Understanding Race and Ethnicity

1
Understanding Race and Ethnicity

• Chapter 1

2
Minority Group

• Subordinated
• Less control or power
• Unequal Treatment
• Distinguishing physical or cultural
  characteristics
• Involuntary
• Group solidarity and homogamy

3
Types of Subordinated Groups

• Racial
• Ethnic
• Religious
• Gender
• Age
• Sexual Orientation
• Ability or disability

4
Race

• Biological meanings
• Biologically there are no pure, distinct races.
  (p. 12)
• Controversies over intellectual differences
• Socially constructed meanings
• Racial formation
• Defined by those in power
• Depends on racist social structure

5
Theoretical Perspectives

• Functionalist
• Conflict
• Labeling

6
Functionalist Perspective

• Organic analogy
• Emphasis on dominant group perspective
• Dysfunctions

7
Conflict Perspective

• The social structure is best understood in terms
  of conflict or tension among competing groups.
  (p. 20-1)
• Competition
• Victim blaming

8
Labeling Approach

• Howard Becker Why are some people viewed
  differently than others?
• Stereotypes
• Exaggerated images of the characteristics of a
  particular group
• Negative images
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

9
Creation of of Dominant-Subordinate Group Status

• Three situations lead to the formation of this
  relationship
• Migration
• Annexation
• Colonialism

10
Migration

• Migration transfer of population
• Emigration leaving one place to settle in
  another
• Immigration moving into a new place
• Example one emigrates from Bosnia and is an
  immigrant in the United States.
• Voluntary or involuntary
• Internal migration movement within the borders
  of a country

11
Annexation

• Incorporation or attachment of new land
• Mechanisms for annexation
• Results of war or conquest
• By purchase or treaty
• Dominant power generally suppresses the language
  and culture of the minority

12
Colonialism

• Most frequent method of domination
• Definition maintenance of political, social,
  economic and cultural domination over a people by
  a foreign power for an extended period (p. 23)
• Rule by outside without actual incorporation into
  dominant peoples nation

13
Colonialism

• How one society gains power over another
• Military strength
• Political sophistication
• Economic investment
• World systems theory
• Internal colonialism
• Example British Empire
• http//www.britishempire.co.uk/

14
Consequences of Subordinate-Group Status

• Extermination
• Expulsion
• Secession
• Segregation
• Fusion
• Assimilation

15
Extermination

• Most extreme
• Genocide deliberate, systematic killing of an
  entire people or nation
• Ethnic cleansing policy intended to cleanse
  by expulsion and/or exterminationHolocaust
  http//www.remember.org/Rwanda Hutus and Tutsis
  http//www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/NEH/rw-
  hist.htmlLynching http//www.crimelibrary.com/c
  lassics2/carnival/

16
Expulsion

• Subordinate group is forced to leave certain
  areas or to vacate country
• Relocation to unfamiliar territory
• Example Trail of Tears
• http//www.ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html
• Manzanar and other relocation camps
• http//members.aol.com/EARTHSUN/Manzanar.html
• Creates a refugee population that is subordinated
  in another culture

17
Secession

• A group ceases to be a subordinate group when it
  secedes to form a new nation or moves to an
  already established nation where it becomes
  dominant. (p. 25)
• Example The partition of Israel in 1948
• http//www.raceandhistory.com/worldhotspots/Israel
  .htm

18
Segregation

• Physical separation of two groups in residence,
  workplace, and social functions
• Intergroup contact inevitably occurs
• Contexts
• Educational settings
• Residential patterns

19
Reaction and Response

• Search the Internet and find a site related to
  some form of rejection of subordinated groups
  extermination, expulsion, segregation,
  succession. (some sample links have been
  included on most of the slides) Write a short
  review of the site and post it on the discussion.
  Be sure to include the URL for your site.
• Review at least one of the sites posted by a
  classmate and write a short discussion response
  for that site.

20
Fusion

• Amalgamation cultural and physical synthesis of
  various groups into a new people
• a.k.a. melting pot
• Degrees of resistance to fusion
• Cultural characteristics
• Racial characteristics
• A B C D

21
Assimilation

• Subordinate individual or group takes on the
  characteristics of the dominant group
• Eventually accepted as part of that group
• Dictates conformity to dominant group
• Entails active effort by minority
• A B C A

22
Assimilation

• Difficult
• Viewed as unfair or dictatorial
• Takes longer if
• Differences are large
• Majority is not receptive
• Minority arrives in short period of time
• Minority residents are concentrated
• Arrival is recent and homeland is accessible

23
Panethnicity and Marginality

• Panethnicity - - development of solidarity among
  ethnic subgroups
• Emerging in multiracial, multiethnic societies
• Marginality - - status of being between two
  cultures
• Results from incomplete assimilation
• Perceived differently in different environments

24
Exit Exercise

• Write a short paper (1 2 page) in response to
  the following questions
• How diverse is Omaha?
• Cite evidence of ways that one or more groups is
  subordinated in Omaha.
• What measures have been taken to limit the
  negative effects of subordination?