STUDY UNITY 14: Ethnicity, race and social identities

Question 1

comment on racialisation

Answer 1

Racialisation is the process in which a group of people gradually came to be
regarded as a separate race and their chances in life begin to hinge on that
position. It is for this reason that sociologists refer to race-consciousness,
as well as race-consciousness as a sociological phenomenon, and state
that such race-consciousness on the part of some groups has an influence
on social relationships

Question 2

explain the concept of race

Answer 2

Race is a group of people who are believed to share certain physical traits
and to be genetically distinct. In other words, race is a social fact more than
a biological fact

race is a category of people that have
been singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis of real or alleged
physical characteristics such as skin colour, hair texture, eye shape or other
subjective attributes.

Question 3

what is an ethnic group

Answer 3

as a group whose
members share a distinctive social and cultural tradition, maintained within the group from generation to generation, whether as part of a more complex
society or in isolation.

Question 4

define ethnicity

Answer 4

ethnicity” as the “cultural practices and outlooks
of a given community of people” that distinguish it from other communities.

Question 5

define community

Answer 5

community was defined in terms of a group of people living together in one
place.

Question 6

comment on the concept of nation

Answer 6

A nation refers to all the people who are citizens
of a particular country. The concept nation is therefore more inclusive (that
is, it includes more people) than “ethnicity

Question 7

what are minority groups

Answer 7

define a minority group as a group which is disadvantaged relative
to the majority and which has a sense of group solidarity. The term refers to
a group of people who are culturally distinct from the majority of the people
living in a certain country, or who are regarded as culturally distinct by the
majority

Schaefer (2005:25) defined a minority group as a subordinate group whose
members have significantly less control or power over their own lives than
the members of the dominant or majority group have over theirs. Schaefer
(2005:25) argues that minority groups are often discriminated against and
experience unequal treatment when compared with the majority group.