privilege will incline white people towards racism

Question 17

what is the vicious circle?

Answer 17

stereotypes can become real to believers and victims
ex: the thomas theorem

Question 18

what are the three stages of the vicious cycle?

Answer 18

1. discrimination and prejudice
2. social disadvantage
3. beliefs in minorities innate inferiority

Question 19

what is pluralism?

Answer 19

a state in which people of all race and ethnicities are distinct but have equal social standing

Question 20

what is assimilation?

Answer 20

the process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture
ex: some groups “melt” quicker

Question 21

what is segregation?

Answer 21

physical and social separation of categories of people
ex” indigenous people in canada

Question 22

what are institutional prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 22

bias built into the operation of society’s institutions

Question 23

what is miscegenation?

Answer 23

the biological reproduction by partners of different racial categories

Question 24

what is genocide?

Answer 24

the systematic killing of one category of people by another