Race & Ethnicity

Question 1

race and ethnicity (historically)

Answer 1

• Concepts used to describe similarities and differences within and between groups
• Ethnicity (ethnos) first appeared in works of antiquity to describe people belonging to a common ancestry
• Race first appeared in writings associated with voyages of European “discovery” to describe groups with different roots in different areas

Question 2

racialization

Answer 2

• The categorization of human populations into different groups based on physical characteristics
• A historically specific process; terms carry different meanings across time and space

Question 3

categorization (historically)

Answer 3

• Started with biological/physiological classification (ie. Skull size)
• Became popular during the 18th and 19th century when anthropologists started to describe and compare groups in different places
• Many imposed a hierarchy from the most primitive to the most civilized; assumptions were grounded on ideas surrounding evolution

Question 4

POV of enlightenment thinkers concerning race

Answer 4

• Locke – Negroes lack rationality
• Leibniz – Native Americans were uncivilized
• Hume – Non-whites were inferior
• Kant – Chinese rank lowest among Orientals
• Voltaire – Whites were superior than negroes
• Early writings were written from an Euro-centric point of view

Question 5

racism as a scientific doctrine

Answer 5

• Developed a racial hierarchy based on physiological differences
• Races could be arranged along a continuum of superiority and inferiority
• Racism became a scientific doctrine
  “permanently different” = “naturally different” = “unchangeable”
• If they are indeed inferior, this can justify social control and domination

Question 6

motivation for racial hierarchy

Answer 6

• capitalist expansion

- political agendas

Question 7

capitalist expansion

Answer 7

• Begins as a labour problem -> we want free labour, and racially-based slavery allowed this to happen
• Associated with trade, colonization, and search for production sites and cheap labour
• Hierarchy justifies exploitation
• Some regard a strategy developed to divide the working stress and disrupt unity

Question 8

political agendas

Answer 8

• Race is a widely accepted ideological concept used to legitimate dominance and therefore justifies unfair treatment and inequality
• Examples:
• • 1800s– 1900s segregation of Blacks
• • 1700s– 1800s assimilation of Aboriginals
• • 1930s– 1940s persecution of Jews
• • Post 2001 (9/11) - Islamophobia

Question 9

consequences of racialization

Answer 9

• we live in a racialized world, in which race (physical differences) contributes meaning in the way we think, feel, and choose
• • Ex. Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, James Bond
• People of colour are degraded, and white people are elevated (white privilege)

Question 10

pigmentocracy

Answer 10

• refers to a hierarchy based on skin colour and other bodily features considered to be racial signifiers
• understands how society is ordered to privilege or discriminate against individuals of various phenotypes within a group
• In a pigmentocracy, one’s life chances are linked to one’s appearance and to one’s ancestry and heritage (ex. People with lighter skin are more likely to have higher education)
• underlines the preference for whiteness and disdain for darkness, not just in western societies but other’s as well

Question 11

facts about colour and ability

Answer 11

• humans share 99.9% of genetic material, the 0.1% differences accounts for physical differences
• skin, hair, and eye color can be attributed to a nucleotide difference in the SLC2485 gene
• Skin colour is not binary, but varies on a continuum
• genes that are responsible for physical differences (i.e. skin colour) do not necessary produce differences in mental capabilities
• abilities (physical & mental) can largely shaped by the environment (socialization)

Question 12

UNESCO and race

Answer 12

After WWII, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization declared race as a myth rather than a biological phenomenon

Question 13

race

Answer 13

• Describes biological traits
• Based on physical characteristics
• Ex. Blacks vs. Whites

Question 14

ethnicity

Answer 14

• Describes behavioural traits
• Based on cultural characteristics
• Ex. French vs. Russian

Question 15

chartered groups vs. visible minorities in Canada

Answer 15

• Chartered groups – groups with official power (i.e. English, French)
• Visible minorities – groups with no official power; people who are not white/Caucasian and are not aboriginal (i.e. Chinese, East Indian, Korean)

Question 16

Racism in Canada today

Answer 16

• We still live in a racial hierarchy -> visible minorities on average feel more discriminated against (30%) than non-visible minorities (10%)
• Children who are part of visible minorities perceive discrimination -> 20% of Filipino children, 15% of Chinese children, and 5% of children from Hong Kong feel socially isolated

Question 17

stereotypes

Answer 17

unreliable generalization about members of a group (can be positive or negative)

Question 18

prejudice

Answer 18

negative attitude towards a group (having negative stereotypes without experience)

Question 19

discrimination

Answer 19

negative behaviours towards a group i.e. denial of opportunity or unequal treatment

Question 20

racism

Answer 20

being prejudicial and discriminatory against people because of their biologically different race (subtle vs. overt, personal vs. institutional)

Question 21

internalized racism

Answer 21

• refers to a form of self-loathing based on the cognitive and emotional acceptance by individuals of an oppressed group of all or some aspects of the negative stereotypes about them
• this occurs when socially subordinated groups come to see and negatively judge themselves by the standards and criticisms of more powerful social classes at the top of the social ladder
• Examples can include not being proud of their own culture, apologizing for their accents, refraining from enjoying their cultural heritage

Question 22

institutional racism

Answer 22

• racist ideas are that integrated into policies, programs, and laws -> systematically reproduce racism
  1) Explicit and intentional – head tax
  2) Implicit (can be unintentional)

Question 23

democratic racism

Answer 23

• An ideology that allows egalitarian values and racist attitudes to coexist
• Largely intentional, but produces an opposite effect
• An ideology which two conflicting sets of values are made congruent to each other. Commitments to democratic principles such as justice, equalit, and fairness conflict but coexist with attitudes and behaviours that include negative feelings about minority groups, differential treatment, and discrimination against them
• Discourses surrounding: colour blindness, equal opportunities, blaming the victim

Question 24

Canada as a settler society

Answer 24

Canada is a society historically based on colonization through foreign settlement and displacement of aboriginal inhabitants, so immigration is the major influence on population diversity

Question 25

minority groups

Answer 25

• slightly different than visible minorities
• groups that lack power in society regardless of skin color or country of origin
• being a numerical minority is not a characteristic of being a minority group; sometimes larger groups can be considered minority groups due to their lack of power
• ex. the elderly

Question 26

5 distinguishing characteristics of a minority group

Answer 26

1. unequal treatment and less power over their lives
2. distinguishing physical or cultural traits like skin colour or language
3. involuntary membership in the group
4. awareness of subordination
5. high rate of in-group marriage

Question 27

scapegoat theory

Answer 27

• developed from frustration-aggression theory

- suggests that the dominant group will displace their unfocused aggression onto a subordinate group

Question 28

racial steering

Answer 28

• subtle racism

- when real estate agents direct prospective homeowners toward or away from certain neighbourhoods based on their race

Question 29

white privilege

Answer 29

dominant groups often accept their experience as the normative (and hence, superior) experience.

Question 30

internal colonialism

Answer 30

• process of uneven regional development due to dominant group establishing control over existing populations
• maintains segregation among the colonized -> different geographic distributions of people, different wage levels, different occupations all based on race/ethnicity

Question 31

intersection theory

Answer 31

• suggests we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes
• ex. if we want to understand prejudice, we must understand that the prejudice focused on a white woman because of her gender is very different from the layered prejudice focused on a poor Asian woman

Question 32

culture of prejudice

Answer 32

• the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture

- we grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice

Question 33

genocide

Answer 33

• the deliberate annihilation of a targeted (usually subordinate) group
• most toxic intergroup relationship

Question 34

expulsion

Answer 34

• a dominant group forcing a subordinate group to leave a certain area or country
• may be a factor in genocide or may stand on its own

Question 35

segregation

Answer 35

• the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions
• de jure segregation: enforced by law
• de facto segregation: occurs because of factors other than law

Question 36

assimilation

Answer 36

• process by which a minority individual or group gives up its own identity by taking on the characteristics of the dominant culture
• ex. The Indian Act
• sociologists measure the degree to which immigrants have assimilated to a new culture through socioeconomic status, spatial concentration, language assimilation, and intermarriage

Question 37

3 waves of Canadian immigration

Answer 37

• 1900-1914: “wheat boom”; European immigrants
• 1945-1965: “post-war”; European immigrants
• 1960s on: “immigration policy change”; non-European immigrants

Question 38

multiculturalism

Answer 38

• recognition of the cultural and racial diversity of Canada and of the equality of Canadians of all origins; importance of protecting group-specific rights
• “mosaic”: in a multicultural society, each ethnic or racial group preserves its unique cultural traits while together contributing to national unity; each culture is equally important within the mosaic
• Canada was the first country to adopt a multi-cultural policy

Question 39

ethical relativism

Answer 39

the idea that all cultures and all cultural practices have equal value

Question 40

hybridity

Answer 40

• the process by which different racial and ethnic groups combine to create new or emergent cultural forms of life
• ex. Metis people

Question 41

conquest

Answer 41

forcible subjugation of territory and people by military action

Question 42

racial profiling

Answer 42

the practice of selecting specific racial groups for greater levels of criminal justice surveillance

Question 43

model minority stereotype

Answer 43

• applied to a minority group that is seen as reaching significant educational, professional, and socioeconomic levels without challenging the existing establishment
• ex. Japanese-Canadians

Question 44

bamboo ceiling

Answer 44

the invisible barrier preventing Asians from reaching the highest levels of corporate success