Chapter 8 Racial-Ethnic Relations
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Transcript Chapter 8 Racial-Ethnic Relations
Pgs. 225 - 259
Prejudice and discrimination exist around the world
Prejudice is an attitude, a pre-judging of some sort
Usually negative but can be positive
Discrimination is an action that treats someone or
some group unfairly
People who are discriminated against because they
belong to a particular group are called a minority
group.
Does not necessarily mean numerical minority
Those who discriminate are the dominant group
Has more power, privileges, and higher social status
Minorities come into existence when people who have
different customs, languages, values, or physical
characteristics come under control of the same
political system.
Discrimination is based on differences.
Membership comes through birth
It is an ascribed status.
The dominant group holds the
minority’s physical or cultural traits in
low esteem. (prejudice)
The dominant group treats members to
the minority group unequally.
(discrimination)
Minority members tend to marry within
their group (endogamy)
Minority members tend to feel a
common identity because of their
physical or cultural traits, and the
disadvantages that these traits bring.
Assimilation: wanting to be treated as
individuals, not as members of a separate
group, the minority group adopts the
culture of the dominant group and is
absorbed into the larger society
Pluralism: the minority group wants to
live peacefully with the dominant group,
yet maintain the differences that set it
apart and are important to its identity
Secession: wanting cultural and political
independence, the minority group seeks
to separate itself and form a separate
union
Militancy: convinced of its own
superiority the minority wants to reverse
the status and dominate society
Native Americans
Assimilation: an attempt to eliminate
the minority by absorbing it into the
mainstream culture
Forced assimilation – the dominant
group bans the minority’s religion,
language, and other distinctive
customs
Permissible assimilation – permits the
minority to adopt the dominant
customs at its own pace
Pluralism: when a dominant group
permits or encourages cultural
differences
Segregation: an attempt by the
dominant group to keep a minority
subservient and exploitable
Internal colonialism: a dominant group
exploiting a minority group’s labor
Population transfer
Direct population transfer – the dominant
group forces the minority to leave
Indirect population transfer – the dominant
group makes life so miserable for a
minority that its members “choose” to
leave
Genocide: policy of extermination
motivated by hatred, fear, or greed
South African Apartheid History and Laws
"Miracle Rising" - South African Apartheid
Rwandan Genocide
Race – the inherited physical characteristics
that identify a group of people
people in history have used race to distinguish
the superior from the inferior
Eugenics – attempts to improve the human
“race” through selective breeding
Approved by many professionals in the 1930s
Today biologists have found that human
characteristics flow endlessly into one another
There is no pure race
The term used is racial-ethnic group which
refers to people who identify with one another
on the basis of their ancestry and cultural
heritage
The many racial-ethnic groups that make up the United
States have distinct histories, customs, and identities.
See pg. 231 – Figure 8.2
Throughout U.S. history, immigrants have confronted
Anglo-conformity
They were expected to speak the English language
and adopt other Anglo-Saxon ways of life
Melting pot – “melt” European immigrants into a
new cultural and biological blend
Most European immigrants lost their specific
ethnic identities and merged into mainstream
culture
Some who want to get “melted” have found that their
appearance evokes stereotypes that make such
melting difficult
Stereotypes – generalizations about what people
are like
The Changing State of U.S. Immigration
Social problems arise when people get upset because
prejudice and discrimination deprive minorities of the
rights to which citizenship entitles them and the
equality guaranteed by the constitution.
Effects of Discrimination
People who are discriminated against can
internalize the views of the dominant group
Minority can begin to believe they are less capable,
less worth, and less human
Economic Consequences
Family income of African Americas, Latinos, and
Native Americans run about 40% less than that of
white families
African America babies are more and twice as likely to
die than are white babies
Individual discrimination – one
person treating another badly on the
basis of race-ethnicity
Institutional discrimination –
discrimination built into the social
system that oppresses whole groups
ex. Whites denied African
American the right to vote
Ex. South African Apartheid
No one is born prejudiced
We learn values, beliefs, and ways to perceive
the world from the families and racial-ethnic
groups we are born into
The labels that we apply to racial-ethnic
groups create selective perception
As we generalize members of groups based
on labels and stereotypes we only see
certain things
Labels may help people commit acts that
otherwise would challenge their moral sense
Ex: by labeling Native Americans as
“savages” the U.S. cavalry and settlers
perceive them as less then humans
This made it easier to kill off whole tribes
The discrimination woven into U.S. history
benefited the dominant group and it continues to
do so
Racial-ethnic stratification, the unequal
distribution of a society’s resources based on raceethnicity, helps get society’s dirty work done
Dirty work – physically dirty or dangerous,
temporary, dead-end and underpaid, undignified
and menial jobs
When minorities are prevented from higher-
paying, prestigious jobs, they take dirty jobs
Ethnocentrism – a type of prejudice; “my group’s
ways are right, and your group’s ways are wrong”
Helps dominant group justify its higher social
position and greater share of the resources
The dominant group pits racial-ethnic
groups against one another in order to
exploit workers and increase profit.
People Like Us - PBS
You will spit up into 4 groups of 4 or 5.
Each group will be assigned a minority group: Latinos, African Americans,
Asian Americans, or Native Americans.
Over the next few days, using your textbook and outside research, you will
put together a brief PowerPoint answering the above question about your
particular group.
We are working with pages 242-255 in the textbook.
You will be presenting your PowerPoint to the class and all students will be
responsible for knowing about each minority group for the next test.
Your PowerPoint/presentation will be a project grade for the 4th quarter.