Race and Ethnicity

Transcription

Race and Ethnicity

Race and Ethnicity
Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Definitions
• Race–A socially constructed category
composed of people who share
biologically transmitted traits that
members of a society consider important
• Meanings and importance of race vary
across time and place.
– No society contains biologically “pure”
people.
– More genetic variation within each racial
“category” than between “categories”
Definitions
• Ethnicity–a shared cultural heritage
– The United States is a multiethnic society
– Like race, ethnicity is socially constructed
• Remember: Race is constructed from
biological traits and ethnicity is
constructed from cultural traits, such as
ancestory, language, or religion.
• For most people, ethnicity is more
complex than race.
Table 14.1
Racial and Ethnic Categories in the United States, 2007
Minority
Any category of people distinguished by physical or
cultural difference that a society sets apart and
subordinates
• General characteristics
– Distinct identity: Race, sex, sexual orientation, the
poor
– Subordination: Often saddled with lower status
• Stereotypes, stigma, and labeling
• Group size not always a factor
– Women in US outnumber men.
– Blacks in South Africa outnumber whites.
National Map 14.1
Where the Minority Majority Already Exists
Prejudice
• Prejudice–A rigid and unfair
generalization about an entire category
of people.
• Stereotype–An exaggerated description
applied to every person in some category
Measuring Prejudice
The Social Distance Scale
1.
2.
3.
Student opinion shows a trend toward greater
social acceptance.
People see fewer differences among various
minorities.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
might have reduced social acceptance of
Arabs and Muslims.
Figure 14.1
Bogardus Social Distance Research (Detail on next slide)
The social distance scale is a good way to measure prejudice. Part (a) illustrates the complete social distance scale, from least social distance
at the far left to greatest social distance at the far right. Part (b) shows the mean (average) social distance score received by each category of
people in 2001. Part (c) presents the overall mean score (the average of the scores received by all racial and ethnic categories) in specific
years. These scores have fallen from 2.14 in 1925 to 1.44 in 2001, showing that students express less social distance toward minorities today
than they did in the past. Part (d) shows the range of averages, the difference between the highest and lowest scores in given years (in 2001,
for instance, it was 0.87, the difference between the high score of 1.94 for Arabs and the low score of 1.07 for Americans). This figure has also
become smaller since 1925, indicating that today’s students tend to see fewer differences between various categories of people.
Source: Parrillo & Donoghue (2005).
Figure 14.1 Detail
Racism
The belief that one racial category is innately superior
or inferior to another
• Racism has been widespread throughout
US history where ideas about racial
inferiority supported slavery.
• Overt racism in the US has decreased,
but remains a serious social problem.
Theories of Prejudice
• Scapegoat theory
– Disadvantaged people who unfairly blame
minorities for their own problems
• Authoritarian personality theory
– Rigid moralists who see things in “black &
white”
• Culture theory
– Everyone has some prejudice because it’s
embedded in culture.
Theories of Prejudice
• Conflict theory
– Self-justification for the rich and powerful in
the United States
– Minorities might cultivate climate of race
consciousness in order to win greater power
and privileges.
Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life
The Distribution of Intelligence.
Discrimination
Unequal treatment of various categories of people
•
Institutional prejudice and discrimination–
Bias built into the operation of society’s
institutions
•
Carmichael and Hamilton: People are slow
to condemn or even recognize institutional
prejudice and discrimination because it
often involves respected public officials and
long-established practices.
The Vicious Circle
1. Prejudice and discrimination begin as
ethnocentric attitudes.
2. As a result, groups can be placed in a
situation where they’re socially
disadvantaged and labeled.
3. A group’s situation, over time, is thus
explained as a result of innate inferiority
rather than looking at the social structure.
The cycle then repeats itself.
Figure 14.2
Prejudice and Discrimination: The Vicious Circle
Prejudice and discrimination can form a vicious circle, perpetuating themselves.
Majority and Minority
Patterns of Interaction
• Pluralism–A state in which people of all
races and ethnicities are distinct but have
equal social standing
• Assimilation–The process by which
minorities gradually adopt patterns of the
dominant culture
• Miscegenation–Biological reproduction by
partners of different racial categories
Majority and Minority
Patterns of Interaction
• Segregation–The physical and social
separation of categories of people
• Genocide–The systematic killing of
one category of people by another
National Map 14.2
Land Controlled by Native Americans, 1790 to Today
In 1790, Native Americans controlled three-fourths of the land (blue-shaded areas) that eventually became the United States. Today, Native
Americans control 314 reservations, scattered across the United States, that account for just 2 percent of the country’s land area. How would
you characterize these locations?
Source: Copyright (c) 1998 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Race and Ethnicity in the US
•
•
•
•
Native Americans
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
African Americans
Asian Americans
– Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipinos
• Hispanic/Latino Americans
– Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Cuban
Americans
• Arab Americans
• White Ethnic Americans
National Map 14.3
The Concentration of Hispanics or Latinos, African Americans, Asian
Americans, and Arab Americans, by County
In 2007, people of Hispanic or Latino descent represented 15.1 percent of the U.S. population, compared with 12.8 percent African Americans,
4.4 percent Asian Americans, and 0.5 percent Arab Americans. Comparing them, we see that the southern half of the U.S. is home to far more
minorities than the northern half. But do they all concentrate in the same areas? What patterns do the maps reveal?
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (2008).
h
Sociology, 13 Edition by John Macionis
Race and Ethnicity:
Looking Ahead
• The US will remain a land of immigrants.
• Most immigrants arrived in a wave that peaked
about 1910.
• Another wave of immigration began after World
War II and swelled as the government relaxed
immigration laws in the 1960s.
• Today’s immigrants come not from Europe but
from Latin America and Asia, with Mexicans,
Asian Indians, and Filipinos arriving in the
largest numbers.

Race and Ethnicity

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