Race, Racism, and Intersectionality

Question 1

Intersectionality

Answer 1

Concept that race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, ability, and age operate interdependently (overlapping) and not separate entities. They shape complex social inequalities

Question 2

Race. What is racialization?

Answer 2

A classification system based on physiological differences that societies, cultures, and groups consider socially significant (ex. skin colour). People can self-identify

Racialization–social construct of race

Question 3

Ethnicity

Answer 3

Common culture/ancestry shared by a group of people. Ethnicity involves self-identification

Question 4

Racial/Ethnic stability

Answer 4

Depends on identity. Place-based categories (ex. West Asian) had low levels of stability, while “White” had the highest level of stability. Higher education is associated with higher levels of response stability

Question 5

Stereotypes

Answer 5

Widely-shared generalization about a group of people

Question 6

Prejudice

Answer 6

Preconceived attitudes about a group of people. Not based on experience

Question 7

Discrimination

Answer 7

Different and unjust treatment towards a group of people

Question 8

Implicit bias

Answer 8

Subconscious perceptions that affect individuals’ attitudes and actions

Question 9

Racism

Answer 9

Beliefs, ideologies, and institutional practices that disadvantage people socially perceived as a member of certain races

Question 10

Visible minorities

Answer 10

People, other than Aboriginal people, who are non-Caucasian in race/non-white in colour

Question 11

Settler society

Answer 11

A society historically based on colonization through foreign settlement and displacement of Aboriginal inhabitants, which can lead to immigration, then diversity

Example: Canada is very diverse, heavily associated with our immigration policy. Immigration today is not based on the racial point system

Question 12

Minority groups. 5 distinguishable characteristics

Answer 12

Groups that are subordinate/lacking in power in society regardless of skin colour/country of origin. Distinguished by:

1) Unequal treatment and less power over their lives
2) Distinguishing physical/cultural traits like skin colour/language
3) Involuntary membership in the group
4) Awareness of subordination
5) High rate of in-group marriage

Question 13

Scapegoat theory, also known as the…?

Answer 13

Frustration-aggression theory, suggests that the dominant group will displace their untouched aggression onto a subordinate group

Example: The way Adolf Hitler was able to use the Jewish people as scapegoats for Germany’s social/economic problems

Question 14

Institutional racism

Answer 14

A societal system has developed with an embedded disenfranchisement of a group

Example: Canadian immigration policies that imposed “head taxes” on Chinese immigrants in 1886 and 1904

However, its purpose is not to reproduce inequality, but is just what the outcome is (ex. Residential schools)