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Chapter 11
What is Ethnicity?
 People who identify with
one another on the basis
of common ancestry &
cultural heritage.
What is Race?
 In 2002, Halle Berry
hailed as the first Black
actress to receive an
academy award.
 Her mother , a White
woman, cried in the
audience.
What is Race?
 Woods doesn’t describe
himself as black.
 He says he is
“Cablinasian”
 Multiracial background
includes Caucasian,
Black, Native American,
Asian American
What is Race?
 Heather Locklear, blond
actress
 Descendant of a group
known as Lumbees
 An isolated tri-racial
group in North Carolina
 Part Caucasian, part
African American, and
part Tuscarora Indian
What is Race?
 Race–A socially constructed category composed of
people who share biologically transmitted traits
that members of a society consider important
 Sociologists consider racial terms misleading at
best and harmful at worst.
 No society contains biologically “pure” people.
What is Race?
 “…there is no "biological
 Dr. C. Loring Brace is
professor anthropology
and curator of biological
anthropology at the
Museum of Anthropology,
University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor
entity that warrants the
term 'race' .”
 “…it is perfectly true that
the long-term residents of
the various parts of the
world have patterns of
features that we can easily
identify as characteristic of
the areas from which they
come.”
 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/
nova/first/brace.html
What is Race?
 Researchers have unanimously declared there is only
one race — the human race.
 New York Times “Do Races Differ? Not Really, DNA Shows.”
 99.9 percent of the human genome is the same in
everyone regardless of race.
 The standard labels used to distinguish people by
‘race’ have little or no biological meaning.
 New York Times “Do Races Differ? Not Really, DNA Shows.”
 http://www.policyreview.org/DEC01/satel.html
What is Race?
 What we view as “race” may be an evolutionary
response to the environment
 Morphological characteristics, however, like skin
color, hair form, bone traits, eyes, and lips tend to
follow geographic boundaries coinciding often
with climatic zones.
 For example, more prominent noses humidify air better.
 Other examples?
 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/first/gill.html
The Idea of Race is Real
 “If people define situations as real, they are
real in their consequences.”
 W. I. & D.S. Thomas
and the consequences can be
devastating…
The Holocaust
http://www.shamash.org/holocaust/photos/index.shtml
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
 Slavery
 Lynching
 Segregation
 Discrimination
 http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lynchin
g/lynching.htm
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
 The 1920 Duluth Lynchings occurred
on June 15, 1920, when three black circus
workers were attacked and lynched by a
mob in Duluth, Minnesota. Rumors had
circulated among the mob that six
African Americans had raped a teenage
girl. A physician's examination
subsequently found no evidence of rape
or assault.[1][2]
 The killings shocked the country,
particularly for their having occurred in
the northern United States,[3] although
four earlier lynchings had occurred in
Minnesota. In 2003, the city of Duluth
erected a memorial to the murdered
workers.
A postcard of a Duluth lynchings, June 15,
1920
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
 95% of all Native
Americans died due to
destroyed food supply,
disease & murder.
 Essentials of Sociology,
Henslin
 Manifest Destiny (mid
1800s)
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
 Darfur Catastrophe
 80,000 people have died
in Darfur:


30,000 have been
murdered
50,000 have died from
disease and famine
 http://www.americanpr
ogress.org/site/pp.asp?c
=biJRJ8OVF&b=84769
Minorities
 Minority group
 People who are singled out for unequal treatment and
who regard themselves as objects of collective
discrimination.
 Not based solely on quantity
 Dominant group
 Have greater power, privileges and social status.
Whose business is it anyway?
 The problems with not continuing to ask about
race/ethnic heritage
 can’t identify which groups need help
 Most people of mixed racial/ethnic heritage identify
with one race more than another

Most are treated as if they belonged to a single racial category
Prejudice and Discrimination
 Prejudice is an attitude, either positive or negative,
which prejudges a person who belongs to a particular
group.
 Discrimination is an action, unfair treatment directed
against someone.
 One can exist with or without the other
Merton's Typology on Prejudice and
Discrimination
Does Not
Discriminate
Unprejudiced
nondiscriminator
Unprejudiced
(all-weather
liberal)
Prejudiced
Source:
Farley
(2000:56)
Discriminates
Unprejudiced
discriminator
(fair-weather
liberal)
Prejudiced
Prejudiced
discriminator
nondiscriminator
(all-weather
(timid Bigot)
bigot)
The LaPiere Study
 The 1936 experiment by LaPiere demonstrates this. He
noted that as he and his Chinese traveling-partner
attempted to stay at hotels, only one hotel refused
them service. But, when he contacted the hotels by
mail asking if they would serve Chinese, many hotels
indicated that they would not provide service to
Chinese. The moral of this story is that people with
prejudiced attitudes do not always display
discriminatory behavior (Farley, 2000:55)
Prejudice and Discrimination
 Learning Prejudice
 Internalizing Dominant Norms
 Media
 Group Membership
 Prejudice Against Own Group
Stereotypes
An exaggerated
description applied to
every person in some
category
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Measuring Prejudice
The Bogardus Social Distance Scale
1.
2.
3.
Student opinion shows a trend toward greater
social acceptance.
People see less difference between various
minorities.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
might have reduced social acceptance of Arabs
and Muslims.
Discrimination
 Unequal treatment of various
categories of people

Institutional prejudice and
discrimination–Bias built
into the operation of society’s
institutions

Carmichael and Hamilton:
People are slow to condemn
or even recognize
institutional prejudice and
discrimination because it
often involves respected
public officials and longestablished practices.
Examples of Institutional
Discrimination
 Deliberate Institutional Discrimination
 Institutional discrimination can be legal and deliberate
like the legally required school segregation that existed
in the South prior to the 1960s.
 Unintentional Institutional Discrimination
 Some times institutional discrimination develops
without any conscious racist intent. An example would
be today's high cost of college tuition. Since people of
color are typically poorer than whites, high tuition costs
are institutionally discriminatory toward people of color
(Farley, 2000:16).
Racism
 The belief that one racial category is innately
superior or inferior to another
• Racism has been widespread throughout US history where
ideas about racial inferiority supported slavery.
• Overt racism in the US has decreased, but remains a
serious social problem.
Theories of Prejudice
 Scapegoat theory
 Disadvantaged people who unfairly blame minorities for
their own problems
 Authoritarian personality theory
 Rigid moralists who see things in “black & white”
 Culture theory
 Everyone has some prejudice because it’s embedded in
culture.
Theories of Prejudice
 Conflict theory
 Self-justification for the rich and powerful in the United
States
 Minorities might cultivate climate of race consciousness
in order to win greater power and privileges.
The Vicious Cycle
1.
2.
3.
Prejudice and discrimination begin as ethnocentric
attitudes.
As a result, groups can be placed in a situation where
they are socially disadvantaged and labeled.
A group’s situation, over time, is thus explained as a
result of innate inferiority rather than looking at the
social structure. of reasons. The cycle then repeats itself.
Global Patterns of Racial-Ethnic
Relations
 I. Genocide
 “A systematic annihilation or attempted annihilation of a
people based on their presumed race or ethnic group”
 II. Ethnic Cleansing
 “A policy of population elimination, including forcible
expulsion and genocide”
Global Patterns of Racial-Ethnic
Relations
 III. Population Transfer
 Indirect population transfer


Achieved by making life so horrible for a members of a
minority group that they leave ‘voluntarily’.
Jews in czarist Russia
 Direct population transfer


Dominant group expels a minority.
Native Americans-Trail of Tears
Global Patterns of Racial-Ethnic
Relations
 IV. Internal Colonialism
 The policy of economically exploiting minority groups
 Slavery in U.S.
 Apartheid in South Africa
 V. Segregation
 The formal separation of racial or ethnic groups
 The U.S. South until 1960s
Global Patterns of Racial-Ethnic
Relations
 VI. Assimilation
 Minority group is absorbed into the mainstream
culture.
 Forced assimilation

The dominant group refuses to allow the minority group to
practice its own religion, speak its language or follow its
customs.”
 Permissible assimilation

Dominant group “allows the minority to adopt the dominant
group’s patterns in its own way and at its own speed.”
Carlisle Indian School 1885
Global Patterns of Racial-Ethnic
Relations
 VII. Multiculturalism/Pluralism
 Permits or even encourages racial and ethnic variations
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Table 11.1e (continued)
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Native Americans
 Refers to hundreds of societies who first settled the
Western Hemisphere
 15th century: Numbered in the millions
 By 1900: Numbered 250,000
 Centuries of conflict and genocide
 Low social standing result of cultural factors
 Noncompetitive view of life
 Reluctance to pursue higher education
 Dark skin made them targets of prejudice and
discrimination
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
 Most are of English ancestry
 Includes Scotland and Wales
 Not subject to prejudice and discrimination
 Cultural legacy
 English dominant language
 Protestantism dominant religion
 Historical dominance is evident
 Widespread use of “race” and “ethnicity” to describe
everyone but them
White Ethnic Americans
 Term “White Ethnics”
 Recognizes ethnic heritage and social disadvantage of
many white people
 Non-WASPs
 Ireland, Poland, Germany, Italy, or other European
countries
 Endured their share of prejudice and discrimination
 Congress enacted quota system limiting immigration
African Americans
 Slavery was foundation of southern colonies’ plantation





system
400,000 forcibly transported to US
Filth, disease, and suicide killed many
No control over their lives
Declaration of Independence did not apply
“American Dilemma”
 Democratic society’s denial of basic rights and freedoms to
an entire category of people
African Americans
 Resolution of the dilemma
 African Americans defined as naturally inferior and
undeserving of equality
 13th Amendment outlawed slavery
 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all people born in
the U.S.
 15th Amendment gave the right to vote
 Jim Crow Laws
 Institutionalized discrimination that segregated U.S. society
into two racial castes
 20th century brought dramatic changes
African Americans
 1950s and 1960s
 National civil rights movement
 Black Power Movement
 Gave African Americans sense of pride and purpose
 Despite gains, continue to occupy a lower social
position in the U.S.
 Black unemployment twice as high as white
unemployment
 Factory jobs vital to central cities lost to other countries
 Remarkable educational progress since 1980
African Americans
 Political clout has greatly increased
 People of African ancestry have struggled for social
equality for 400 years
 Discrimination is illegal; research documents longterm decline in prejudice against African Americans
 Racial hierarchy persists
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Asian Americans
 Category marked by enormous cultural diversity
 4.5% of U.S. population
 Commands attention and respect as high achievers
 “Model minority” stereotype
 Misleading because it hides the differences in class
standards and poverty found among their ranks
Asian Americans
 Chinese Americans
 Immigration began in 1849 with the gold rush
 Economic hard times led to prejudice and discrimination
 “Yellow Peril”

Laws passed to bar from many occupations
 Chinese men outnumbered Chinese women 20 to one
 High demand of Chinese women led to their loss of their
submissiveness
 Racial hostility
 Moved East to urban China towns
 Traditions and kinship networks (clans)
Asian Americans
 WWII need for labor led to end of ban on Chinese
immigration
 By 1950, many experienced upward social mobility
 Hold high-prestige positions
 Science and information technology
 Despite success, Chinese Americans still deal with
subtle and sometimes blatant prejudice and
discrimination
 Poverty still high among those socially isolated in
Chinatowns
Japanese Americans
 Immigration began slowly in the 1860s
 As number of immigrants increased to California, white
hostility increased
 Differed from Chinese immigrants in three ways
 Fewer Japanese, so they escaped some of the hostility
directed at the Chinese
 Japanese knew more about the U.S. than the Chinese, so
assimilated better
 Japanese preferred rural farming which made them less
visible
Japanese Americans
 Japanese faced their greatest crisis after Pearl Harbor
 Rage directed at the Japanese living in the U.S.
 Detained in military camps by executive order
 Internment was criticized
 Targeted an entire group of people
 Two-thirds of those imprisoned were nisei (U.S.
citizens)
 U.S. also at war with Germany and Italy but no
comparable action was taken against people of German
and Italian ancestry
Japanese Americans
 Internment led to the economic devastation of
Japanese Americans
 Internment ended in 1944
 1988: Congress awarded $20,000 to each victim for
compensation
 In 2006, median income of Japanese Americans was
40% above national average
 Upward social mobility encouraged cultural
assimilation
 Many abandoned their traditions
 Some are still caught between two worlds
Japanese Americans
 Japanese closest to having achieved social acceptance
 Surveys reveal greater prejudice against Asian
Americans than against African Americans
 Many live in Hawaii, California, or New York
 Incomes are high but so are costs of living
 Many Asian Americans remain poor
Recent Asian Immigrants
 Koreans, Filipinos, Indians, Vietnamese, Guamanians,
and Samoans
 Many have a strong entrepreneurial spirit
 Owning a small business is a strategy for dealing with
societal prejudice and discrimination.
Recent Asian Immigrants
 Japanese closest to having achieved social acceptance
 Surveys reveal greater prejudice against Asian
Americans than against African Americans
 Many live in Hawaii, California, or New York
 Incomes are high but so are costs of living
 Many Asian Americans remain poor
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Hispanic Americans/ Latinos
 Number of Hispanics in U.S. topped 44 million in 2006
 Surpassed number of African Americans
 Now the largest racial or ethnic minority
 Hispanics are a cluster of distinct populations
 Each identify with a particular ancestral nation
 Median family income is below national average
Hispanic Americans/ Latinos
 Mexican Americans
 Descendants of people who lived in the part of Mexico
annexed by U.S.
 Most are recent immigrants
 Today, more immigrants come from Mexico than any
other country
 Still have a high dropout rate and receive less schooling
than U.S. adults as a whole
Hispanic Americans/ Latinos
 Puerto Ricans
 Island became U.S. possession after the Spanish-American
war
 Became citizens in 1917
 Most live in New York City
 Adjusting to cultural patterns is a major challenge
 Darker skin leads to more prejudice and discrimination–most
return to Puerto Rico
 “Revolving door” pattern limits assimilation
 Most speak only Spanish which limits economic opportunity
 Most socially disadvantaged Hispanic minority
Hispanic Americans/ Latinos
 Cuban Americans
 400,000 Cubans fled to U.S. after the 1959 revolution
 Most settled in Miami
 Many were highly educated business and professional
people
 Median income above that of other Hispanics but still
below the national average
 Cubans are most likely to speak Spanish in their homes
 Cultural distinctiveness and highly visible communities
provokes some hostility
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Arab Americans
 A U.S. minority that is increasing in size
 The “Arab World” includes 22 nations
 Not all are Arabs
 Berber of Morocco; Kurds of Iraq
 Arab cultures differ from society to society
 Share widespread use of Arabic alphabet and language
 Islam is dominant religion
Arab Americans
 “Arab” is an ethnic category
 “Muslim” is a follower of Islam
 Majority of people living in Arab countries are Muslim,
but some Arabs are Christians or followers of other
religions
 Arab Americans choose to downplay their ethnicity to
avoid prejudice and discrimination
Arab Americans
 Terrorist attacks against U.S. and other nations has
fueled a stereotype that links being Arab or Muslim
with being a terrorist
 Unfair because it blames an entire category for the
actions of a few
 Explains why social-distance research show students
express more negative attitudes toward Arabs that any
other racial or ethnic category
 Explains why Arabs have been the target of hate crimes
 Explains why many feel they are subject to “ethnic
profiling”

Threatens their privacy and civil liberties
Table 11.6 (p. 327)
The Social Standing of Arab Americans, 2006
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2007)
Society: The Basics, 10th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Arab Americans
 Many formed supportive residential enclaves
 Some gained footholds in certain businesses and
trades
 Many still live in traditional working-class
neighborhoods
 Those who prospered gradually assimilated
 Many descendants now make enough money to live
comfortable lives
 Ethnic heritage is now a source of pride
Looking Towards the Future
 Immigration Debate
 Affirmative Action
 Toward A Multicultural Society
Looking Towards the Future
 U.S. has been, and will remain, a land of immigrants
 New arrivals face the same prejudice and
discrimination experienced by those who came before
them
 Recent years have witnessed xenophobia
 Rising hostility toward foreigners
Looking Towards the Future
 Today’s immigrants try to blend into American society
without completely giving up their culture
 New arrivals still carry the traditional hope that their
racial and ethnic diversity can be a source of pride
rather than a badge of inferiority
What would you do?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru1F29vuVKI
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdEkugIJCfw
 http://video.foxnews.com/v/4369032/race-relations-
declining-in-america?r_src=ramp