Chapter 9, Race and Ethnicity

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Chapter 9, Race and Ethnicity

• Key Terms

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• chanceThose things not subject to human will,
  choice or effort.
• contextThe larger social setting in which racial
  and ethnic categories are recognized, constructed
  and challenged.

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• ethnicityPeople who share a national origin a
  common ancestry a place of birth distinct and
  visible social traits or socially important
  physical characteristics such as skin color, hair
  texture, and/or physical build.

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• involuntary ethnicityA dominant group defines
  some subgroup of people in racial and ethnic
  terms, forcing that subgroup to become, appear or
  feel more ethnic then they might otherwise be.
• foreign-bornThose U.S. residents born in a
  foreign country and to parents who are not U.S.
  citizens.

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• native (of the U.S.)Someone (1) born on American
  soil or on the soil of a U.S. island area such as
  Puerto Rico, or (2) born abroad but to at least
  one parent who is a U.S. citizen.
• minority groupsSubgroups within a society that
  can be distinguished from members of the dominant
  groups by visible and identifying
  characteristics, including physical and cultural
  attributes.

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• assimilationA process by which ethnic and racial
  distinctions between groups disappear.
• segregationThe physical and/or social separation
  of categories of people.

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• involuntary minoritiesEthnic and racial groups
  that were forced to become part of a country by
  slavery, conquest, or colonization.
• voluntary minoritiesMembers of racial or ethnic
  groups that came to a country expecting to
  improve their way of life.

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• melting pot assimilationA process of cultural
  blending in which the groups involved accept many
  new behaviors, and values from one another.
• ideologyA set of beliefs that are not challenged
  or subjected to scrutiny by the people who hold
  them.

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• prejudiceA rigid and usually unfavorable
  judgment about an outgroup that does not change
  in the face of contradictory evidence and that
  applies to anyone who shares the distinguishing
  characteristics of that group.
• stereotypesExaggerated and inaccurate
  generalizations about who are members of an
  outgroup.

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• selective perceptionThe process in which
  prejudiced persons notice only those behaviors or
  events that support their stereotypes about an
  outgroup.
• discriminationIntentional or unintentional
  unequal treatment of individuals or groups on the
  basis of attributes unrelated to merit, ability
  or past performance.

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• nonprejudiced nondiscriminatorsPersons who
  accept the creed of equal opportunity, and their
  conduct conforms to that creed.
• unprejudiced discriminatorsPersons who believe
  in equal opportunity but engage in discriminatory
  behaviors because it is to their advantage to do
  so or because they fail to consider the
  discriminatory consequences of some of their
  actions.

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• prejudiced nondiscriminatorsPersons who do not
  accept the creed of equal opportunity but refrain
  from discriminatory actions primarily because
  they fear the sanctions they may encounter if
  they are caught.
• prejudiced discriminatorsPersons who reject the
  notion of equal opportunity and profess a right,
  even a duty, to discriminate.

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• individual discriminationAny overt action on the
  part of an individual that depreciates someone
  from the outgroup, denies outgroup members
  opportunities to participate, or does violence to
  lives and property.

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• institutionalized discriminationThe established
  and customary ways of doing things in
  society--the unchallenged rules, policies, and
  day-to-day practices that impede or limit
  minority members achievements and keep them in
  subordinate and disadvantaged positions.

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• stigmaAn attribute defined as deeply
  discrediting because it overshadows all other
  attributes that a person might possess.
• mixed contactsInteractions when stigmatized
  persons and normals.

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• race thinkingA habit of thought whereby people
  permit themselves to think of human groups
  without the sense that groups consist of
  individuals and individuals display the full
  range of human differences.