What is a Subordinate group

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What is a Subordinate group?

• What does and does not determine minority group
  status1. Minority status is not based on the
  size of a group2. Minority/Majority group
  membership is not necessarily mutually
  exclusive3. Minority status may vary according
  to geopolitical boundaries4. Minority/Majority
  is related to the distribution of power
• According to Wagley and Harris (1958) a
  subordinate group has five dimensions1. Unequal
  treatment and less power over ones life2.
  Distinguishing physical or cultural traits that
  the dominant group holds in low regard3.
  Involuntary membership or ascribed status4.
  Group solidarity awareness of subordinate status
  and oppression5. Marital endogamy - patterns of
  in-group marriage

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Figure 1-1 Population of the United States by
Race and Ethnicity, 2000 and 2100 (projected)
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Types of Subordinate Groups

• Racial groups - are groups that are set apart on
  the basis of obvious physical differences within
  a society VS cultural
• What is obvious is relative to the group or
  society
• Ethnic groups - are groups that are set apart on
  the basis of cultural traits and nationality
• Religious groups - consists of religious
  associations that are set apart from the dominant
  religion
• Gender groups - such as women who are set apart
  on the basis of sex
• Other subordinate groups - are those that are set
  apart on the basis of age, disability, sexual
  ambiguity or sexual orientation

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Does Race Matter?

• Biological school of thought and meaning of race
• Racial groups as genetically discrete population
  groups
• There are subpopulations within the human race
• That one sub-group may be distinguished
  biologically from another on the basis of genetic
  traits

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Criticisms of the Biological View

• Genetic traits are continuous so it is impossible
  to state where one group begins and ends and
  another starts
• Within group, variations are greater than
  differences between groups
• Each trait is independent from the other
• Human species contain no subgroups

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Social Construction of Race

• Race is a social construct based on how people
  define themselves and others on physical and
  social characteristics
• Racial classifications are a function of how
  people define, label and categorize themselves
  and others into groups

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Racial Formation

• Michael Omi and Howard Winant (1994) - view
  racial formation as the political and
  sociohistorical process by which racial
  categories are created and change
• Dominant group has the power to impose its racial
  definitions onto others

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Ethnicity

• Ethnic groups are defined on the basis of a
  shared sense of culture and nationality
• Ethnicity as a sense of shared history, culture,
  nationality and belongingness

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Sociology and the Study of Race and Ethnicity

• Ethnic and racial stratification - refers to the
  structure and process by which race and ethnicity
  determines life chance and access to socially
  desirable resources such as housing, justice,
  education, wealth, power, etc.
• Not all groups have the same opportunities
• Stratification is interconnected by
• Racial
• Ethnic
• Religious
• Age
• Gender

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Theoretical Perspectives

• Functionalist Perspective - society consists of
  interdependent social structures that contribute
  to maintaining society in a state of order
• The functions of racial inequality
• Racist ideologies provides justification for
  unequal treatment
• Maintains oppression
• Racists beliefs provide support for the existing
  social order
• Relieve the dominant group of responsibility
• Dysfunctions of racial inequality
• Fail to utilize all human potential
• Aggravates social problems
• Wasted resources
• Undermines diplomatic ties between nations
• Undermines authority in society

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Theoretical Perspectives

• Conflict perspective - society and interaction is
  based on conflict, competition and a struggle for
  scarce resources or differences in social and
  political interests
• Racial inequality serves the economic and
  political interests of the dominant group

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Labeling Approach

• Labeling perspective - how groups become defined
  and labeled
• Labels and stereotypes - stereotypes are
  exaggerated beliefs that are attributed to a
  whole category
• Labels and the self-fulfilling prophecy

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Figure 1-2 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
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The Creation of Subordinate-Group Status

• One way is through population migration
• Emigration or leaving an area to move elsewhere
  such as the Irish leaving Ireland
• Immigration or coming into an area such as the
  Irish coming to the United States.
• Immigration may be voluntary or it may be
  involuntary
• Populations usually migrate because of a
  combination of push and pull factors

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The Creation of Subordinate-Group Status

• One way is through population migration
• Push factors - compel people to leave because of
  such conditions as war, famine, overpopulation
  etc.
• Pull factors - are sources of attraction such as
  freedom, occupational opportunities etc.

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The Creation of Subordinate-Group Status

• Second pattern by which subordinate status is
  formed is through the annexation of territory in
  which an indigenous group is incorporated into
  another society
• Third pattern is through colonialism - which is
  the political, socio-cultural and economic
  domination of an indigenous population by a
  foreign power
• Genocide - systematic extermination of
  subordinate group at the hands of the dominant
  group (Example, Germany and Jews, Rwanda and the
  war between the Hutu and Tutsi and Muslims from
  Bosnia.)

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The Creation of Subordinate-Group Status

• Expulsion - dominant group expels a subordinate
  group (Example, Native Americans, Indians in
  Uganda)
• Secession - A subordinate group ceases to be a
  subordinate group when it secedes from the
  dominate group and forms a new nation (Example,
  Baltic States from Russia)
• Segregation - where the dominant group structures
  the social institutions in society to maintain
  minimal contact with subordinate groups
  (Example, the South in the 1950s)

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The Creation of Subordinate-Group Status

• Fusion - refers to the biological and cultural
  amalgamation of ethnic groups in society
• Fusion can be expressed as ABCD, in which A, B
  ,C are different groups and interaction between
  the groups produce something new D, the blending
  of the three groups.
• Assimilation - refers to the absorption of the
  subordinate group into the dominant groups
  culture and society
• Assimilation can be represented by ABCA in
  which A is the dominant group and B and C are
  subordinate groups.
• Pluralism - refers to ethnic diversity and the
  multiplicity of ethnic cultures in which each is
  respected and accorded equal status
• Pluralism can be represented as ABCABC. In
  which A, B, C represent different groups and
  interaction results in plural cultures coexisting
  on an equal status.

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Figure 1-3 Intergroup Relations Continuum
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Who Am I?

• Ethnic Identity
• Non-ethnics
• Panethnicity
• Ethnicity as a political and bureaucratic
  administrative process

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Ethnicity and Marginality

• Marginality occurs when a person has internalized
  the cultural patterns of one group and at the
  same time becomes estranged from his own culture
• Not feeling a part of either culture
• Marginality and alienation
• Marginality varies within groups and between
  groups

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Resistance and Change

• Power and defining who I am
• Dominant group influence
• Subordinate group response