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Sociology
Chapter 10
Lecture Questions
Sections 1 & 2 (pages 232-246)
Revised Feb. 2011
1. How have people attempted to
group human beings into racial
categories? How many racial
categories have some people come
up with? What three groups have
scholars usually agreed upon? How
is each characterized?

Based on physical features
– Hair texture, skin color, & body structure
From two (2) categories to two hundred
(200)
 Caucasoids, Monogoloids, Negroids

Caucasoids, Mongoloids, &
Negroids

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

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Causasoids—
Whites, characterized by fair skin and straight or
wavy hair.
Mongoloids—
Asians, characterized by yellowish or brownish
skin and by distinctive folds on the eyelids.
Negroids—
Blacks, characterized by dark skin and tightly
curled hair.
2. Give some examples of how any
classification system is very difficult to
come up with.
 For example, how should the people of southern
India, with their Caucasoid-like facial features,
dark skin color, and straight hair by classified?
 How should Australian Aborigines, many of who
have dark skin and blond tightly curled hair, be
categorized?
 It is difficult to classify people into clear-cut racial
categories because people often possess the
traits of more than one race.
 There are no biologically “pure” races, thus a
biological classification system is little use to
sociologists.
3. In terms of race, what is important
to sociologists?


How people react to these physical
characteristics and how these reactions
affect individuals in society.
Are people treated differently because of
physical differences?
4. What is important in determining
ethnicity?
► Ethnicity
is generally based on such cultural
characteristics as national origin, religion,
language, customs, and values.
► American society consists of people of many
different cultural backgrounds.
5. What is the difference
between race and
ethnicity?
• Race is usually associated with
physical attributes.
• Skin color, hair texture, etc.
• Ethnicity is related more to
cultural background and
common identity.
• Common way of life of a group.
6. Using the picture on page 233,
how do you think the diversity of
race and ethnicity in the U.S.
affects your community?
 Opinion
 Racial and ethnic diversity enriches
the community’s culture.
7. How does sociologist Louis Wirth
define a minority group? Does
minority group status have anything
to do with population size?
• A minority group is a group of people who—because
of their physical characteristics or cultural practices—
are singled out and unequally treated.
• Minority group has nothing to do with group size, but
rather with a group’s treatment by the dominant group.
– Are they being treated equally?
– For example—in South Africa white people made up about
15 % of the population during the second half of the 1900s.
• Yet, for much of that time, they dominated the lives of the other
racial groups in the country.
8. List three (3) characteristics
that distinguish minority
groups from other groups in
society.
• The group possesses identifiable physical or
cultural characteristics that differ from those of
the dominant group.
• Group members are the victims of unequal
treatment at the hands of the dominant group.
• Membership in the group is an ascribed status.
– Born into this group.
• Group members share a strong bond and sense
of group loyalty.
• Members tend to practice endogamy—marriage
within the group.
9. Using the case study on page 234,
what were students’ reactions on the
first day of the experiment? What were
their reactions on the second day?
 First day—The brown-eyed children seemed happy
and alert, their work improved, and they acted as if
they felt superior.

The blue-eyed children seemed miserable, and their
work declined.
 Second day—The brown-eyed children behaved just
as the blue-eyed children had.

However, the blue-eyed children were far less
unpleasant to the brown-eyed group than the latter had
been to them.
10. Using the picture on page
238, how do you think
discrimination and prejudice were
factors in the opposition to
desegregation?

Many white southerners were
prejudiced against African
Americans and used these
prejudices to justify discrimination,
such as the segregation of schools.
11. Is one particular skin color,
physical feature, or ethnic background
superior or inferior by nature? Explain
your answer.


NO !!!!!!!
Prejudice and discrimination exist because
of the dominant group.
12. How do discrimination and
prejudice differ?

Prejudice is the attitude one has
toward another group of people.


This is a learned behavior.
Discrimination is the action to
deny equal treatment.

Not being hired for a job or not
being able to rent an apartment.
13. Give three (3) examples
of legal discrimination.
• Apartheid in South Africa.
• Women in the U.S. before 1920,
when they gained the right to vote.
• Jim Crow Laws in the American
South.
14. Give an example of
institutionalized discrimination.


Outgrowth of the structure of society.
Denied access to good jobs or housing because
of discrimination.
Thus, are limited to low income areas of housing.
 The result is poorly funded schools, which may
result in minority group members being kept from
acquiring the skills needed to compete effectively in
the job market.

15. How are stereotype and selffulfilling prophecy related?
Explain.

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A stereotype is an oversimplified,
exaggerated, or unfavorable generalization
about a group of people.
When stereotyping, an individual forms an
image of a particular group and then applies
that image to all members of that group.

For example, hot-tempered Irish or dumb blonde.
Self-fulfilling prophecy


If people are told often enough that a
particular group is inferior in some way, then
people, including the stereotyped group, start
believing this information.
A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that
results in behavior that makes the prediction
come true.
16. How does racism differ
from prejudice and
discrimination?
• Racism is the belief that one’s own race or
ethnic group is naturally superior to other
races or ethnic groups.
• Throughout history, racism has been used
as a justification for atrocities such as
slavery and genocide.
– American slavery
– Nazi Holocaust
– American Indians
17. Using the chart on page 240, how
might some sociologists consider this
chart too simplified?


Because people’s attitudes and behaviors may
change based on the situation.
Robert K. Merton—

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Active bigot-prejudiced person who discriminates
Timid bigot-prejudiced person too afraid to discriminate
because of societal pressures
Fair-weather liberal-nonprejudiced person who
discriminates
All weather liberal-nonprejudiced person who does not
discriminates
18. Explain discrimination and
prejudice from the three broad
categories.

Sociological explanation—
– Prejudice is learned through socialization
 Culture,

family, friends, etc.
Psychological explanation—
– People are prejudiced because of a particular
kind of personality
– Or prejudice may be the product of frustration
and anger
 Scapegoating
is blaming one’s troubles on an
innocent person or group.
Economic explanation
 Prejudice
rises out of competition for
scarce resources.
– Chinese in America in the second half of
the 1800s.
 At
first, they were welcomed as a source of
inexpensive labor.
 However, when jobs became scarce, they
were viewed as economic competition.
19. Using the case study on page
241, why, according to the authors
of Community Cohesion, do white
people and nonwhite people in
Britain live “parallel lives?” Why do
you think the recommendation to
establish a clear definition of British
citizenship and to tie it to an oath
of allegiance caused controversy?


Because they often have little contact and are ignorant of each other’s lives.
Because some Britons wondered who would have to take the oath and who
would decide what common values all Britons should uphold.
20. Using the chart on page 242,
what types of questions on cultural
patterns might this chart lead a
sociologist to pose?

Questions such as why various societies
fall in different places along the
continuum and how society’s place on
the continuum affects different racial and
ethnic groups.
Continuum of Minority
Treatment

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Acceptance
Cultural Pluralism-
•
ethnic/racial variety encouraged
Assimilation-
•
culturally distinct groups blended into one common culture
Legal Protection-
•
minority rights protected by law
Segregation-
•
minority group physically separated
Subjugation-
•
dominant group controls through force
Population Transfer-
•
minority group moved to new location
Extermination-
•
minority group destroyed
Rejection
21. What country is a great
example of cultural pluralism?
Why?
 This policy allows each group within
society to keep its unique cultural
identity.
 Switzerland has three official languages.

French, German, and Italian
 All three ethnic groups live peacefully
and are extremely loyal to Switzerland.
 None of the three groups has taken on a
dominant or minority role.
22. How does assimilation
work? What is a “melting
pot?” Has this worked in the
U.S.? Why or why not?
 In many societies, racial and ethnic minorities
attempt to hold onto some of their unique
cultural features.
 The blending of culturally distinct groups into a
single group is assimilation.
 This has worked with limited success in the
U.S.
 Over time, the various groups within society
exchange many cultural traits as a natural
outcome of daily interaction.
23. Give several examples of how
legal protection is used to ensure
the rights of minority groups.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (U.S.)

Declared segregation illegal.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 (U.S.)
 Affirmative action programs in the U.S. are
another example of legal efforts to achieve
equal rights.
 These programs are designed to correct
past imbalances in the educational and
employment opportunities given to
minority groups.

24. What is segregation? What is
the difference between de jure
segregation and de facto
segregation?
 Policies that physically separate a minority group from
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
the dominant group.
Under segregation, the minority group is forbidden to
live in the same areas as the dominant group and
cannot use the same public facilities.
Segregation was openly practiced and legally in the
U.S. until the 1960s
De jure segregation—based on laws.
South Africa
De facto segregation—based on informal norms.
U.S. South—Jim Crow laws
25. What is subjugation? How is slavery
related to it? How was Apartheid a form
of subjugation?



Maintaining control over a group through
force.
Slavery is the ownership of another person.
Political and economic power rested in the
hands of the white few and was rigidly
maintained through force.
26. Give examples of population
transfer being used as a treatment of
minority groups.




Resettlement of American Indians on reservations
in the 1800s.
Direct population transfers may also involve
expelling the group from the country.
In the 1750s, the British authorities in Canada,
expelled the Acadians,(a French-speaking
minority) from Nova Scotia.
A more recent example is the forceful removal of
the Asian population from Uganda in 1972.
27. Give examples of how
extermination being used as a
treatment of minority groups.


The most extreme response to the existence of
minority groups within a country.
When the goal of extermination is the intentional
destruction of the entire targeted population, it is
referred to as genocide.

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Holocaust (Final Solution) during WWII.
Rwanda (Hutus/Tutsis)
Cambodia (Khmer Rouge)
Ethnic Cleansing—practice of removing a group from
a particular area through terror, expulsion, and mass
murder.

Early 1998, Serbia.
28. Using the story on page 245, why
did white Californians feel
resentment toward Japanese
Americans? Put yourself in the place
of the Japanese American internees.
How would you feel about your
treatment? What would your feelings
toward other Americans and the U.S.
government be? Give reasons for
your answers.


Some resented the economic success of some Japanese Americans.
They lost property and businesses and were forced to stay in primitive
internment camps.
Sociology
Chapter 10
Lecture Questions
Section 3 (pages 247-257)
1. What is a WASP?
• Gunnar Myrdal examined the issue of race relations in
the U.S. (1944)
• He said there is a gap between what Americans claim to
believe and how they actually behave.
• Although Americans express support for equality,
freedom, dignity, of the individual, and inalienable rights,
they have not lived up to these ideas.
•
•
• Enslavement/segregation of African-Americans
• Placing Native Americans on reservations
• Internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII
This conflict between ideals and actions dates back to
our earliest colonists.
These early settlers provided the image of what many
people think of as the typical American.
• White, Anglo-Saxon (northern Europe) descent, and
Protestant. (WASP)
2. How large is the African American
population?
• 2010 Census
– 12.8% of the U.S. population
– 35 million people
• According to the Census Bureau, by 2035 there will be
50 million African Americans making up 14.3 % of the
population.
• Greatest concentration of African American population
is in Southeast, especially Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and Maryland.
3. What other groups have been
compared with in relationship to
prejudice and discrimination?


With the possible exceptions of American
Indians and women, no other American
minority group has suffered such a long
history of prejudice and discrimination.
First brought to this country as slaves in the
early 1600s, African Americans have only
recently gained an economic and political
foothold in American society.
4. How did African Americans
come to the U.S.?
Arrived as slaves in the early 1600s.
 It wasn’t until the civil rights
movement of the 1950s and 1960s
brought significant gains for African
Americans.

5. How has the treatment of African
Americans in the U.S. improved in the last
30 years? Where do they still lag behind
other Americans?
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Number of African Americans completing high school is now only a few
points lower than white Americans.
24% of employed African Americans now hold managerial or
professional. (35% white Americans)
41% of African American households have middle-class incomes.
Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the number of
elected African American officials has jumped from 200 to nearly 9000.
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The percentage of African Americans completing four or more years of
college is just more than half that of white Americans.
African American family income averages about 64% of white family income.
The percentage of African American families living below the poverty line is
almost three times that of white families.
The unemployment rate among African Americans is more than twice as high
as the unemployment rate among white workers.
6. How many Hispanic Americans do
we now have?
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37.4 million
16.3%
Largest minority group in the U.S.
Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or
Central American or other Spanish
culture.
According to the U.S. census, by 2040
there will be 87.5 million Hispanic
individuals, comprising 22.3% of the
population.
States with the greatest concentration of
Hispanics are New Mexico, California,
Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and
Florida.
7. Using the chart on page 248, how
many more Hispanics are of Mexican
origin than Puerto Rican?

58.3 %
8. Using the table on page 249, what
Hispanic group had the highest
percent of high school completion?
What was the median family income
for that group? What occupation does
the greatest number of Hispanic
women hold?
Other 71.1 %
Median family income--$35,264
Technical, sales, and administrative
support
9. What are the six largest groups
of Asian Americans? What
percentage of the U.S. population
does Asian Americans make up?

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
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

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Chinese
Filipino
Indian
Korean
Vietnamese
Japanese
4.8% of the U.S. population
 10 million people
 By 2050, this population will grow to 37.6 million,
roughly 9.3 % of the population.
 States with greatest concentration are Hawaii,
California, Washington, New Jersey, and New York.
10. When was the second wave of Asian
immigration into this country?
 First wave of Asian immigration came in the mid 1800s with Chinese
workers brought in to work gold mines and railroads.
 They faced discrimination when the economy slowed.
 In response, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.
 This act ended Chinese immigration until the 1940s.
 The second wave began in 1890 when Japanese workers came to
Hawaii and California in search of work.
 The majority of these immigrants were employed as agricultural
workers.
 Labor competition son resulted in discrimination.
 In 1905, an anti-Japanese movement began.
 Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924.
 This set Asian immigration quotas at nearly zero.
11. When was the third wave of
Asian immigration into this country?
It was ushered in with the passage of the
McCarran-Walter Act of 1952.
 This act allowed Asians to enter the U.S.
on the basis of national quotas and
eligibility for citizenship.

12. Using the map on page 252,
how does immigration in the last
decade of the 1900s differ from
immigration in the first decade?


In the first decade of the 1900s,
southern and eastern Europe were the
areas of origin of most immigrants.
In the last decade the chief sources of
immigration were Latin America and
Asia.
13. What happened to the
American Indian population
from the 1500s until the late
1800s?
Disease, warfare, and the destruction
of traditional ways of life decimated the
American Indian population.
 Numbers estimate a population of
several million prior to European
settlement.
 By 1890 that number had dropped to
approximately 228,000. Can you say
GENOCIDE?

14. What is the present
population of American
Indians in this country?
 According to the 2000 census, Native
American population is about 2.5 million.
 This is 0.9% of American population.
 Modest growth is expected by 2065, with
numbers estimated to be close to 5 million.
 States with the greatest concentration are
Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, South Dakota.
15. List two statistics that reflect the
American Indian today in the U.S.





Approximately 50% of the Native American workforce on or
near the reservations is unemployed.
Some 31% of all Native Americans live below the poverty line.
About 30% of those employed have incomes below the poverty
line.
The rate of alcohol-related deaths among Native Americans is
about 7 times higher than among the general population.
The suicide rate is about 1.5 times higher among Native
Americans as it is among all other Americans.


It is the second leading cause of death among Native Americans aged 1524.
Only about 66 % of Native Americans aged 25 and over have
graduated from high school, and less than 10 % have graduated
from college.
Why?




Native American problems, in large part, are the result of a history of
changing governmental policies.
During the early years of contact, the government took Native American
lands by force and through treaties.
In the late 1800s, a new policy made Native Americans wards of the U.S.
government, and most were moved to reservations.
The government also created policies aimed at assimilating Native Americans
into white society.




Men were encouraged to become farmers, even though many were traditionally
hunters or herders.
Land was redistributed.
Children were separated from their parents and sent to boarding schools.
Those who adopted “white ways” were granted U.S. citizenship.

However, the rest of the Native American population—about one third of the total—
did not gain citizenship until 1924.
16. Using pages 254-255, how has
the immigration of the 1990s
affected the social and economic
life of the U.S.?
Schools have adopted programs to help
immigrant students, such as bilingual education
and ESL programs.
 Religious diversity has increased.
 Many immigrants have become entrepreneurs
and opened their own business.
 Some companies have targeted their advertising
and products to specific immigrant groups.

17. Using the table on page 256,
how many more immigrants come
to the U.S. from Mexico than from
Canada?
163,709
18. Who are white ethnics?
When did they come to the U.S.?



Immigrants from the mainly Catholic countries of Ireland,
Italy, France, Poland, and Greece.
They entered the U.S. in great numbers during the 1800s
and early 1900s.
As many of the immigrant groups, white ethnics faced
prejudice and discrimination based on their culture.
•
•
Anti-Catholic riots were common.
Were often told “only Americans need apply” when looking
for work.
•
Most work was generally in the lowest-paying and least
prestigious jobs.