Introduction to Sociology – Week 8 Lecture 1

Race and Ethnicity

Depending on your race and/or ethnicity, you will see the relevance of this topic differently. It is amazing to me that we can see this topic from different views based on the place where we grew up, the stories and values that we were taught, the ascribed statuses that we have, and our current environment and social network.

Knowing that we will all see this topic differently, I want to remind you that as a sociologist it is required of you to acknowledge your biases so that they are less likely to influence your research and results. As a sociologist, you are held to a higher standard. As my student, I know that you can do this.  Let's start with the Who.

Who?

The US Census has only a few categories for race/ethnicity. Refer to the picture above.

I hope you notice that question five is regarding ethnicity and question six is regarding race. Have you ever heard a person referred to as “Mexican”?

Before seeing the question below, would you consider Mexican to be a race or an ethnicity?

What if you met a White person from Canada? Would that person still be White in the US or would they be Canadian?

I hope you can see how we regularly classify people as differently even though technically one is a race and the other is an ethnicity.

There are actually close to 150 different race or ethnic groups living in the US. Why do you think that we only count four ethnicities in the US Census?

Race and ethnicity influence everyone. Everyone is a race and ethnicity. We do not all define it the same way and we do not see it the same. Considering we want to talk about it, we must share a definition. Here is our definition:

Race: a group of people who share physical characteristics, such as skin color and facial features, which is passed on through reproduction.

Ethnicity: people who identifies with a common national origin or cultural heritage that includes language, geographic roots, food, customs, traditions, or religion.

Stop for a minute and list a couple of ethnicity for me.

· Did you list an ethnic group from a religion?

· Did you list an ethnic group with a specific language?

· Were the ethnic groups that you listed also racial groups?

· A racial-ethnic group incorporates both physical and cultural traits.

What?

The issue that sociologists struggle with is the fact that there is no such thing as race, but we continue to use it and we continue to let it divide us. I know that is a heavy sentence to read, but I challenge you to do some research if you do not agree.

You should research genetics and race or even the history of race. When something is not biological or from our previous chapters, nature, then we need to look further. Regardless of your theory of choice, sociologists can agree on this:

Race is socially constructed.

When?

It is hard to say when the idea of race began, but PBS put together a good online resource that you might want to review. Most evidence points to racism and discrimination instead of the beginning of the concept of race as we know it.

There has always been some form of discrimination and ethnocentrism, but historians seem to agree that race as we know it was truly developed during the expansion of nations in colonialism.

Internal colonialism refers to the subordinate status of groups who are treated unequally within a nation. For instance, African Americans are an “internal colony” because blacks entered the United States involuntarily as slaves, were controlled by the dominant group, and were exploited economically and sexually.

This does not mean that our understanding is conclusive, however until we find another way to conceive of this concept, this understanding will continue.

Where?

It does not have to occur between majority and minority groups. It only requires a group with power over another group. A dominant group is any physically or culturally distinctive group that has the most economic and political power, the greatest privileges, and the highest social status.

As a result, it can treat other groups as subordinate. Apartheid is a formal system of racial segregation. In South Africa, the black inhabitants couldn’t vote, lost their property, and had minimal access to education and politics until 1994. Even today many blacks are still a minority. A minority group is a group of people who may be subject to differential and unequal treatment because of their physical, cultural, or other characteristics, such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or skin color.

Racial segregation still exists in the US despite Brown v. Board of Education. Sociologists do not only study racial segregation from political voting districts or school districts.

A specific group of sociologists, demographers, study segregation from various levels including residential segregation. Segregation is the physical and social separation of dominant and minority groups. The Supreme Court banned de jure, or legal, segregation with the passage of a variety of laws that prohibited racial segregation in public schools as well as discrimination in employment, voting, and housing.

De facto, or informal, segregation has replaced de jure (legal) segregation. I highly suggest looking into this topic. Residential segregation is even correlated with health disparities. You may not agree, but I hope you will consider that our decisions to separate ourselves from people who are different could also mean that our resources and social network remain with us and do not extend as far as our culture portrays.

How?

Divides us and unifies us through the following terms.

· Racism is a set of beliefs which claim that one’s own racial group is “naturally” superior to other groups. It is a way of thinking about racial and ethnic differences that justifies and preserves the social, economic, and political interests of powerful groups.

· Prejudice is an attitude, positive or negative, toward people because of their group membership. A stereotype is an oversimplified or exaggerated generalization about a category of people.

· Ethnocentrism is a belief that one’s own culture, society, or group is inherently superior to others.

· Scapegoats are individuals or groups whom people blame for their own problems or shortcomings.

· Discrimination is an act that treats people unequally or unfairly because of their group membership. Discrimination encompasses all sorts of actions, ranging from social slights.

· It is hard to study what a person believes.

· I particularly like to look at discrimination as there are two types, individual and institutional.

· Individual discrimination is harmful action directed intentionally on a one-to-one basis by a member of a dominant group against a member of a minority group.

· In institutional discrimination, minority group members experience unequal treatment and opportunities due to the everyday operations of a society’s laws, rules, policies, practices, and customs. Institutional discrimination is widespread.

Why?

The answer to why we continue to construct race and why we hold onto race and ethnicity will depend on the theory that you choose.

Functionalism:

Functionalists argue that dominant group members benefit from immigrant labor. Racial-ethnic inequality also maintains or increases many dominant group members’ current status, power, and profits. Dominant group members benefit by avoiding undesirable jobs and providing employment to people with low educational levels. They also argue that discrimination can be dysfunctional. Racism might lead to talented people not being rewarded. Critics point out that functionalists seem to accept that inequality is inevitable.

Conflict:

Conflict theorists see strife and conflict between dominant and minority groups. Dominant groups try to protect their power and privilege while subordinate groups struggle to gain a larger share of societal resources.

Economic inequality generates racial inequality. Jobs in the primary labor market (high wages and skilled labor) are mainly occupied by dominant races while those in the secondary (low wage and unskilled sector) are mainly occupied by minorities. Because of the differences in environments, there is little class consciousness. Critics of conflict theorists point out that exploitation is not always conscious, deliberate, widespread, or inescapable.

Feminist:

Feminist theorists point to gendered racism as the combined effects of inequality due to both racism and sexism. Many minority women are in low paid service jobs.

The double whammy creates inequality. If we add social class into the mix, minority women may experience triple oppression. Affluent female employers hire minority maids, for instance. Critics of feminists claim that gendered racism may not be intentional, and that minority members may also be guilty of reinforcing inequality in schools, businesses, and other areas. Feminist explanations seldom explore deliberate oppression by other minority members.

To see graphs related to gendered racism here is some recent data expressed very well.

Symbolic Interactionist:

Symbolic interactionists focus on how labeling and selective perception can increase prejudice and discrimination. For instance, labeling Latino immigrants as a “problem” and “menace” ignores the broader array of Latino roles and contributions to American communities.

The contact hypothesis states that the more people get to know members of a minority group personally, the less likely they are to be prejudiced against that group. Critics of the perspective argue it ignores social structures that create and maintain racism.