Chapter 9 Race and ethnicity

1. Chapter 9Race and ethnicity • Race and Ethnicity • Prejudice • Discrimination • Sociological Perspectives on Race and Ethnic Relations • Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States • Global Racial and Ethnic Inequality in the Future

2.  Race And Ethnicity • Race is a category of people singled out on the basis of physical characteristics. • Ethnic group is a collection of people distinguished on the basis of cultural or nationality characteristics.

3. Characteristics of Ethnic Groups • Unique cultural traits (language, clothing, holidays, religious practices). • A sense of community. • A feeling of ethnocentrism. • Ascribed membership from birth. • The tendency to occupy a geographic area.

4.  Theories of Prejudice • Frustration‑aggression hypothesis • Social learning theory • Theory of the authoritarian personality

5. Four Major Types of Discrimination • Isolate discriminationA prejudiced judge giving harsher sentences to African American defendants. • Small-group discriminationSmall group of white students defacing a professor’s office with racist epithets.

6. Four Major Types of Discrimination • Direct institutionalized discriminationIntentional exclusion of people of color from public accommodations. • Indirect institutionalized discrimination Special education classes may have contributed to racial stereotyping.

7. Contact Hypothesis Contact between divergent groups should be positive as long as group members: • Have equal status. • Pursue the same goals. • Cooperate with one another to achieve goals. • Receive positive feedback while interacting.

8. Conflict Perspectives • Caste perspective - views racial and ethnic inequality as a permanent feature of U.S. society. • Class perspectives - focus on the link between capitalism and racial exploitation. • Racial Formation theory -actions of the government define racial and ethnic relations.

9. Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States • Native Americans • White Anglo‑Saxon Protestants • African Americans • White Ethnic Americans • Asian Americans • Latinos/as • Middle Eastern Americans

10. Native Americans • Most disadvantaged group in the U.S. in terms of income, employment, housing, and nutrition. • As a group they have experienced: • Genocide • Forced Migration • Forced Assimilation

11. African Americans • Slavery was rationalized by stereotyping African Americans as inferior and childlike. • Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 sought to eliminate discrimination in education, housing, employment and health care.

12. Asian Americans • Fastest growing ethnic minority in the U.S. • Includes Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Indochinese Americans.

13. Latinos/as (Hispanic Americans) • Includes Mexican American's, Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans. • Many Mexican American families have lived in the U.S. for 4 or 5 generations and have made significant contributions. • In 1917, Puerto Ricans acquired U.S. citizenship and the right to move freely to and from the mainland.

14. Middle Eastern Americans • Includes immigrants from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Jordan. • The Lebanese, Syrians, and Iranians primarily come from middle class backgrounds. • Most Iranian immigrants initially hoped to return to Iran; however, many have become U.S. citizens.

15. Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the United States • In 1980 white Americans made up 80% of the population. • In 2000, white Americans made up 70% of the population. • By 2056, the roots of the average U.S. resident will be in Africa, Asia, Hispanic countries, the Pacific Islands, or Arabia—not white Europe.