Chapter 10

Race & Ethnicity

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Race & Ethnicity• Look at the student next to you. Decide what racial

and ethnic group he/she belongs in.

• What criteria did you use to make your decision?

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Ethnicity

• An ethnic group is a social category of people who share a common culture.

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St. Patrick’s Day

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15 Largest Ancestries

http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf

Race

• Race is people treated as a distinct group based upon certain biological characteristics which have been assigned a social importance.

• Salience principle…… categorization based on what appears initially prominent and obvious about them.

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Minority & Dominant Groups

– Power (political, cultural, economic)– Social status

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Minority Groups

– Group membership is frequently ascribed.

– receive prejudice and discrimination from the dominant group.

– share a strong sense of group solidarity.

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1. my parents and grandparents were able to purchase a house in any neighborhood they could afford.

2. I can take a job in an organization with an affirmative action policy without people thinking I got my job because of my race.

3. My parents own their own home.4. I can look at the mainstream media and see people who look like me

represented in a wide variety of roles5. I can choose from many different student organizations on campus

that reflect my interests.6. I can go shopping most of the time pretty well assured that I will not

be followed or harassed when I am in the store.7. If my car breaks down on a deserted stretch of road, I can trust that

the law enforcement officer who shows up will be helpful.

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8. I have a wide choice of grooming or make-up products that I can buy in places convenient to campus and /or near where I live as a student.

9. I never think twice about calling the police when trouble occurs.10. The schools I have attended teach about my race and heritage and

present it in positive ways.11. I can be pretty sure that if I go into a business or other organization

(such as a university or college) to speak with the “person in charge” I will be facing a person of my race.

Your total points:Your racial identity:Your gender:

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Racism

• Racism is the perception and treatment of a racial or ethnic group, or member of that group, as intellectually, socially, and culturally inferior to one’s own group.

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Discrimination

• Discrimination : overt negative and unequal treatment of the members of some social group or stratum solely because of their membership in that group or stratum.

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Forms of Discrimination

– Housing Discrimination

– Income Discrimination

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Institutional Racism• Institutional racism is a form of racism involving

the negative treatment and oppression of one racial or ethnic group by society’s existing institutions.

• Racial profiling is an example of institutional racism in the criminal justice system.

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Racial Profiling Discussion

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Is racial profiling functional or dysfunctional?

Racial Stereotypes• A stereotype : an oversimplified set of beliefs

about members of a social group or social stratum.

– It is based on what we see first (salient principle) about a person or group of people.

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Prejudice

• Prejudice is the evaluation of a group and an individual in it based on conceptions about the group.

• Prejudice as a result of Socialization

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Educational Achievement

B.A. holder among people with 25 and over• Whites 26.7%• Blacks 17.0%• Hispanics 11.1 %• Asians 47.2%• Native Americans 9.3%

The Household Income Gap by Race

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Affirmative Action

• Affirmative action is a race-specific policy for reducing job and educational inequality.

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“Race” is a socially constructed idea

• Race is culturally relative.

• Whether one belongs in the inferior or superior group depends on the culture.

• Race is a social construct.

– i.e., society assigns people to racial categories.

ex. the Irish a century ago – “Negroes turned inside out.” Negroes (Black people) were called “smoked Irish.”

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President ObamaAmerica’s 1st African American President

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Race is a socially constructed categorization

• Religion (India, Poland )• region & language (China, Taiwan)• language (Philippines)• nationality & language (Germany)• skin color & class (Brazil)• ancestry & tribe (Malawi)• tribe & language (Nigeria) • skin tones (Haiti)• nationality & blood type (Japan)• no concept of race based on biological attribute

(homogeneous countries - China, Korea, Japan, Ukraine, Poland etc.)

Racialization

• Racialization is a process whereby some social class or nationality takes on what society perceives to be racial characteristics.

– e.g., Hitler’s treatment of Jews created the Jewish ethnic identity.

– Muslims in the U.S.

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Segregation

• Segregation : the spatial and social separation of racial and ethnic groups.

• hypersegregation (a pattern of extreme segregation)

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Percent of the Total Population Who Are Black or

African American Alone (2008)

Segregation of Asians in a Brooklyn neighborhood

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Demographic Characteristics of LI

U.S. Census• The United States Census Bureau counts and

classifies people by income, occupation, health conditions, size of family, and skin color.

– It has to decide what categories to use to classify people.

– Society’s thinking about race and ethnic groups changes throughout history.

– In recent years, people can use “mixed race” to indicate parents of different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

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National Census

• http://www.census.gov/• Click : Quick Fact• Choose New York• Click: Browse Data Sets for New York• Click:

Demographic, Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics

• Choose: 2000

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U.S. Census Bureau (2003)

Black Population on LI

U.S. National Census (2000)

Hispanic Population on LI

U.S. National Census (2000)

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Immigration Issues

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Immigration: Benefit & Cost

Benefit

• More workers & consumers

• Economy• New knowledge and

technologies• Global connections

Cost

• More competition among workers

• Overpopulation• Unemployment• Financial costs • Education (ex. language)• Less stability ?• Crime & Violence?

Immigration

• At the national level, the foreign-born population represented 12.5 percent of the total population (2008)

21.7 percent of New York's total population (2008)• 3.8 percent from Africa• 25.6 percent from Asia• 19.7 percent from Europe• 49.3 percent from Latin America • 1.4 percent from Northern America

• 0.3 percent from Oceania

History of Legal Immigration to the U.S.

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http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/historicaltrends.cfm#history

National Origins Quota Act

• Passed in 1924.

• Anyone considered an imbecile, idiot, or lunatic or in any way unstable was denied entry to the U.S.

• required to pass an English literacy test.

– Approximately 80% of those requesting entry were denied based on this exam.

– Blocked immigrants from Africa, Latin America, East Europe and Asia

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Percent of the Projected Population by Race and Hispanic Origin

U.S. National Bureau

http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/files/nation/summary/np2008-t6.xls

Assimilation vs. Cultural Pluralism

Assimilation: a process by which a minority becomes socially, economically, and culturally absorbed within the dominant society

Cultural Pluralism: Different groups in society maintain their distinctive cultures while also coexisting peacefully with the dominant group.

Sociological Perspectives

• Functionalism Assimilation is necessary

• Symbolic Interaction Theory Contact Theory

Stereotype as a result of socialization

• Conflict Theory Racial and ethnic conflict is tied to class conflict

Affirmative action is necessary

**Discussion Questions

• Can a minority group fullly assimilate into the social and political landscape of this country?

– Why or why not?

• Will all minority groups (e.g. Arabs and Blacks) be accepted, and will the process be the same or different?

– What will they need to do to gain acceptance?

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Illegal Immigrants

Types of immigrants:• Legal • Documented illegal• Undocumented illegal

Conditions for legal immigrants

The number of Illegal Immigrants to the U.S.

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Film “Farmingville”

Exam 3 Study Guide Questions

• Discuss five social consequences of an increase in the number of illegal immigrants in Farmingville?

• Why is the bill for the construction of a “hiring site” in Farmingville so controversial?

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