1.Why do you think stereotypes are so easily interchanged between groups? Do you believe that our society is becoming more or less racist? How effective were previous movements to attain equality?

I. Race and Ethnicity

A. Ethnicity

1. An ethnic group is a social construct and it refers to a social category of people

who share a common culture.

2. Ethnic groups develop because of their unique historical and social experiences

that become the basis for the group’s ethnic identity.

a. Ethnic identification may be strengthened when a group faces prejudice or is

the target of exclusionary practices.

b. Ethnicity gives people a sense of community.

B. Defining Race

1. A race is primarily a social construct, and it is a term used to describe a group

treated as distinct in society based on certain characteristics, some of which are

biological, that have been assigned social importance.

2. The social categories used to divide groups into races are not fixed, and they vary

from society to society.

3. Racialization is the process whereby some social category, like social class,

ethnicity, or nationality, takes on what is perceived in the society to be racial

characteristics.

a. Race is thus socially constructed, based on certain characteristics that have

been assigned social importance in society by the most powerful group(s) in a

society for political and economic purposes.

b. Definitions of race are created and maintained by the most powerful group (or

groups) in society and based on what these presumed group differences mean

in the context of social and historical experience.

4. The Significance of Defining Race - racial formation is the process by which a

group comes to be defined as a race.

a. This definition is supported through official social institutions such as the law

and the schools.

b. The biological differences presumed to define different racial groups are

somewhat arbitrary and different groups use different criteria to define racial

groups.

c. Most variability in biological characteristics is within and not between racial

groups.

C. Minority and Dominant Groups

1. A minority group is any distinct group in society that shares common group

characteristics and is forced to occupy low status in society because of prejudice

and discrimination.

a. Minority group status is not a numerical representation, as indicated by the

apartheid system in South Africa where blacks were a numerical majority.

b. Minority groups possess characteristics regarded as different and suffer

prejudice and discrimination by the dominant group.

c. Membership is frequently ascribed (not achieved) and members feed a strong

sense of group solidarity.

2. The group that assigns a racial or ethnic group a subordinate status is called the

dominant group or social majority.

II. Racial Stereotypes

A. Stereotypes and Salience - People routinely categorize other people based on readily

apparent (salient) characteristics.

1. Stereotypes are oversimplified sets of beliefs about members of a social group or

social stratum that presumably, but usually incorrectly, describe a ‘typical

member’.

2. Racial-ethnic stereotypes are based on race or ethnicity.

3. No group in U.S. history has escaped the process of categorization and

stereotyping, even White groups.

4. The application of stereotypes is based on the salience principle, which states

that we categorize people on the basis of what appears initially prominent and

obvious; salient characteristics include skin color, gender, and age.

5. The choice of salient characteristics is culturally determined (e.g. middle easterners

consider religion more salient than race).

B. The Interplay among Race, Gender, and Class Stereotypes

1. Racial, ethnic, gender, and social class are prominent features for stereotyping and

interrelate in complex ways in our society.

2. Gender stereotypes about women are more negative than those about men and

are culturally constructed.

3. Social class stereotypes are based on assumptions about social class status.

4. The principle of stereotype interchangeability holds that stereotypes—

especially negative ones—are often interchangeable among groups, especially

those for those groups having the lowest social status in society.

III. Prejudice and Discrimination

A. Prejudice is the evaluation of a social group, and individuals within that group, based

on conceptions about the social group that are held despite facts that contradict it.

1. Prejudice involves both prejudgment and misjudgment.

2. Everyone possesses prejudices.

3. People who are more prejudiced are also more likely to stereotype others by race

or ethnicity, and gender, than those who are less prejudiced.

4. Prejudice is revealed in the phenomenon of ethnocentrism – the belief that one’s

group is superior to all other groups. Generally, the greater the difference between

groups, the more harshly the out-group will be judged by an ethnocentric

individual of an in-group, and the more prejudiced that person will be against

members of the out-group.

5. Prejudice and Socialization. All agents of primary or secondary socialization

contribute to prejudice; the media have been particularly culpable of perpetuating

stereotypes.

B. Discrimination is overt behavior that treats members of a particular group unequally

just because they belong to that group.

1. Racial-ethnic discrimination - the unequal treatment of a person based on race or

ethnicity, takes many forms, may be combined with other forms of discrimination

(like gender discrimination), and does not necessarily go together with prejudice.

2. Despite legislation outlawing discrimination in employment and housing, the

income gap and residential segregation indicate that discrimination is still

practiced.

IV. Racism

A. Racism, both attitudinal and behavioral, is the perception and treatment of a racial or

ethnic group, (and member of that group) as intellectually, socially, and culturally

inferior to one’s own group.

1. Different forms of racism include:

a. Jim Crow racism

b. aversive racism

c. implicit bias

d. laissez-faire or symbolic racism

e. color-blind racism

f. White privilege

g. institutional racism

h. racial profiling

2. Institutional racism is negative treatment and oppression of one racial or ethnic

group by society’s existing institutions based on the presumed inferiority of the

oppressed group.

a. It persists because of the economic and political power that accrues to

dominant groups because of their position in social institutions.

b. Institutional racism can exist even without prejudice being the cause.

c. It can be seen in persistent economic inequality, in racial profiling and other

forms of unequal treatment in the criminal justice system, and even in such

everyday activities as sales transactions.

V. Theories of Prejudice and Racism

A. Psychological Theories of Prejudice

1. Assimilation theory examines the process by which a minority becomes socially,

economically, and culturally absorbed within the dominant society.

2. Pluralism – the separate maintenance and persistence of one’s culture, language,

mannerisms, practices, art, and so on.

Symbolic Interaction Theory

a. Symbolic interaction theory also studies how race and ethnicity are socially

constructed. Also, contact theory argues that interaction between whites and

minorities will reduce prejudice on the part of both groups only when:

i the contact is between individuals of equal status,

ii contact is sustained, and

iii participants agree upon social norms favoring equality.

4. Conflict Theory

a. Conflict theorists argue that class inequality is an inherent and fundamental

part of social interaction in all groups, cultures and societies.

b. The current ‘class vs. race’ controversy demonstrates how important class and

race are in explaining inequality and its consequences.

c. The theory also focuses on the interaction of class, race, and gender through

the intersection perspective, which acknowledges that gender differences are

viewed differently within different racial or class groups.

VI. Diverse Groups, Diverse Histories

A. Native Americans: The First of This Land

1. The size of the indigenous population in North America in 1492 is estimated from

one to ten million people.

2. Conquest, disease, and expulsion from their lands resulted in a rapid decline in

population to 600,000 by 1800 and 300,000 by 1850.

3. Today, about 55 percent of all Native Americans live on or near a reservation.

4. They suffer from the highest poverty rate of all minorities and massive

unemployment (over 50% among males).

B. African Americans

1. The development of slavery in the Americas is related to world markets for sugar

and tobacco.

2. Between 20 and 100 million Africans were transported to the Americas, with the

vast majority going to Brazil and the Caribbean, and only 6 percent to the United

States.

a. Slavery, in which people were chattel, evolved as a rigid caste system based

on patriarchy and white supremacy.

b. Research reveals extensive slave resistance and armed rebellion.

c. After slavery presumably ended with the Civil War, sharecropping emerged as

a new exploitative system.

d. The Great Migration of blacks from the South to the urban North from the

1900s through the 1920s and beyond encouraged the development of

collective political, social, and cultural action.

C. Latinos - The diverse Latino or Hispanic American population has grown

considerably over the past few decades. These two terms obscure important

differences in how different Latino groups entered the American society.

1. Mexican Americans

a. Before the Anglo conquest, Mexican colonists had formed settlements and

missions throughout the West and Southwest that displayed a class system

within the Chicano community.

Land loss and enclosure following the Mexican-American War of 1946-1848

corresponded to the racial formation of Mexicans as inferiors, a belief system

that justified their lower status and Anglo control of the land.

c. In the 20th century, year-round production of irrigated crops in the Southwest

and West created a need for migrant workers continuing until today.

2. Puerto Ricans

a. Puerto Rico became a Commonwealth in 1952, followed by the launching of

Operation Bootstrap, designed to attract U.S. corporations to the island using

tax breaks and other concessions.

b. With the persistence of unemployment, seasonal workers began to migrate to

the United States.

c. To reduce unemployment, the U.S. government instituted population control

programs on the island, including forced sterilization of women.

3. Cubans

a. The largest migration of Cubans to the U.S., after the 1959 revolution, was

defined as a political exodus.

b. In contrast, Cuban immigrants from 1980 were labeled as undesirables and

forced to live in primitive camps for long periods, and have been unable to

achieve the social and economic mobility achieved by earlier Cuban

immigrants.

D. Asian Americans - Asian Americans come from different countries and diverse

cultural backgrounds, such as the following:

1. Chinese

a. Chinese Americans began migrating to the U.S. in the mid-19th century as a

cheap labor force, relegated to the most difficult and dangerous railroad work

from 1865-1868, followed by their abrupt expulsion from railroad work near

the turn of the century.

b. In 1882, the federal government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act banning

immigration of laborers and intermarriage. Hostility and exclusion resulted in

the creation of Chinatowns by the uprooted in search of strength and comfort.

2. Japanese

a. Many first-generation immigrants (Issei) who entered the U.S. between 1980

and 1924 before the Japanese Immigration Act were employed in agriculture

and in small Japanese businesses.

b. The 1913 Alien Land Law of California stipulated that Japanese aliens could

lease land only for three years and that land already owned or leased could not

be bequeathed to heirs.

c. The second generation (Nisei) became better educated and assimilated.

d. The third generation (Sansei) became even better educated and assimilated,

although they still met with prejudice and discrimination.

e. Relocation in camps from 1942 until 1946 destroyed numerous Japanese

families and ruined them financially.

f. In 1987, legislation awarding $20,000 to each relocated person and offering

an apology was passed.

3. Filipinos

Filipinos entered the U.S. freely from 1899 through 1934 when the islands

became a commonwealth of the United States and immigration quotas were

imposed.

b. Over 200,000 Filipinos, mostly professionals and high educated, arrived

between 1966 and 1980.

4. Koreans

a. Many Koreans entered the U.S. in the late 1960s, with a large concentration

settling in Los Angeles.

b. Although many Koreans experienced downward mobility in the U.S., about

half the Korean American population is college-educated; nearly one in eight

owns a business.

c. The concentration of Korean greengrocers in African American communities

has fanned negative feeling and prejudice on both sides.

5. Vietnamese

a. South Vietnamese began arriving into the U.S. following the fall of South

Vietnam to communist North Vietnam in 1975.

b. A second wave of immigrants followed after China attacked Vietnam in 1978.

c. Despite tension and discrimination, most Vietnamese heads of household are

employed full time.

E. Middle Easterners

1. Christian and Muslim immigrants from Middle Eastern countries such as Syria,

Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran began arriving in large numbers since the mid-1970s.

2. Like other immigrants, many have experienced downward mobility and they have

formed their own ethnic enclaves.

3. Many Middle Easterners were harassed, attacked, racially profiled, and came

under suspicion after the September 11th attacks.

F. White Ethnic Groups

1. White ethnic immigration to the U.S. dates to the original WASP (White, Anglo-

Saxon Protestant) immigrants from England, Scotland, and Wales (this term

usually refers to the WASP male).

2. As immigrants from Northern and Western Europe and later Eastern and Southern

Europe began to arrive, particularly during the mid to late nineteenth century,

WASPs began to direct prejudice and discrimination against many of these newer

groups.

3. WASP dominance began to decline in the 1960s.

4. More than 40 percent of the world’s Jewish population lives in the U.S., largely as

a result of fleeing from European anti-Semitism.

5. The National Origins Quota Act of 1924, which instituted ethnic quotas based on

proportions of groups already in the U.S., was one of the most discriminatory

legal actions ever taken by the U.S. in the field of immigration.

VII. Attaining Racial and Ethnic Equality: The Challenge

Increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S., and the resulting intergroup contact, has

intensified the importance of addressing sociological concerns about intergroup conflict

and inequality.

A. The Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement was initially based on the passive resistance

philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr., learned from the philosophy of Satyagraha

(“soul firmness and force”) of the East Indian Mahatma (meaning “leader”)

Mohandas Gandhi.

2. The major civil rights movement in the United States intensified shortly after the

1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the famous Supreme court case that

ruled that “separate but equal” in education was unconstitutional.

B. The Black Power Movement

1. More militant leaders grew increasingly disenchanted with the limits of the civil

rights agenda, which was perceived as moving too slowly.

2. The Black Power movement of the late 1960s rejected assimilation and instead

demanded pluralism in the form of self-determination and self-regulation of Black

communities.

3. The Contemporary Challenge: Race-Specific versus Race-Blind Policies.

a. The tension between color-blind and race-specific policies is a major source

for many of the political debates surrounding current race relations.

b. The debate is exemplified in the controversy over affirmative action

programs, on whether wide-based minority recruiting and the use of

admission slots in education and set-aside contracts on jobs are quotas.

c. Legal decisions on the state and federal level continue to challenge affirmative

action and related strategies.

d. The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) of the NAACP forcefully argues for the

preservation of affirmative action.

e. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases modifying the 1978

decision that race could be used as a criterion for admission to higher

education or for job recruitment as long as rigid quotas were not used. The

decisions ruled out the use of a point system interpreted as a type of quota, but

allowed race to be used as a factor in admissions decisions, along with other

factors.