Download Chapter 13 Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity

Chapter 13
Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity
Key Terms

race
An inbreeding population that develops
distinctive physical characteristics that are
hereditary.

racism
An ideology based on the belief that an
observable, supposedly inherited trait is a mark
of inferiority that justifies discriminatory
treatment of people with that trait.

ethnic group
A population that has a sense of group identity
based on shared ancestry and distinctive
cultural patterns.

minority group
A population that, because of its members’
physical or cultural characteristics, is singled
out from others in the society for differential
and unequal treatment.

genocide
State-sponsored mass killing explicitly
designed to completely exterminate a
population deemed to be racially or ethnically
different and threatening to the dominant
population.

expulsion
The forcible removal of one population from a
territory claimed by another population.

slavery
The ownership of one racial, ethnic, or
politically determined group by another group
that has complete control over the enslaved
group.

segregation
The ecological and institutional separation of
races or ethnic groups.

de jure segregation
Segregation that is created by formal legal
sanctions that prohibit certain groups from
interacting with others or that place limits on
such interactions.

de facto segregation
Segregation that is created and maintained by
unwritten norms

Jim Crow
The system of formal and informal segregation
that existed in the United States from the late
1860s to the early 1970s.

assimilation
A pattern of intergroup relations in which a
minority group is absorbed into the majority
population and eventually disappears as a
distinct group.

ethnic stratification
The ranking of ethnic groups in a social
hierarchy on the basis of each group’s
similarity to the dominant group.

pluralistic society
A society in which different ethnic and racial
groups are able to maintain their own cultures
and lifestyles while gaining equality in the
institutions of the larger society.

stereotype
An inflexible image of the members of a
particular group that is held without regard to
whether or not it is true.

prejudice
An attitude that prejudges a person on the
basis of a real or imagined characteristic of a
group of which that person is a member.

discrimination
Behavior that treats people unfairly on the
basis of their group membership.

institutional discrimination
The systematic exclusion of people from equal
participation in a particular institution because
of their group membership.

ethnic nationalism
The belief that one’s own ethnic group
constitutes a distinct people whose culture is
and should be separate from that of the larger
society.

scapegoat
A convenient target for hostility.

projection
The psychological process whereby we
attribute to other people behaviors and
attitudes that we are unwilling to accept in
ourselves.

internal colonialism
A theory of racial and ethnic inequality that
suggests that some minorities are essentially
colonial peoples within the larger society.