Race and EthnicityJuly 12, 2010

Chapter 8

Race

• All human life began Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago

• No such thing as pure racial type or a biological definition of race

Federal Govt’

• Legal Definitions:– 1/8 of a certain racial blood – “any ascertainable trace….” of a certain blood

• 10 Racial Classifications– African America– Asian American– Hispanic– Naive American– White American

Socially

• Race rests upon how others view us and how we view ourselves

• Race is more being defined as belonging to a group of people who others believe to be physically and genetically unique.

(ex. Alex)

Ethnicity

• Attributed to groups of people who share a common cultural heritage such as language, geographical origins, religion, values, food, and dress.

• Confusion when conflict of classification scheme:– Caribbean Hispanics:

• Race in Caribbean measured by continuum of darkness of skin• In US – racial division is basically black and white• Mulatto’s in the Caribbean are classified as AA in US

Definition of Terms

• Carousel Group Activity (Poster paper @ tables)

Cross out or add on…..• Prejudice• Minority Group• Stereotyping• Discrimination• Racism

Definitions

• Prejudice: unfounded or biased attitudes held by one group toward another

• Minority Group: Status reserved for those groups singled out by the dominant or more powerful members of society for differential treatment.

• Stereotyping: A specific trait (usually negative) is generalize to all members of a particular group

• Discrimination: Results in unfavorable treatment that in turn reinforces minority group status.

• Racism: Describes particular type of prejudice and discrimination where individuals believe that people are divided into distinct groups based upon heredity.

Reel Bad Arabs

Stereotyping

What would YOU do?

Prejudice or Racism?Or Stereotyping….

YOU decide.

African Americans

• Slavery abolished 1865

• Brown vs. BOE (1954)

• No longer have legally sanctioned segregation – de facto segregation is present

• Races are separated by residential patterns

• Think about your own neighborhood– (ex. Ryan at GF)

Native Americans

• 78 Indians invaded Alcatraz Island

• Offered to buy the island for $24.00 in glass beads and red cloth

• Promised to set aside a portion of the island where Caucasians could live under the protection of the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs.

Native Americans

• 1887 – General Allotment Act (Indigenismo): total assimilation of Native American into white culture.

• Indian children were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to government boarding houses – educated and socialized

• Cultural genocide• 1934 Abandoned.

Hispanics

• Spanish or Latin Ancestry• Population has inc. over 35 million in 2000• 50% live in CA and TX (NY, FL, IL, AZ, NJ high

pop)– Mexican Americans– Puerto Ricans– Cubans– Others

Mexicans

• 1845: Mexico was forced to turn over half of its country to US in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

– (AZ, CA, CO, NM, TX, NV, UT --- portions of KS, OK, WY)

Asian Americans• Next to Hispanics / Asian Americans fastest growing population

• Prior to 1990 – 1.5% of pop.• 1990 – 2000 – rose 31%

• Chinese faced discrimination similar to AA after civil War

• 1845 presiding chief justice of CA Supreme Court declared Chinese “a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior.. Incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point.”

• 1882 – Immigration came to a halt with 1st Chinese Exclusion Act

Japanese

• WWII – Executive Order 9066:– Japanese stripped of citizenship and rights– Interned in relocation camps– Resulted in significant loss of property for

Japanese– 1988 – Congress provided funds (1.2 billion) for

the 65,000 survivors of the relocation camps

Bias Theories

• Gunnar Myrdal (1944) Book: An American Dilemma

• Investigated racism = result of prejudiced attitudes held by white majority

• Prejudices --- to --- discrimination via stereotyping

Structural Theories

• Believes bias theory is too narrow

• Individual racism – overt and direct– Stoning of a home of an AA who has moved into

an all white area

Structural Theories

• Institutional Racism– More injurious to racial groups than direct– Don’t resort to individual acts but support present

institutions of society and customs• Ie.. Use of IQ tests for job selection (std. tests = bias)• Seniority systems (promotion / firing)• Recruiting job applicants from selective colleges/univ.• Support for fragmented educational system• Preferential treatment to job applicants with advance

baccalaureate degrees

Structural Functionalists

• Stratification is a matter of assimilation• Process of assimilation is of value to society– Society stability dependent upon accept. of common culture– Not just assimilation but amalgamation (culture traits blend

with dominant culture)• Believe once minority groups adopt prevailing values

will assimilate– Point to certain racial groups w/success– And not all members of a minority group are econ.

disadvantaged

Social Conflict

• Both agree – undesirable jobs are necessary reality of society

• Both agree – less skills and educated perform these jobs• Not assimilation but one of power and subordination.• Whites have positions of power and seek to maintain

their positions.• To Social Conflict Theorists: Racial minorities were never

meant to assimilate but to perform menial jobs (institutionalized prejudice)

• Tension serves to maintain status quo