Stereotype Formation, Prejudice & Discrimination
List 1-5 in your notebookwrite down 5 physical andcultural, and geographic
descriptions ofNative Americans
What are somephysical descriptions
that you wrote to describewhat native Americans
look like?
What are somecultural descriptions to
describe how NativeAmericans live/behave?
Where do Native Americans live?
Now, more importantly, why do you believe all of theThings you do regarding Native Americans? Where do
These preconceptions (whether stereotype or not) come from?
Hollywooddepictions of
NativeAmericans -all played bywhite and/or
Hispanic actors
"Ugh!"In the Injun book it say
When the first brave married squaw, he gave out with a big ugh, when he saw his Mother-in-Law, what made the red man red? What made the red man red?Let's go back a million years, to the very first Injun prince, he kissed a maid and start to blush, and we've all been blushin' since, you've got it from the headman, the real true story of the red man no matter what's been written or said, now you know why the red man's red! - Peter Pan, 1953
To use a more relevant example…answer a seemingly simple question - who is an Arab?
How would you define a
‘stereotype?
Unreliable generalizations
about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences within the
group
What stereotypes did you identifyin Chapelle’s piece?
“Why terrorists don’t take black
hostages”
Stereotypes Discussion:• What are some stereotypes (good or bad, true or false) of:
• Black people? • White people? • Asian people? • Hispanic people?• Muslims and/or Arabs
Review of your project….
Dr. Kenneth Clarke
What was the now famous ‘doll study’?
Based on the results of this study, what conclusionscan you draw about where stereotypical thinking
originates?
Anderson Cooper Doll Study Revisited (2010)
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/17/ac360-series-doll-study-research/
How do you imagine adolescents of different races interpreted these images?
“We’re a Culture - Not a Costume”
September 2011: Students at Hautes Etudes Commerciales, a Montreal business school, were filmed wearing black makeup [and]
chant[ing] with mock Jamaican accents about smoking marijuana as part of a skit. A
student explained that it was part of a skit in honor of Jamacian Olympian Usain Bolt. A spokesperson for the school explained that Francophone Canadians were unaware of the
racial history behind blackface.
October 2012: The photograph below depicts the members of the Chi Omega sorority at Penn State. It was taken during a Mexican fiesta-themed party around Halloween. The signs read: “Will mow lawn for weed & beer and “I don’t cut grass I smoke it.”
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/05/11/individual-racism-alive-and-well/
In 1906, the amateur anthropologist Madison Grant, who was the head of the New York
Zoological Society, put a Congolese pygmy Ota Benga, on display at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. The display was in the primate exhibit,
and Ota was often made to carry around chimpanzees and other apes. Eugenicist and zoo director William Hornaday labeled Ota, “The Missing Link.” The public flocked to see the
display.http://politicalblindspot.com/through-the-1950s-africans-and-native-americans-were-kept-in-zoos-as-exhibits/
A campaign addressing African-American stereotypes shown in the media, primarily television and music. Two posters were developed: one for young males and one for young females. Each poster displays common stereotypes associated with gender and how it's affecting the youth.
"The portrayal of young black women and men in the media set the standard for how many Americans associate behavior with race. There are very few images of black women and men in the media that aren’t hypersexual, vulgar & violent.”
Tests show most Americans learn more about race from television instead of personal interaction.
How would youdefine a
sociological‘minority’
Minority: a subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their lives than the members of a dominant majority - have 5 basic characteristics
Experienceunequaltreatment
Membershipnot voluntary
Share physical orcultural
characteristics
Tend to intermarry
Strong in-groupsense
Prejudice
Racism
Discrimination
A negative attitude toward an entirecategory of people
A form of prejudice that focuses onthe perceived superiority of oncerace over others
The denial of opportunities and equalRights to individual or groups due toprejudice
Prejudice in the workplace….
What are some examplesof questions that you
cannot be askedat a job interview?
Why do you thinkthese questions are
illegal?
Segregation, Self-Segregation
1.What is segregation?
2.What is the history of racial segregation in the U.S. (officially and unofficially) - include residential, job, and
So, how do ethnic neighborhoods and enclaves form? Think of Long
Island…
Newsday: May 25th, 2009• A recent report had unwelcome news for the Sewanhaka Central High School District: Among suburban school districts nationwide with the "highest black segregation," it ranked ninth. The ranking is largely based on the disproportionately African-American enrollment at the district's Elmont Memorial High School - 77 percent. But Sewanhaka officials say the report's broader implication...
According to the most recent census data (2010), analyzed at the University of Michigan, New York ranked 2nd in the most racially segregated states
1.Residential segregation
2.Racialized divisions of labor
3.Racial categories defined by governments
Racial/Ethnic Categories are typically imposed on people in 3
distinct ways:
Sociologist and U.S. History Professor James Loewen (“Lies My Teacher Told Me”) identified thousands of “Sundown Towns” in the Untied States during the research for his book of the same name. Several were here on Long Island!
In 1976, 1992, and again in 2004, Farley and colleagues conducted studies in metro Detroit to try to identify the causes of the persistently high levels of segregation in that area. Using a variety of survey approaches, the researchers tried to determine whether white residents felt comfortable with blacks living on their block, and whether they would remain if blacks moved onto their block.
Privileges of the Dominant:
What advantagesdoes the dominant
culture (in the U.S.,demographically, this is
White people)have in society?
White Privilege (Ferber &Kimmel, 2008): refers to the rights or immunities grantedto people as a particularbenefit or favor simplybecause they are white.
Feminist scholar Peggy McIntosh (1988) became interested in this concept after noticing that most
men would not acknowledge a
privilege for being male!
“Would A Roshanda By Any Other Name Smell As Sweet?”
As we watch this clip from “Freakonomics”, noticewhat the conclusions of Dr. Fryer’s study on the economic impact of discrimination, based on names, were.
Institutional Discrimination
Refers to the denial of opportunities and equal rights thatResult from the normal operations of society…
The Commission on Civil Rights (1981) has identified several forms
of institutionaldiscrimination…
•Rules requiring only English spoken at a place of work, even when it is not a business necessity to restrict other languages
•Preference in admission to law and medical schools of the children of privileged alumni
•Restrictive employment-leave policies for women
Sociological Perspectives on Race/Ethnicity:
Functionalist Perspective:-Discrimination serves purpose for those who practice it - Manning Nash identified 3 ways:1.Maintain justification for unequal society2.Discourage minority from questioning itsstatus3. Myths suggest any societal change is bad for minorities
Labeling Perspective:
Racial profiling is any arbitrary action initiated by an authority based on race, ethnicity, or national origin
The Contact Hypothesis:States that in cooperative circumstance, interracial contact between people of equal status will cause them to become less prejudiced and to abandon old stereotypes
Case Study Documentary: Little Rock 50Years Later (HBO)