Racial and Ethnic Inequality

Question 1

affirmative action

Answer 1

positive efforts to recruit minority group members or women for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities

Question 2

amalgamation

Answer 2

the process through which a majority group and a minority group combine to form a new group

Question 3

anti-semitism

Answer 3

anti-Jewish prejudice

Question 4

apartheid

Answer 4

a former policy of the South African government, designed to maintain the separation of black and other non-white people for the dominant white people

Question 5

assimilation

Answer 5

the process through which a person forsakes their cultural tradition to become part of a different culture

Question 6

asylees

Answer 6

foreigners who have already entered a receiving country because of persecution of a well-founded fear of persecution

Question 7

black power

Answer 7

a political philosophy, promoted by many black teenagers and young adults in the 1960s, that supported the creation of black-controlled political and economic institutions

Question 8

color-blind racism

Answer 8

the use of the principle of race neutrality to defend a racially unequal status quo

Question 9

contact hypothesis

Answer 9

an interactionist perspective which states that is cooperative circumstances, interracial contact between people of equal status will reduce discrimination

Question 10

discrimination

Answer 10

the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or other arbitrary reasons

Question 11

ethnic group

Answer 11

a group that is set apart from others primarily because of its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns

Question 12

ethnocentrism

Answer 12

the tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others

Question 13

exploitation theory

Answer 13

a Marxist theory that views racial subordination in the United States as a manifestation of the class system inherent in capitalism

Question 14

genocide

Answer 14

the deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation

Question 15

glass ceiling

Answer 15

an invisible barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified individual in a work environment because of the individual’s gender, race, or ethnicity

Question 16

institutional discrimination

Answer 16

the denial or opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operations of a society

Question 17

minority group

Answer 17

a subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their own lives than the members of a dominant or majority group have over theirs

Question 18

pluralism

Answer 18

mutual respect for one another’s cultures among the various groups in a society, which allows minorities to express their cultures without experiencing prejudice

Question 19

prejudice

Answer 19

a negative attitude toward an entire category of people, often an ethnic or racial minority

Question 20

racial formation

Answer 20

a sociohistorical process in which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed

Question 21

racial group

Answer 21

a group that is set apart from others because of physical differences that have taken on social significance

Question 22

racial profiling

Answer 22

any arbitrary action initiated by an authority based on race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on a person’s behavior

Question 23

racism

Answer 23

the belief that one race is supreme and all others are innately inferior

Question 24

redlining

Answer 24

the pattern of discrimination against people who try to buy homes in minority and racially changing neighborhoods

Question 25

refugee

Answer 25

people living outside their country of citizenship for hear of political or religious persecution

Question 26

remittances

Answer 26

the monies that immigrants return to their families of origin. also called migradollars

Question 27

segregation

Answer 27

the physical separation of two groups of people in terms of residence, workplace, and social events; often imposed on a minority group by a dominant group

Question 28

sharing economy

Answer 28

connecting owners of underused assets with others willing to pay to use them

Question 29

stereotype

Answer 29

an unreliable generalization about all members of a group that does not recognize individual differences within the group

Question 30

symbolic ethnicity

Answer 30

an ethnic identity that emphasizes concerns such as ethnic food or political issues rather than deeper ties to one’s ethnic heritage

Question 31

white privilege

Answer 31

rights or immunities granted people as a particular benefit or favor simply because they are white