Race And Ethnicity

Question 1

Race

Answer 1

A socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits considered important by society

Question 2

Race categories

Answer 2

Were invented in the 19th century (caucasoid, negroid, monogloid).
Critiques: there are no biologically pure people; there is wide variation within groups; differences between categories differ by 6%

Question 3

Trend towards mixture

Answer 3

Increased throughout generations, intermarriage became more common and more people identify as multiracial

Question 4

Ethnicity

Answer 4

A shared cultural heritage; based on common ancestry; can change because it can be discarded or changed with a partner’s different identity. It is subjective, an internalized identity may persist.

Question 5

Minorities

Answer 5

Category of people distinguished by physical/ cultural differences that society sets apart as subordinates. Traits include an identity that is impossible to change and subordination (low income, less prestige)

Question 6

Prejudice

Answer 6

A rigid generalization about an entire category of people. Prejudgements can range from mild aversion to outright hostility. It is about attitudes and beliefs.

Question 7

Racism

Answer 7

The belief that one’s racial category is innately inferior/superior to another. It is about attitudes and beliefs. It pervades history and justified subjugation and colonialism. It is elusive and pervasive in society.

Question 8

How does racism persist in Canada?

Answer 8

Overt racism subsided due to increased approval of interracial and interfaith marriage as well as awareness of discrimination. It persists in less open forms. There is research documenting injury, humiliation and inequality.

Question 9

Scapegoat Theory

Answer 9

Prejudice springs from frustration among people who are disadvantaged. Hostility is directed towards minorities because they are safer targets and brings feelings of comfort and superiority.

Question 10

Scapegoat

Answer 10

A person or category of people, typically of little power, whom people unfairly blame for their own troubles.

Question 11

Authoritarian personality

Answer 11

Adorno considered extreme prejudice to be a personality trait of individuals. These people rigidly conform to conventional cultural values, see moral issues as clear-cut right and wrong, view society as competitive with a hierarchy with better people who dominate others.

Question 12

Culture Theory

Answer 12

Prejudice is embedded in culture. It is still part of Canadian culture. When there is social distance from other groups, they exhibit more prejudice.

Question 13

Social distance

Answer 13

How close/distant people feel toward other groups.

Question 14

Conflict theory

Answer 14

Prejudice is a product of social conflict. Powerful people use their power to justify their oppression of minorities. In rare consciousness, minorities argue that they are victims and dominant groups are victimizers. Due to historic disadvantage, minorities claim they want special consideration regarding their race.

Question 15

Discrimination

Answer 15

Unequal treatment of various categories of people. It is about action.

Question 16

Institutional prejudice and discrimination

Answer 16

Bias built into the operation of society including schools, hospitals, police and workplace.

Question 17

Cycle of prejudice and discrimination

Answer 17

Prejudice and discrimination reinforce each other. Prejudice produces social inferiority which produces evidence that minorities don’t measure up, which continues prejudice and discrimination.

Question 18

Pluralism

Answer 18

A state in which racial and ethnic minorities are distinct but have social parity. The categories share resources more or less equally.

Question 19

Institutional completeness

Answer 19

Complexity of community organizations that meet needs of members. Members can live, shop, pray and work in the boundaries of their culture. In-group contact is increased and our group contact is minimized.

Question 20

Assimilation

Answer 20

Process by which minorities gradually adopt the patterns of dominant culture and become similar to the dominant group.

Question 21

Miscegenation

Answer 21

Biological reproduction by partners of a different race.

Question 22

Segregation

Answer 22

Physical and social separation of categories of people mostly with majorities segregating minorities. In Canada, blacks were given different land rights than other immigrants. Aboriginals lived in reserves for status Indians often in remote areas, children were sent to residential schools and faced barriers to integration.

Question 23

Genocide

Answer 23

Systematic killing of one category of people by another.

Question 24

Genocide in history

Answer 24

In North America, Europeans killed First Nations. During the 20th century, East Europeans were killed under the Ottoman Empire, 6 million Jews along with Romas, gays and disabled people died in the holocaust, Stalin killed 28 million real and imagined enemies, capitalists were killed in the Pol Pot regime, Serbians and Albanians were killed in the break up of Yugoslavia, Tutsis were killed at the hands of Hutus in Rwanda.

Question 25

Social standing

Answer 25

Of the selected ethnic and racial categories including English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Black and Aboriginal, Aboriginals have the lowest standing in terms of education, income and employment.

Question 26

Special Societies

Answer 26

Categories that have unique relationships with the federal government. There are two: Aboriginal people and the Québécois.

Question 27

Aboriginals

Answer 27

Includes Status Indians, non-Status Indians, Métis, and Inuit; collectively 55 or more sovereign people. Registered people were the responsibility of the Indian and Northern Affairs. The children were sent to residential schools and were forced to assimilate. The effects were erosion of social, economic and cultural fabric. The request for self government resulted in Nunavut. There is polarization with the top closing gaps for education, business and profession while the bottom stagnate and conditions get worse.

Question 28

Québécois

Answer 28

The Quiet Revolution increased the need to protect the language with the decreased influence of the Catholic Church and expansion of state in economic, social and cultural life. Demand for sovereignty began in the late 1960’s to 1970’s separatist movement that resulted in Bill 101.

Question 29

100 Year perspective of immigration in Canada

Answer 29

Canada is the land of immigrants. The first wave populated western Canada to provide workers. During the Stifton years, immigration was restricted to White Anglo-Saxons. It fell during World War 1, the Great Depression and World War 2. The second wave occurred after World War 2 for labour needs. The White Canadian migration policy ended in 1962. It was based on education, occupation, language skills making a point system. In 1976, the Immigration Act recognized three classes: family, humanitarian and independent.

Question 30

Racial Discrimination

Answer 30

A combination of racism and discrimination. It is about both actions and ideas.

Question 31

Sociobiology Theory of Race

Answer 31

Race = physical/genetic differences + character/behaviour differences
The assumption is that physical/genetic differences cause character/behaviour differences. This is biological (racial) determinism.

Question 32

Where did this perspective come from?

Answer 32

16th century: first recorded use of the word race in 1508 in the poem “The Sevin Deadly Synnis” by William Dunbar.
17th century: organization/classification occurs, making race a technical term. There is no hierarchy.
18th century: race/grouping is used to explain characteristic/behaviour; evaluation/judgement; classification by Carolus Linnaeus.
19th century: sociobiology enters the picture; thinking scientifically about race; “natural” hierarchy of human race, genetically hard wired into DNA.

Question 33

Classifications of Carolus Linnaeus

Answer 33

European: bright, lively, inventive, muscular, swift, clever
American Indian: choleric, combative, persevering
Asiatic: yellow, melancholic, inflexible, severe
African: phlegmatic, indulgent, crafty, negligent

Question 34

The role of expectations, power and physical characteristics in Jane Elliot’s documentary Blue Eyed

Answer 34

The person in power picks a physical characteristic over which people have no control. They set low expectations for those people and force members of the target group to live down to those expectations.

Question 35

Anders Retzius

Answer 35

Used cephalic index to determine advancement and degree of civilization. Long heads were more advanced than round heads.

Question 36

Samuel Morton

Answer 36

Cranial capacity to measure innate intelligence. Used mustard seeds to find capacity of empty skulls.

Question 37

Francis Galton

Answer 37

Eugenics to improve superior race through selective breeding and discouraging breeding of genetically inferior. Thought certain social conditions can be bred out of population. Also father of psychometrics; made IQ tests to find genetically superior/ inferior.
Solutions: mandatory sterilization of genetically inferior.

Question 38

Limitations and Critiques of Sociobiology of Race

Answer 38

1. Race/classification schemes are questionable
2. Races are more than different: more variability within groups than between groups.
3. Racial traits and behaviours are questionable
4. IQ tests are biased in favour of those who made them

Question 39

Social Constructionist theory of race

Answer 39

We are assigned to racial categories according to social definition. It is a position in the social world we receive at birth or take on voluntarily.

Question 40

How is race constructed in the social world?

Answer 40

Meaning: constructed/imagined/invented; significant via assigned meaning; is changeable
Evaluation: physical characteristics used to judge people; is subjective/arbitrary
Interpretation: treated as if they are real, always existed, will stay the same
Practice: becomes political, we are racialized; goods services, social status, entitlements all unequally distributed.

Question 41

How is ethnicity constructed in the social world?

Answer 41

1) Meaning: geographic boundaries and ethnic practices
2) Evaluation: hierarchy between and within groups
3) Interpretation: groups are treated as if they are real, have always existed and will stay the same
4) Practice: political practices in terms of social status, entitlements and immigration quotas unequally distributed