Race & Ethnicity

Question 1

Biological Explanation for Race & Ethnicity

Answer 1

Debunked - for racial performance on IQ tests and in Athletics
• Social Darwinian thinking
• Humans are all just human

Question 2

Prejudice

Answer 2

An attitude that judges a person according to his or her group’s real or imagined characteristics

Question 3

Discrimination

Answer 3

Unfair treatment of people because of their group membership

Question 4

Race

Answer 4

A social construct used to distinguish people in terms of one or more physical markers, usually with profound effects on their lives
• not a useful biological distinction
• but still a useful social category

Question 5

Why does race matter?

Answer 5

Because it allows social inequality to be created and perpetuated

Question 6

What does race allow?

Answer 6

Scapegoating. Can make a person or group a scapegoat

Question 7

Viscous Cycle of Racism

Answer 7

1. People use physical markers to distinguish groups. They then increase social inequality based on race by means of colonialism, slavery, etc.
2. Different social conditions between superordinates and subordinates create behavioural differences between them (e.g. energetic v.s. lazy workers)
3. People’s perceptions of behavioural differences create racial stereotypes. The stereotypes then become embedded in culture

Question 8

Why do sociologists continue to use the term “race”?

Answer 8

Because perceptions of race (racialization) continue to affect the lives of most people profoundly

Question 9

Racialization

Answer 9

Perceptions of race; treat race as an important category

Question 10

Ethnic Group

Answer 10

Comprised of people whose perceived CULTURAL markers are deemed socially significant.
• differ from one another in terms of religion, language, food, values, etc.

Question 11

What is the term that refers to the distinctly Canadian pattern of racial and ethnic stratification in the mid 20th century?

Answer 11

Vertical Mosiac

Question 12

Who was on top of the racial hierarchy in the mid 20th century?

Answer 12

WASP elites (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) British origin
• Controlled almost all the big corporations in the country and dominated politics

Question 13

Ethnic and Racial Stratification

Answer 13

Idea that certain people are at the top as privileged (WASP elites), and there are people at lower parts of the ladder that enjoyed less power and privilege, and could not move up due to their ethnicity
• “vertical mosaic”
• European immigrants enjoyed higher status than Asian immigrants

Question 14

John Porter’s take on mid-20th century Canada

Answer 14

• Called Canada an ethnically and racially stratified “vertical mosaic”
• Thought the retention of ethnic and racial culture was a big problem in Canada because it hampered the upward mobility of immigrants; in his view, the “Canadian Value System” encouraged the retention of ethnic culture, making Canada a low mobility society

Question 15

By the 1970s

Answer 15

Ethnic and racial minorities are doing better
• Economically successful
• Economic differences among ethnic groups and, to a lesser degree, among racial groups, diminished
• Ethnic and racial diversity increased among the wealthy, politicians at all levels of government, and professional groups.
• Many Canadian sociologists, including Porter himself, needed to qualify their view that ethnic and racial culture determine economic success or failure.

Question 16

By the 1990s

Answer 16

Newer immigrants did more poorly as a result of poorer economic environment

• Canada experienced an unusually high rate of unemployment in the
1990s, hovering near 10 percent until late in the decade.
• In addition, although such immigrants were selected to come to Canada because they were highly educated, their credentials were often not recognized by Canadian employers.
• The accreditation mechanisms for foreign credentials are poorly developed in this country and need to be improved.
• In addition to the resources a person possesses, the structure of opportunities for economic advancement determines income and occupational and educational attainment.
• Ethnic or racial culture by itself plays at most a minor role.

Question 17

Canada and Multiculturalism

Answer 17

●By the 70s ethnic and racial minorities are doing better.
●By the 90s Newer immigrants did more poorly as a result of poorer economic environment
●But the structures of inequality remain.

Question 18

Canada’s Multiculturalism Policy

Answer 18

Emphasizes tolerance of ethnic and racial differences
• currently focuses less on cultural pluralism than on incorporating immigrants into the larger society
• The policy’s purpose is to enable members of cultural minorities to CONTINUE IDENTIFYING with their heritage while ELIMINATING BARRIERS to their full participation in Canadian society—for instance, by preventing discrimination and encouraging public education, voting, and other forms of civic integration.

Question 19

Inequality and Social Structure

Answer 19

Racial and ethnic inequality is more deeply rooted in social structure than in biology and culture.
▪ The biological and cultural aspects of race and ethnicity are secondary to their sociological character when it comes to explaining inequality.

Question 20

Labels and Identity

Answer 20

People label themselves and are labelled
• Can be change over time (ex. Sicilians becoming Italians)

Question 21

Labels and Identity- Symbolic Interactionist

Answer 21

Suggest that the development of racial and ethnic labels & identities is typically a process of NEGOTIATION

• Members of a group may have a racial or an ethnic identity, but outsiders may impose a NEW label on them.
• Group members then REJECT, ACCEPT or MODIFY the label.
• Negotiation between outsiders and insiders eventually results in the crystallization of a new, more or less stable, ethnic identity

Question 22

Can people choose their ethnic or racial identity?

Answer 22

People aren’t always free to choose
● Ability to choose varies based on SOCIAL CONTEXT
• There are wide variations over time and from one society to the next to which people can exercise such freedom of choice
• In a given society, at a given time, different categories of people are more or less free to choose
• like white European-Canadians

Question 23

Symbolic Ethnicity

Answer 23

Nostalgic allegiance to the culture of the immigrant generation, or that of the old country, that is not usually incorporated in everyday behaviour

Question 24

Racism

Answer 24

Discrimination based on race

Question 25

Institutional Racism

Answer 25

Discrimination based on race that functions through institutional contexts

Question 26

Systemic Racism

Answer 26

Discrimination based on race that functions throughout a whole institutionalized system.
• Hospital - institutionalized,
• Healthcare system - systemic

Question 27

Internal Colonialism

Answer 27

Involves one race or ethnic group subjugating another in the same country
• Prevents assimilation by segregating the colonized in terms of jobs, housing, and social contacts

Question 28

Expulsion

Answer 28

The forcible removal of a population from a territory claimed by another population

Question 29

Genocide

Answer 29

The intentional extermination of an entire population defined as a “race” or a “people.”

Question 30

Cultural Genocide

Answer 30

The intentional destruction of a culture
• Residential schools in Canada

Question 31

Conquest

Answer 31

The forcible capture of land and the economic and political domination of its inhabitants

Question 32

Quebec - Race and Ethnicity

Answer 32

● English control of the economy after the conquest
● The Quiet Revolution
• Removal of the Catholic Church from the center of Quebec society
• But challenges remain

Question 33

What are the remaining challenges from the Quiet Revolution in Québec?

Answer 33

1. The potential demographic DECLINE of the Québécois
2. The ASSIMILATION of immigrants into English culture
3. The persistent ethnic STRATIFICATION
4. The continued use of ENGLISH as the language of PRIVATE industry

Question 34

Slavery

Answer 34

The ownership and control of people

Question 35

Split Labour Market

Answer 35

Immigrant labour works for less and is resented by majority
• Chinese would work for less, but were discriminated mostly against by Caucasians because they thought the Chinese were stealing their jobs
• paid half the wage of white workers
• Canada Pacific Railway

Question 36

Head Tax

Answer 36

Asian immigration in general was widely viewed as a threat to cherished British values and institutions.
• Once the CPR was completed in 1885, the Chinese were no longer welcome in British Columbia.
• A prohibitively expensive “head tax” equal to two months’ wages was placed on each Chinese immigrant.
• The tax began as a fee of $50 and rose as high as $500.
• In 1923, Chinese immigration was banned altogether.
• During the Great Depression, more than 28 000 Chinese were deported because of high unemployment, and Asian immigration did not resume on a large scale until the 1960s, when racial criteria were finally removed from Canadian

Question 37

Some Advantages of Ethnicity

Answer 37

1. Economic advantages
2. Political usefulness
3. Ability to provide emotional support

Question 38

Economic Advantages of Ethnicity

Answer 38

Community solidarity is an important resource for “ethnic entrepreneurs,” who are businesspeople
who operate largely within their ethnic community.
• They draw on their community for customers, suppliers, employees, and credit, and they may be linked economically to the homeland as importers and exporters

Question 39

Political Usefulness - advantage of ethnicity

Answer 39

Ethnicity can be a political tool for achieving increased access to resources.
• This is part of the reason for the persistence of ethnic identification for some white European Canadians whose families have lived in the country for many generations

Question 40

Emotional Support - advantage of ethnicity

Answer 40

Some ethnic groups have experienced unusually high levels of prejudice and discrimination.
• Ethnic group membership offers SECURITY in a world still seen as hostile, even after the threat of territorial loss or annihilation has disappeared.
• Also provides a sense of ROOTEDNESS, support community

Question 41

Transnational Communities

Answer 41

Communities whose boundaries extend between or among countries.

• Retaining ties with ancestral homelands beyond the second generation is made easier today with inexpensive international communication and travel.

Question 42

Pluralism

Answer 42

The RETENTION of racial and ethnic culture combined with EQUAL ACCESS to basic SOCIAL RESOURCES.

• Canada is one of the most racially and ethnically heterogeneous societies, and it will become still more diverse in coming decades.

Question 43

Segregation

Answer 43

Spatial and institutional separation of racial or ethnic groups

Question 44

Critical Race Theory

Answer 44

Holds that racism is often the outcome of common practices that are embedded in Canada’s political, legal, and other institutions, but that many people, especially those in dominant positions, are not aware of
• Anywhere that you see different outcomes due to race, like schools
• Racism is under the surface and hidden under all the “neutral” structures in order to disadvantage minorities, and favours whites