Title: Race and Ethnicity
1Race and Ethnicity
2- Race A category of people who have been singled
out as inferior or superior, often on the basis
of physical characteristics such as skin color,
hair texture, and eye shape.
3- Perceived biological characteristics that
distinguish people - Not scientific fact race is murky business
4Concept has no validity in the human species
- race is self-identification by people according
to the race or races with which they most closely
identify or are Identified - What are "Races"?
5So why study it?
- We all live racially structured lives
- 2 major myths
- 1. any pure race
- 2. any superior race
6- Affects life chances education, health,
religious views, occupation, longevity
7- Dominant Group Group that is advantaged and has
superior resources and rights in a society.
Perceptions of innate superiority, ability to
oppress minority group members, ability to
control political power
8- Ethnic Group A collection of people
distinguished by others or by themselves on the
basis of cultural or nationality characteristics
(e.g., language and religion)
9- Subordinate Group minorityA group whose
members, because of physical or cultural
characteristics, are disadvantaged and subjected
to unequal treatment by the dominant group.
10Continuum of race relations
11- Ethnic PluralismThe coexistence of a variety of
distinct racial and ethnic groups within one
society.
12- Assimilation A process by which members of
minority groups become absorbed into the dominant
culture and distinction disappears.
13Blocked Assimilation
- SegregationSpatial and social separation of
categories of people by race, ethnicity, class,
gender and/or religion.
14Internal Colonialism
- Occurs when members of a racial or ethnic group
are conquered or colonized and forcibly placed
under the economic and political control of the
dominant group within a country
15Native Americans Example of Internal Colonialism
- 1830 Indian Removal Act - Called for relocation
of all Native Americans to land west of the
Mississippi. - In the Trail of Tears, the U.S. Army rounded up
all 16,000 Cherokees and marched them to
Oklahoma. - 4,000 Cherokees died.
- 1890 Wounded Knee ended the war and resulted in
placement on reservations.
16- Genocide The deliberate, systematic killing of
an entire people or nation.
17Global example
18- What are the driving forces behind these
varieties of race relations?
19- Prejudice A negative attitude based on faulty
generalizations about the members of selected
racial and ethnic groups.
20- RacismA set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices
that is used to justify the superior treatment of
one racial or ethnic group and the inferior
treatment of another racial or ethnic group.
21The Vicious Cycle of Racism
22Cycle leads to
- Discrimination Actions or practices of dominant
group members that have a harmful impact on
members of a subordinate group.
23Construction of Race U.S.
- From Eugenics to Human Genome Project
- Race The Power of Illusion
24History of race in the U.S.The 20th Century
25- Theory of racial formation - actions by the
government substantially define racial and ethnic
relations -- the politics of race - But social protest movements help to rearticulate
our understanding of race - See -- www.jimcrowhistory.org
26- Between 1892 and 1921 -- estimated 6,000
Lynchings of African Americans - From Slavery to Jim Crow to Civil Disobedience
-- Civil Rights Acts of 1964 1965
27As of 2000 the U.S. Census allows for
multi-racial classification
- Today over 6.4 million Americans report being
multi-racial U.S. Census
28- Almost two million interracial marriages
29- In 1967, there were still sixteen U.S. states
that had laws on the books banning interracial
marriage. That year the US. Supreme Court
unanimously struck down laws banning interracial
marriages with these words "The freedom to
marry, or not marry, a person of another race
resides within the individual and cannot be
infringed on by the State.
30 Mildred and Richard Lovingscase led the U.S.
Supreme Court to strike down laws against
interracial marriages
31- 1998 - South Carolina voted to abolish its
symbolic law against miscegenation - 40 voted to keep it
- 2000 Alabama 32 percent voted to keep it.
32How Far Have We Come?
Majority of Americans describe Obama as our first
Black President
What does this tell us About our understanding Of
race in America?
33 "One-drop rule American social and legal
custom of classifying anyone with one black
ancestor, regardless of how far back, as black.
Source Thinking About Race 1998
34A Color Blind Society?
- His (Obama's) election demonstrates America's
extraordinary capacity to renew itself and adapt
to a changing world," said former U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan.
35Are We really Post Racial?
- Obama isn't 'post-racial.' He isn't the messiah
whose coming ends bigotry and inequality for all
time," Cynthia Tucker Atlanta Journal-Constitutio
n .
36Symbolic Ethnicity
- a nostalgic allegiance to the culture of the
immigrant generation, or that of the old country
a love for and pride in a tradition that can be
felt without having to be incorporated in
everyday behavior - Herbert
Gans
37Mertons types of discrimination and prejudice
- Non-prejudiced/ non-discriminator all weather
liberal - Non-prejudiced discriminator fair weather
liberal - Prejudiced Non-discriminator fair weather
bigot - Prejudice Discriminator - all weather bigot
38Theories
- Dollard
- frustration aggression
- Unable to strike out at real source of frustration
39- Scapegoat A person or group that is incapable of
offering resistance to the hostility or
aggression of others.
40Adornos Authoritarian Personality Type --
- excessive conformity, submissiveness to
authority, intolerance, insecurity, a high level
of superstition, and rigid, stereotypic thinking.
41- Stereotypes rigid mental image Overgeneralizations
about the appearance, behavior, or other
characteristics of members of particular
categories. - e.g., all blonds are dumb, all blacks are good
athletes..
42Social distance
- The extent to which people are willing to
interact and establish relationships with members
of racial and ethnic groups other than their
own. Bogardus Scale
43Hartley Study
- Wallonians, Denierians, Perenians.. Significance
of Study - Humans have shown a universal ability to be
prejudiced against people they have never met!
44- Bobo and Klugel found
- Younger and More Educated score lower on the
Social Distance Scale. less prejudiced
45- Individual Discrimination One-on-one acts by
members of the dominant group that harm members
of the subordinate group or their property.
46- Institutional DiscriminationDay-to-day practices
of organizations and institutions that have a
harmful impact on members of subordinate groups.
47Why do White Americans Have more wealth than
minority groups? Luck or a history of
Institutional Racism?
- Does White Privilege Exist? Tim Wise
48Feagins types
- Isolate harmful action by a dominant group
member and is supported by other dominant group
members in the immediate community. (e.g., a
judge who gives harsher sentencing to members of
a minority group) - Small-group - similar but not supported by other
members of the dominant group -- e.g., racially
motivated vandalism
49- Direct Institutionalized e.g., intentional
exclusion of people of color from public
institutions - Indirect - unintended consequences such as
special education classes that were intended for
students with various disabilities but some
claim they have resulted in segregation
50Home Ownership
- Housing Segregation still taking place
- ghettos with grass - Whites move out of
suburban neighborhoods when blacks and Latino(a)
residents move in. - Institutional Racism Wealth
51Most Racially Segregated Metropolitan Areas
52Who Are We Today?
- Latino Americans
- If we include those also here illegally, the
number of Latinos in the U.S. is estimated to be
45 million largest minority group - The Bureau predicts they will number more than
96 million in 2050.
53Diverse group
- For example Mexicans or Chicano/as (largest
segment -- approx. 2/3), Puerto Ricans (since
1917 have been able to move freely to and from
the mainland), Cubans (different experiences
according to their class origins before
immigration)
54- Asian Americans -- fast growing ethnic minority
group -- Also very diverse group -- some
examples - Chinese -- transcontinental railroad, gold rush
/ Japanese -- 120,000 internment camps - Korean kye represents a strong sense of
community - Filipinos - over one million
- Indochinese -- Vietnamese, Cambodians, Thailand,
Laos.. More recent immigration
55- African Americans (African descent) or Blacks
(Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, the Caribbean)
-- unique and different experiences in that while
both have experienced discrimination (recent
example of Haitian refugees) African American
experiences have distinct relationship of slavery
and Jim Crow -
56- Blacks have a 375-year history on this continent
245 involving slavery, 100 involving
discrimination, and only 30 involving anything
else. Historian Roger Wilkins
57 Starting the conversation by acknowledging
privilege
- Why is it so hard to talk about race?
- How do we open the conversation?
- A Helpful Resource http//pewresearch.org/pubs/1
240/sotomayor-supreme-court-affirmative-action-min
ority-preferences - http//colorandmoney.blogspot.com/
58- http//www.npr.org/templates/dmg/dmg.php?prgCodeA
TCshowDate20-Dec-2002segNum6NPRMediaPrefRM
59- Growing Pains?
- By 2056 the roots of the average U.S. resident
will be from everywhere except Western
Europe..... Today 5 workers for every one Social
Security recipient -- by 2020, 3 for every 1 and
the three will be non-white
60Another view
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vMf6H47hXa3UNR1