Chapter 10Race and Ethnicity

Chapter Outline•Defining Race and Ethnicity•Race and Ethnic Relations•Theories of Race and Ethnic

Relations•Some Advantages of Ethnicity•The Future of Race and

Ethnicity

*Race, Biology and Society

•Race refers to socially significant physical differences, such as skin color, rather than biological differences that determine behavioral traits.

•Racial distinctions are social constructs, not biological “givens.”

*The Social Construction of Race

• Many scholars believe we belong to one human race which originated in Africa.

• Migration, geographical separation, and inbreeding led to the formation of more or less distinct races.

• Humanity has experienced so much intermixing that race as a biological category has lost meaning.

• Sociologists use the term “race” because perceptions of race affect the lives of most people profoundly.

Question

•During the last few years, has anyone in your family brought a friend who was a different race home for dinner?

GSS National Data

Race White Black

Yes 32.3% 51%

NO 67.7% 49%

*Ethnicity, Culture, and Social Structure

•Race is to biology as ethnicity is to culture.

•race - a category of people whose perceived physical markers are deemed socially significant.

•ethnic group - composed of people whose perceived cultural markers are deemed socially significant.

Question

• Prejudice is:a. an attitude that judges a

person on his or her group’s real or imagined characteristics

b. unfair treatment of people due to their group membership

c. directed toward people whose cultural markers are socially significant

Answer: a.

•Prejudice is an attitude that judges a person on his or her group’s real or imagined characteristics.

*Ethnic Groups

•Differ in:–Language–Religion–Customs–Values

*Prejudice and Discrimination

•Prejudice is an attitude that judges a person according to his or her group’s real or imagined characteristics.

•Discrimination is unfair treatment of people because of their group membership.

*The Vicious Cycle of Racism

*Hate Crimes• Criminal incidents motivated by a

person’s race, religion, or ethnicity.• In 2003 the FBI recorded 7,489 hate

crimes, each incident may involve multiple offenses.–8,715 total offenses were recorded.

• The most frequent victims of hate crimes are African Americans, who were the object of nearly 35% of all offenses.

QuestionThink about Whites in the U.S. compared to ethnic and racial minority groups. To what extent do you agree with the following: Whites as a group are very distinct and different from ethnic and racial minority groups.

a. Strongly agreeb. Agree somewhatc. Unsured. Disagree somewhate. Strongly disagree

*Minority Group

•A group of people who are socially disadvantaged, even if they are in the numerical majority (e.g., the blacks of South Africa).

Hispanic Americans

•According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 39 million Hispanic Americans lived in the United States in 2003.

•The Bureau predicts they will number more than 96 million in 2050.

*Racial and Ethnic Composition

Population by Hispanic Origin and Region, 2002

Mexican

Puerto

RicanCuba

n OtherNortheas

t2.4 58.0 13.3 30.2

Midwest 8.7 8.5 3.0 4.8

South 34.3 27.0 75.1 32.6

West 54.6 6.4 8.5 32.4

*Ethnic Enclave

•A spatial concentration of ethnic group members who establish businesses that serve and employ mainly members of the ethnic group and reinvest profits in community businesses and organizations.

*Ethnic Groups in the Soviet Union by Republic, 1979

*Symbolic Ethnicity

•A nostalgic allegiance to the culture of the immigrant generation, or that of the old country, that is not usually incorporated into everyday behavior.

*Racism• The belief that a visible characteristic of a

group, such as skin color, indicates group inferiority and justifies discrimination.

• Institutional racism is bias that is inherent in social institutions and is often not noticed by members of the majority group.

• Examples:– When police single out African

Americans for car searches.– When department stores tell

floorwalkers to watch for African American shoplifters.

*Question

•In the past few years, do you think conditions for black people have improved, gotten worse, or stayed about the same?

*GSS National Data

Race White Black

Improved 67.8% 45.8%

Stayed the Same

26.9% 41.5%

Gotten Worse

5.3% 12.7%

*Stages of Ecological Theory

1. Invasion.– One group tries to move into the territory of

another.

2. Resistance.– The established group tries to defend its territory

and institutions3. Competition.

– The groups compete for scarce resources.

4. Accommodation & Cooperation– The groups work out an understanding of what to

segregate, divide, and share.

5. Assimilation.– The minority blends into the majority population

and eventually disappears as a distinct group.

*Internal Colonialism

•Involves one race or ethnic group subjugating another in the same country.

•Prevents assimilation by segregating the subordinate group in terms of jobs, housing, and social contacts.

*Split Labor Markets

• In split labor markets, low-wage workers of one race and high-wage workers of another race compete for the same jobs.

•High-wage workers resent the low-wage competitors, resulting in conflict and the development of racist attitudes

*Native AmericansExpulsion and genocide best describe the treatment of Native Americans by European settlers in the 19th century. – Expulsion is the forcible removal of

a population from a territory claimed by another population.

– Genocide is the intentional extermination of an entire population defined as a race or a people.

*Native Americans•1830 Indian Removal Act - Called for relocation of all Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi.

•In the “Trail of Tears,” the U.S. Army rounded up all 16,000 Cherokees and marched them to Oklahoma. – 4,000 Cherokees died.

•Late 19th century - government adopted a policy of forced assimilation.

*Native Americans•1930’s and 40s - Roosevelt adopted a more liberal policy:– Prohibited further breakup of Native lands.– Encouraged Native self-rule & cultural preservation.

•1950s - government proposed to – end the reservation system– deny sovereign status of the tribes– cut off government services– stop protecting Indian lands held in trust for the

tribes.•The proposal was not implemented due to strong resistance by the Native-American community.

*Casino Revenue per Tribal Member, Selected Tribes,

2001 Tribe Population

Casino Revenue per

Member

Mashantucket Pequot

677 $1,624,815

Santa Ynez 159 $1,257,862

Miccosukee Tribe

400 $250,000

Seminole Tribe 2,817 $87,862

*Casino Revenue per Tribal Member, Selected Tribes,

2001

Tribe PopulationCasino

Revenue per Member

Mississippi Choctaw

8,823 $25,047

Hopi Tribe 11,267 $0

Navajo Nation 260,010 $0

Question

• The words that best describe the treatment of Native Americans by European settlers in the 19th century are:

a.expulsion and genocideb.prejudice and discriminationc. scapegoat and minority

groupd.race and ethnicity

Answer: a.

•The words that best describe the treatment of Native Americans by European settlers in the 19th century are expulsion and genocide.

*Slavery•Ownership and control of people.•By about 1800, 24 million Africans had been transported on slave ships to North, Central, & South America. –11 million survived the passage.

•Fewer than 10% of the survivors arrived in the United States.

*Slavery• Because the birthrate of African

slaves in the U.S. was so high, nearly 30% of the black population in the New World was living in the U.S. by 1825.

• By the outbreak of the Civil War, 4.4 million black slaves lived in the U.S. – The cotton and tobacco

economy of depended on their labor.

*Slavery

• Even after slavery was banned in 1863, Jim Crow laws kept blacks from voting, attending white schools, and participating equally in social institutions.

• In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court approved segregation when it ruled that separate facilities for blacks and whites were legal as long as they were of nominally equal quality.

*Chinese Americans

• The act was extended for another decade in 1892, made permanent in 1907, and repealed in 1943, when Congress established a quota of a grand total of 105 Chinese immigrants per year.

• Chinese Americans have experienced considerable upward mobility in the past half century.

• More than 30% of Chinese Americans now marry whites.

•In 1882 Congress passed an act prohibiting the immigration of three classes of people into the United States for 10 years: lunatics, idiots, and Chinese.

*Percent Foreign Born,United States, 1900–

2003

*Top 10 Countries of Origin of Foreign-Born Americans, 1900,

1960, 20001900 1960 2000

1 Germany Italy Mexico

2 Ireland Germany China

3 Canada Canada Philippines

4 Great Britain Great Britain India

5 Sweden Poland Cuba

6 Italy Soviet Union Vietnam

7 Soviet Union Mexico El Salvador

8 Poland Ireland Korea

9 Norway HungaryDominican Republic

10 Austria Czechoslovakia Canada

*Transnational Communities

•Communities whose boundaries extend between countries.

*Median Family Income Ratios, Black/White and Hispanic/White,

U.S., 1947–2002

*White Prejudice and

Discrimination against Blacks

Question

•Do you think racism is becoming more serious in the United States and worldwide? Why or why not?

•How do trends in racism compare with trends in other forms of prejudice, such as sexism?

“How warm or cool do you feel towards Caucasian, African,

Hispanic, and Asian Americans?” U.S., 2002

*The 10 Most Racially Segregated Major Metropolitan

Areas in the U.S. City Segregation Index

Detroit 87.6

Chicago 85.8

Cleveland 85.1

Milwaukee 82.8

New York 82.2

Philadelphia 77.2

St. Louis 77.0

Los Angeles–Long Beach

73.1

Birmingham 71.7

Baltimore 71.4

Opposition to AffirmativeAction, U.S., 1998

*Asian Americans, 2000

Group Number % of Total

Chinese 2.7 million 22.7

Filipino 2.4 million 20.1

Indian 1.8 million 16.0

Vietnamese 1.1 million 9.4

Korean 1.1 million 9.0

Japanese 0.8 million 6.7

Six Degrees of Separation: Ethnic & Racial Group

Relations

% Opposed to Person of Another Race, Immigrants, or Foreign Workers Living

Next Door

Question

• I would like to marry someone of a different racial or ethnic group.

a.Strongly agreeb.Agree somewhatc. Unsured.Disagree somewhate.Strongly disagree

Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.

•Reforms that would promote equality: – Affirmative action programs– Job training– Improvements in public

education– Subsidized health and child care

Quick Quiz

1. Race is:a.an attitude that judges a person on

his or her group's real or imagined characteristics

b.a category of people whose perceived cultural markers are deemed socially significant

c.a social construct used to distinguish people in terms of one or more physical markers

d.the tendency to blame other racial or ethnic groups for one's own problems

Answer: c

• Race is a social construct used to distinguish people in terms of one or more physical markers.

2. Most sociologists believe race matters because it allows social inequality to be created and maintained.a. Trueb. False

Answer: True

•Most sociologists believe race matters because it allows social inequality to be created and maintained.

3. An ethnic group is:a. an attitude that judges a person on

his or her group's real or imagined characteristics

b. a category of people whose perceived cultural markers are deemed socially significant

c. a social construct used to distinguish people in terms of one or more physical markers

d. the tendency to blame other racial or ethnic groups for one's own problems

Answer: b

• An ethnic group is a category of people whose perceived cultural markers are deemed socially significant.

4. We see institutional racism in practice when:a. police single out African

Americans for car searchesb. department stores tell their

floorwalkers to keep a sharp eye out for African-American shoplifters

c. banks reject African-American mortgage applications more than applications from white Americans of the same economic standing

d. all of these choices

Answer: d •We see institutional racism in practice when police single out African Americans for car searches, department stores tell their floorwalkers to keep a sharp eye out for African-American shoplifters, and banks reject African-American mortgage applications more than applications from white Americans of the same economic standing.

5. _______________ are spatial concentrations of ethnic group members who establish businesses that serve and employ mainly members of the ethnic group and reinvest profits in community businesses and organization.

Answer: ethnic enclaves

•Ethnic enclaves are spatial concentrations of ethnic group members who establish businesses that serve and employ mainly members of the ethnic group and reinvest profits in community businesses and organization.

6. In regard to racial differences, sociologists argue that:a.one cannot neatly distinguish

races on the basis of genetic differences

b.a high level of genetic mixing has taken place throughout the world

c.race is merely a social constructd.all of these choices

Answer: d

• In regard to racial differences, sociologists argue that: one cannot neatly distinguish races on the basis of genetic differences, a high level of genetic mixing has taken place throughout the world, and race is merely a social construct.