Prejudice, Stereotyping & Discrimination

Prejudice, Stereotyping & Discrimination

PREJUDICE STEREOTYPE DISCRIMINATION (attitude) Unsupported generalization about a category of people (belief) Oversimplified or exaggerated image of a group Behaviors directed towards people based on their group

Stereotypes at BHS • Where do stereotypes come from? How are they learned? • What is the danger in stereotypes? 3. How can we work to avoid falling prey to stereotyping? 4. Is there such a thing as a good stereotype? 5. Has modern society helped or hindered stereotyping and why?

Prejudice and discrimination do not always go hand in hand – combine in 4 ways • Active bigot: is prejudiced and openly discriminatory • Timid bigot: is prejudiced but is afraid to discriminate b/c of societal pressures • Fair-weather liberal: not prejudiced but discriminates anyway b/c of societal pressure • All-weather liberal: not prejudiced and does not discriminate

Which type? • Brandy believes African Americans are the inferior race but she keeps her beliefs to herself in Sociology class because she is afraid others will judge her. • Timid Bigot

Discrimination • Name-calling to acts of violence • Legal discrimination: upheld by law • Examples? • Institutionalized discrimination: • outgrowth of the structure of society. Unfair, indirect treatment of an individual embedded in policies, laws, large organizations (example government or schools)

Where Does Prejudice Come From? 1. Social learning: modeling from parents What kind of children would you expect this couple to have?

Where Does Prejudice Come From? 2. Media Influences

Where Does Prejudice Come From? 3. Personal experiences (positive or negative) • Scapegoating: placing the blame for one’s troubles on an innocent individual or group

Types of Prejudice • Explicitprejudice feelings of which you are aware Implicitprejudice prejudiced feelings of which you are not aware • In car dealerships, white ♂ offered better deals than: white ♀ (+ $109), black ♀ (+ $318), and black ♂ (+ $935) (Ayres & Siegelman, 1995) • Minority youth receive harsher and longer punishments for identical crimes than white youth

Consequences of stereotypes • Self-fulfilling prophecy: prediction that results in behavior that makes the prediction come true. Stereotype threat: Anxiety when you know there is a negative stereotype held against your group – feel pressure and can lead to a change in behavior (anxiety alters your ability to achieve successfully)

Stereotype Threat • “Data shows that African Americans perform lower on ACT and SAT assessments” • More/Less pressure on African American students?? • What can this pressure do?

Why Do People Discriminate? • To gain benefits for one’s group -Refers to limited resources, such as economics, land, housing, etc.

Why Do People Discriminate? • To gain benefits for one’s group • To manage their self-image Example: Making yourself look/feel like you’re better than others

Why Do People Discriminate? • To gain benefits for one’s group • To manage their self-image • To gain social approval Example: You’re more likely to make fun of others if you’re in a group Fulfills humans’ need to be “needed”

Why Do People Discriminate? • To gain benefits for one’s group • To manage their self-image • To gain social approval • Seeking mental efficiency Example: Heuristics (mental shortcuts)

Seeking Mental Efficiency • Do ♂ or ♀ like sports more? • How did you answer this question? • Systematic search (Go through every male and female you know) • “Guesstimate” (Think of a few of each and base judgment on that)

Reducing Prejudice, Stereotyping, & Discrimination How can we reduce prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination?

Common Interventions • A typical explanation for the continuation of negative prejudices is that “people just don’t know any better” 1. Simple-contact approach • Simply having different groups around each other • Would this work? • Think of integration in schools first occurring in the 1950s (The Little Rock 9)

Little Rock Nine • Read the article: • Referencing the article: what went wrong? Why did this not work to eliminate discrimination if both groups were put together? • What would have been a better plan?

Common Interventions 1. Simple-contact approach • Simply having different groups around each other • Little Rock Nine - 1957

Common Interventions 2. Fact-based approach • Teaching people about other groups in a factual manner • Will only work if people are motivated to change their stereotypes

Best Type of Intervention 3. Goal-Based Approach In order for this approach to work… • Members must exhibit traits that contradict negative stereotypes • Members must have equal status • Individual-level, not group-level • Rewarding experience! • Interdependence emphasized

Goal-Based Approach in The Breakfast Club • Out-group members must exhibit traits that contradict negative stereotypes • Through that Saturday School, others found out Claire was not the person they thought she was “Princess” Spoiled Caring Rebellious Kind “Goody” Snobby

Goal-Based Approach in The Breakfast Club • Groups should be of equal status They were all in Saturday School together, regardless of the reason why!

Goal-Based Approach in The Breakfast Club Contact should be at individual-level, not group-level They had plenty of time and opportunity to talk on an individual-level, one-on-one

Goal-Based Approach in The Breakfast Club • How was this experience rewarding? • How did it involve interdependence?

Racism: • the belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is naturally superior to other races of ethnic groups • Use prejudice beliefs to justify discrimination

Brown Eyed • Blue Eyed

Race • Historically • Caucasoids – or whites- Fair skin and straight or wavy hair • Mongoloids – or Asians – Yellowish or brownish skin and distinctive folds on the eyelids • Negroids – or blacks – dark skin and tightly curled hair • What is the problem with this system?

Race • Race: category of people who share inherited physical characteristics and whom others see as being a distinct group • Sociologists - Not important what color someone’s skin is but how people react to these physical characteristics

Ethnicity • Ethnicity: • set of cultural characteristics that distinguishes one group from another group • Ethnic Group: • People who share a common cultural background and a common sense of identity • Remember: • Ethnicity is based on cultural considerations • Race is based on physical considerations

Minority Groups Minority Group: a group of people who – because of their physical characteristics or cultural practices – are singled out and unequally treated. Minority group size no particular skin color, physical feature, or ethnic background is superior or inferior by nature!

Minority Groups: Characteristics • identifiable physical or cultural characteristics different than those in the dominant group • treated unequal by dominant group • Membership to group is an ascribed status • Group members share a bond • Group loyalty • Tend to practice endogamy

Minorities in the United States • Page 247 • Go over answers On separate piece of paper: Read connection to history page 245 Answer ‘Think about it’ 1 & 2

Japanese Americans 1913 – Alien Land Law restricted land ownership by foreigners Which reason why people discriminate does this align with? gain benefits for own group Think about it question 1: Labeled as disloyal Japanese Americans moved to internment camps Blamed Japanese Americans for Pearl Harbor – what is this called? Scapegoating

Patterns of Minority Group Treatment • Get into groups of 4 (Page 243) • Divide up the work – each student gets 2 patterns of treatment • Independently - Define treatment – define any given terms involved with the concept & Give example • When complete share with your group what you found – make sure it is in your own words!

New Day

Shoplifting Statistics • More than $13 billion worth of goods are stolen from retailers each year. That’s more than $25 million per day. • 55 percent of adult shoplifters say they started shoplifting in their teens • Shoplifting is often not a premeditated crime, 72 percent of juvenile shoplifters don’t plan to steal in advance.

Shoplifting Statistics • 89 percent of kids say they know other kids who shoplift. 66 percent say they hang out with those kids • Shoplifters say they are caught an average of only once in every 48 times they steal. They are turned over to the police 50 percent of the time. • Vast majority of shoplifters are “non-professionals” who steal, not out of criminal intent, financial need or greed but as a response to social and personal pressures in their life

Shoplifting Statistics • Drug addicts, who have become addicted to shoplifting, describe shoplifting as equally addicting as drugs. • 33 percent of juveniles say it is hard for them to stop shoplifting even after getting caught. • Most non-professional shoplifters don’t commit other types of crimes. They never steal an ashtray from your house and will return to you a $20 bill you may have dropped. Their criminal activity is restricted to shoplifting.

Writing Response Imagine that you are a business owner of a store that is struggling financially with theft. • Yes or No: Should teenagers be subject to more intensive surveillance while shopping than other age groups? • Yes or No Should teenagers be required to wear special badges? • What would be some options for surveillance aimed towards teenagers?

Race Profiling • How does the previous situation apply to racial profiling? Racial Profiling: the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement *Read Racial profiling article Writing response

Group work • Discussion worksheet

In December 2001, an American citizen of Middle Eastern descent named AssemBayaa cleared all the security checks at Los Angeles airport and attempted to board a flight to New York. Upon boarding, he was told that he made the passengers uncomfortable by being on board the plane and was asked to leave. Once off the plane, he wasn't searched or questioned any further and the only consolation he was given was a boarding pass for the next flight.

“Driving While Black” The term "Driving While Black" arose as a play on the U.S Crime "Driving While Intoxicated". It refers to the Criminalization of black drivers. Black drivers felt that they were being pulled over by law enforcement officers simply because of their skin color.

Racial profiling facts • D you believe that racial profiling happens in our society? • Polls show that a majority of both African Americans and whites believe that racial profiling is ‘widespread.’

True/False: People of color are most of the drug users and sellers. • Racial profiling is based on false assumptions: • Myth 1: people of color are most of the drug users and sellers. Studies show that each racial groups uses and sells in proportion to their percentages in the population (whites are 70% of the population and 70% of all users and sellers; blacks are 15% and 15% of all users and sellers

Myth: People of color commit ‘most’ crime. – Which types of crime are predominantly committed by whites? • Corporate and white collar crime (financial fraud) are not investigated or prosecuted as seriously as ‘street crime’ even though they cost victims and tax payers billions of dollars more.

Does it exist? Are African Americans and Latinos stopped and searched more than whites? -Studies show large differences in the rate of stops and searches for African Americans and Latinos even though these groups are not more likely than whites to have drug or weapon contraband Racial profiling is ineffective: Studies of traffic stops show that people of color are no more likely and very often less likely to have drugs or weapons than whites

Prejudice, Stereotyping & Discrimination