Download Race, ethnicity and racism

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‘Race’ was once thought to be scientific concept, but is today
discredited as such – however, racial beliefs still shape many people’s
beliefs and behaviour

Racialization is the process by which understandings of race is used to
classify individuals or groups.

Ethnicity refers to the cultural beliefs and practices of a particular
community of people and is wholly social

Prejudice refers to attitudes of one group towards another and can be
positive or negative

Discrimination refers to behaviour towards other social groups and can
be positive or negative
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Racism is prejudice based on socially significant physical distinctions –
new racism is prejudice based on cultural differences
• What is the race concept, and why
have sociologists rejected it?
• Historically, scientists approached the study
of human biological diversity in two ways:
 Racial classification,
now largely rejected.
 Explanatory approach
that focuses on
understanding specific
differences.
Racial classification is the attempt to assign humans
to discrete categories (purportedly) based on
common ancestory.
Biological differences are real, important and
apparent. But not a source to categorize people
into race groups.
• Race refers to a geographically
isolated subdivision of a species
 Human biological variation
distributed gradually between
populations is called clines
 Human populations have not
been isolated enough from one
another to develop into discrete groups

Phenotype-based racial classifications raise
the problem of deciding which traits should
be primary.
Height, weight, body shape, skull form, skin
color?
• Phenotypic traits (skin color) have been
used for racial classification
 This overly simplistic classification
was compatible with the political use
of race during the colonial period.
 Race kept white Europeans separate
from African, Asian, and Native American
subjects.
• Problems with using a tripartite scheme
 “Color based” racial labels are not accurate.
▪ Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid
 Many populations don’t fit neatly into any one of
the three “great races.”
 No single trait can be used as a basis for racial
classification.
 Phenotypic similarities and differences do not
necessarily have a genetic basis.

The number of combinations is very large
 Skin color, stature, skull form, nose form, eye
shape, lip thickness don’t go together as a unit

The amount that heredity (versus
environment) contributes to phenotypical
traits is unclear.
 The analysis of human DNA indicates that 94 % of
human genetic variation occurs within “races”.
 There is only 6 % variation between conventional
geographic “racial” groupings (Africans, Asians
and Europeans).
 There is much greater variation within each of
traditional “races” than between them.
– Although long-term genetic markers do exist,
they don’t correlate neatly with phenotype.
– Phenotypical similarities and differences are not
precisely or necessarily correlated with genetic
relationships.
– Because of environment that affect individuals
during growth and development, the range of
phenotypes characteristic of a population may
change without any genetic change.

Apartheid in South Africa until 1994
 White minority, 13%, ruled over non-white
majority
 Non-whites had no vote, no representation in the
central government
 Segregation was enforced at all levels of society
(washrooms, railway carriages, neighborhoods,
schools…)
 Blacks were forced to work in gold and diamond
mines
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Apartheid was encoded in law, enforced
through violence and brutality
Law enforcement and security services
suppressed al resistance to the regime
International condemnation, economic and
cultural sanctions  legalization of ANC, first
free elections in 1994, Mandela became
president.
Out of 38 million, 9 million impoverished, 20
million without electricity.
 More than half of the black population was
illiterate.
 Infant mortality rates among blacks was 10
times higher than whites!
 1996 constitution outlawed all discrimination on
the basis of race, ethnic or social origin, religion
and belief, sexual orientation, disability and
pregnancy.
 Truth and reconciliation commissions (TRC)
1996-98


Institutional racism: the collective failure of
an organization to provide an appropriate
and professional service to people
because of their color, culture or ethnic
origin which can be seen and detected in
processes; attitudes and behavior which
amount to discrimination through
prejudice, ignorance and streotyping
which disadvantages minority ethnic
people.
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Ethnocentrism is the valorization of one’s own
culture over others
Group closure is the process through which
social groups erect and maintain boundaries
between themselves and other groups
Resource allocation theories explain ethnic
conflicts and hatred with reference to the
struggle over scarce resources

Assimilation – immigrants abandon their original customs and
traditions in favour of the host nation’s majority culture

Melting Pot – immigrant cultures are blended with the host
nation’s to form new cultural patterns

Cultural Pluralism – all ethnic cultures exist separately but all
participate in political and economic life

Multiculturalism – involves policies that encourage ethnic
groups to live in harmony with each other

Giddens argues that multiculturalism is more than a simple
cultural pluralism