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Introduction to Family Studies

Race, Ethnicity, and Families

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

• How do we define race?

• How do we define ethnicity?

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Racial-Ethnic Groups

• Racial groups are those with a common set of physical features that distinguishes them from other groups

• Race is defined as a category composed of people who share real or alleged physical traits that members of a society deem to be socially significant

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Race, Ethnicity & Families• But race is also a social concept • Race is socially constructed• The characteristics associated with each

racial group are subjective • Definitions of race:

– vary over time – from one society to another – have emerged from interaction of various

populations over long periods of human history

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

• Why do sociologists argue that race is socially constructed?

1) While racial characteristics may have been based on biology -- the interpretation of those characteristics varies from one society to the next, from one group to the next– Societies each decide which racial

differences are meaningful

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Race, Ethnicity & Families• Why do sociologists argue that

race is socially constructed?2) Choice of racial characteristics is

subjective• People differ in many ways, but only some

of those differences are emphasized• For example, in defining differences in

racial characteristics, why have we focused on skin color or the shape of a person’s eyes?

• Why isn’t race based on different blood types or eye color?

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

• Why do sociologists argue that race is socially constructed?

3) The characteristics used to distinguish racial differences and stereotypes change over time

4) And the last reason to argue that race is socially constructed is that definitions of race differences vary from one society to the next

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

• How do we define ethnicity?• A population that shares a cultural

heritage• Ethnic Groups have a sense of group

identity based on a distinctive cultural pattern or heritage

• They often share a place of common ancestry, language, or religion that is the basis of their collective identity

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

• How do we define ethnicity??

• Ethnic groups often have a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood that is maintained within a larger society.

• Members of ethnic groups have usually migrated to a new nation or have been conquered by an invading population.

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Race, Ethnicity, and Families

• An indication of how fluid (always changing) racial/ethnic categories are:

• U.S. Census changed the way they measured race and ethnicity in the 2000 Census

• The federal government considers race and Hispanic origin to be two separate and distinct concepts.

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U.S. Census Form: 2010

• On the next slide, note questions 8 & 9 on the next slide showing the 2010 U.S. Census form

• #8 measures whether you are Hispanic/Latino etc

• #9 measures race

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Race, Ethnicity and Families

• The Census defines Hispanic or Latino as “a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American,or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.

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U.S. Population by Race, 2010

 Number (in

100s) Percent

Total: 308,745,538 100.0White only 72.4Black or African American only 12.6American Indian and Alaska Native alone 0.9Asian only 4.8Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander only 0.2Some other race 6.2Two or more Races 2.9

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-02.pdf

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U.S. Population by Hispanic Origin:2000 & 2010

Hispanic Origin  2000 2010

Not Hispanic or Latino 87.0 83.7

Hispanic or Latino 13.0 16.3

Between 2000 and 2010, the Hispanic population grew by 43 percent!!!

The Hispanic population increased by 15.2 million between 2000 and 2010,

Number of Hispanics rose from 35.3 million in 2000 when group made up 13 percent of the total population to 50.5 million or 16.3 percent of total population

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Social Construction of Race

• Social Experiment repeated after 50 years

• Young filmaker, Kiri Davis tests some old ideas

• See Assignment 3

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

• Need to recognize diversity in families

• How do families vary by race/ethnicity?

• How does family structure vary?

• How do families’ ties to other social institutions, like education system, the economy, or health care system, vary by race/ethnicity?

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

• Different racial groups make their homes in different neighborhoods

• This means they have different access to a different set of social institutions

• Social institutions create paths in which families are assigned to a different set of opportunities

• Think about schools

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Race, Ethnicity & Families

Minority families are MORE likely to:

• live in disadvantaged neighborhoods

• attend under-funded schools

• have less access to high level colleges

• have poorer health care options

• have less access to better, higher paying jobs

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• Great differences in families by racial ethnic groups

Interfamily differences

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• Decline of marriage• Fewer young women who will ever marrya

• 64% in 1990s (88% in 1950s)

• Increase in percentage of nonmarital birthsb

• 69% in 1998 (38% in 1970) Increases in female-headed familiesc

• 58% in 1998 (33% in 1970)

African-American Families

Source: a Rodgers & Thornton, 1985; Goldstein & Kenney, 2001

b U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991; NCHS, 2005a

c U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2003a, 2004a.

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– Union formation - first unions formed are twice as likely to be cohabitations compared to whites

– Family incomes for black families well below averages for white families

– Economic gains to marriage have declined for black women

African-American Families

Families vary by race/ethnicity

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Hispanic Families

• As much variation within the group as between Hispanics and other groups

• Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans = 31.3 million people– Mexicans and Mexican Americans =

65%– Central and South Americans = 14%– Puerto Rican = 10%– Cuban Americans = 4%

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Asian-American Families

• Again Asian is an “umbrella” term that includes diverse groups

• Less research on Asian-American families as prior to 1965 numbers were lower than Hispanics

• But for Example, in 1970 there were 69,000 Korean Americans

• By 1998 there were 980,000

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Asian-American Families

• In general Asian-Americans emphasize interdependence among family members over individualism favored by western cultures

• Asian families place more emphasis on childrens loyalty and service to parents

• Asian-American adults are more likely to live in a household with an adult child who provide most of the income

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Total Fertility Rate by Race and Ethnicity

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Percent of Mothers who were not Married

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Summary• Race is socially constructed• Family patterns vary greatly by

race/ethnicity• Rates of marriage and fertility vary

across racial and ethnic groups• Make sure you know percentages of

major racial/ethnic groups• Race is based on biological

characteristics• Ethnicity is based on cultural

characteristics