SOME NOTES ON RACE AND ETHNICITY
I. In the first chapter our text does a good job in defining the term, "minority." I do take issue with the "Minority Group Characteristics"—
A. Let me rearrange them into
what I feel is a more meaningful order:
1. The group has visible (ascribed) physical or cultural traits that make it easily identifiable.
2. As a result of these differences, the group receives differential treatment—unequal treatment—from the rest of society.
3. The group possesses a self image around its identity and shares a sense of peoplehood commonality of culture with others in the minority.
4. Membership in the group is ascribed—you're born into it. [What about people who change their religious faith; people who "come out"; there are other examples.
5. Group members practice endogamy—they marry
within their group.
II. Dominant group needs criteria in order to distinguish themselves from minority. What are they?
A. Physical differences that tend to distinguish humans—skin color, hair texture, eye shape
B. Social and cultural characteristics that are easily observed—Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels—people who crack their eggs on the small end versus the big end.
1. Reality;
Tribes, customs, religion, etc.
III. This section will address the concept of culture; discuss social class and social stratification; examine theories of minority integration; and address the nature of prejudice and discrimination;
A. A culture certainly
changes over time and we generally identify three ways in which a culture
changes:
1. Discovery--(internal) this occurs when you "discover" something that's already out there.
2. Invention--(internal) this occurs when two or more previous "discoveries" are combined to make something new.
3. Diffusion--(external) Most cultural change comes through diffusion.
a. styles of dress
b. modes of behavior (dance, theatre, art, etc.)
c. products of heavy
industry—cars; planes; medical technology; weapons, etc.
B. Don't confuse this with cultural transmission.
C. Cultural Lag: (William F. Ogburn)
Often children are very upset by the "racist" and
"ethnocentric" attitudes that their parents utter in the course of
everyday conversation.
1. ETHNOPAULISMS or negative
words or expressions used to describe various racial or ethnic groups.
Examples: "Jew him down." There are too many Micks and Dago's in this town.
a. These expressions were once common in a society that was far less tolerant of different groups. Most people are far more careful with their speech these days.
2. WOMEN'S LABOR FORCE
PARTICIPATION provides another good example of cultural lag.
a. More and more women work
today for a wide variety of reasons (some economic others involving social
factors) yet the larger society has not geared up to provide the social support
that is necessary to help working couples in the home—
(1) day
care (from both private and public sectors)
3. Much cultural lag occurs whenever new technology enters society—Think of the VCR, for example. William F. Ogburn who coined the term referred specifically to material elements of culture that were introduced. But it also results from rapid social change—Industrializing countries still experience high fertility rates. This is a hold over from earlier times when they had to have large families in order for enough children to farm the land.
D. Culture Shock-- Alvin Toffler popularized this concept in his book, Culture Shock, that addressed the frenetic pace of change in modern society.
E. Subcultures and Countercultures
F. Convergent Subcultures versus Persistent
Subcultures
1. White Ethnic subcultures tend to be convergent through assimilation and amalgamation
|
Describe some examples of convergent subcultures. |
2. Some subcultures (Persistent Subcultures) go to great lengths to maintain their separate identities—The Amish and Hutterites are prime examples given by our text. These persistent subcultures illustrate Pluralism.
a. Amish
b. Hutterites
c. Gypsies
d. Jews—Several years ago an article appeared in Newsweek that addressed concern in the Jewish Faith over the loss of members through religious intermarriage.
3. Discrimination by the majority against the minority will also force a group into remaining a persistent subculture.
IV. Social Stratification
A. Our modern (sociological) notions of social class stem largely from the writings of Karl Marx (unidimensional, based on the economy); and Max Weber (multidimensional based on economy, prestige, and power [class, status, power].
B. There are basically two kinds of stratification
systems—class (where vertical and horizontal movement is possible) and
caste (where people are locked into the level at which they were born).
1. achieved class
2. ascribed class
C. Social Classes—Give class a brief rundown of class structure in
1. Income: Of all the income that is earned in this country in one year, the lowest 20 percent of all wage earners made only 4 percent. The highest 20 percent of all wage earners made over 47 percent of all the nation's income.
2. Wealth: Of all the wealth in this nation,
the richest 20 percent of the nation's people own over 84 percent--84
PERCENT OF ALL THIS NATION'S WEALTH IS HELD BY THE RICHEST 20 PERCENT OF
THE POPULATION. (FIVE PERCENT OF THE RICHEST PEOPLE OWN OVER
60 PERCENT OF THE NATION'S WEALTH.
THE TOP ONE PERCENT OF THIS NATION’S RICHEST
PEOPLE OWN ABOUT 33 PERCENT OF ALL THE WEALTH). The poorest half of this
nation’s population owns less than 5 percent of the nation's wealth. The
lowest 20 percent of the population owns no wealth—they are in debt. (The figure of negative one percent of
the nation’s total wealth is sometimes given as an estimate).
3. Minority Status and Social Class: (From Stephen J. Rose, The American Profile Poster). "Compared with the majority "white" population, blacks, Hispanics, and other non-whites are more concentrated in lower-paying jobs; even within the same overall job category, they hold the less remunerative positions. As a result, their distribution of income is skewed toward the lower levels."
4. Basic statistics on minority status and the economy:
|
Group |
% of Population (2000) |
% in “official”
poverty (2002) |
|
|
White non-Hispanic |
71 |
8 |
|
|
Black |
12 |
22.7 |
|
|
Hispanics |
12 |
21.7 |
|
|
Asians and Pacific Islanders |
4 |
10.7 |
|
|
American Indians and |
1 |
27.1 |
|
|
Race/Ethnicity |
Percent of female earnings to male earnings (2nd
Qtr, 1999) |
Percent of female earnings to male earnings (2002)
(Stat. Abstract. 2003, p.423) |
|
White |
73 ($506/$689) |
78 ($549/$702) |
|
Black |
83 ($419/$504) |
91 ($474/$523) |
|
Hispanic |
84 ($363/$433) |
88 ($396/$449) |
|
All groups |
74 ($494/$665) |
78 ($530/$680) |
|
|
White Male |
White Female |
Black Male |
Black Female |
Hispanic Male |
Hispanic Female |
|
MD weekly earnings (2002) |
$702. |
$549. |
$523. |
$474. |
$449. |
$396. |
|
% of White Male |
100% |
78% |
74% |
67% |
64% |
56% |
D. Ways of measuring—Famous Sociological study by Lloyd Warner (et. al.) used reputational method and came up with six social classes: Upper-upper 1.4%; Lower Upper 1.6%; Upper Middle 10.0%; Lower Middle 28.8%; Upper Lower 34.0%; Lower Lower 25.0% (Warner, W. Lloyd, Social Class in America, p. 14).
1. Reputational
a. This works well in small communities where everyone is known to each other. You ask people to name the members of the community and rank them by social status.
2. Objective
a. Here, the researcher picks the criteria; wealth, income, education,
social prestige, etc. This measure is a good tool to use when
depicting social and economic inequality between race, sex, and ethnicity.
3. Self-reported
a. Individuals are asked to tell what social class they belong to. (Problem
is that in this society most people respond that they belong to the middle
class.
E. Social Institutions and Stratification; What kinds of stratification found in these social institutions:
1. family
2. politics
3. economy
4. education
5. religion
6. recreation
F. Class
Consciousness—Marx's Definition; Contrast with False Consciousness.
G. Theories of Social Stratification:
1. Our text mentions The Culture of Poverty Thesis. (Origins in 1932, E. Franklin Frazier's writings; Later it was reinforced in the "Moynihan Report."
a. This is an example of an INTERACTIONIST approach (it also draws on
functionalism). Lower class values are socialized into each generation of the
poor.
(1) The problem with this theory is that it blames the poor and overlooks the importance of structural inequality.
2. We've addressed the
functionalist approach to stratification—The
3. Conflict Theory: Karl Marx. Kurt Vonnegut's,
The
|
Vonnegut uses the Money River as an example of how
stratification by wealth is created and perpetuated. Basically, he says
that some people are lucky enough to be born on the banks of the money river,
where they “slurp” freely and enjoy the good life. Others
are unfortunate and must travel long distances to drink, or they don’t
even know about the existence of the |
V. Theories of Minority Integration
A. The text does a great job
here: ASSIMILATION (A+B+C=A)
1. CULTURAL ASSIMILATION (ACCULTURATION)
2. MARITAL ASSIMILATION (AMALGAMATION)
3. STRUCTURAL ASSIMILATION
4. IDENTIFICATIONAL ASSIMILATION (Development
of a sense of peoplehood based
upon host society not on one's homeland).
5. ATTITUDE-RECEPTIONAL ASSIMILATION (Prejudicial attitudes don't exist).
6. BEHAVIOR-RECEPTIONAL ASSIMILATION (No discriminatory behavior)
7. CIVIC ASSIMILATION (Absence of value and
power conflict with the native-born population).
B. The MELTING POT THEORY or
AMALGAMATION: (A+B+C=D)
1. Text mention Israel Zangwill's play, The Melting Pot." What groups were left out? No Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, -- any people of color.
2. Ruby Jo Reeves Kennedy's "TRIPLE
MELTING POT THESIS"
C. PLURALISM (OR CULTURAL
PLURALISM): (A+B+C=A+B+C)
VI. PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION, AND RACISM:
A. Define PREJUDICE
1. (TEXT: cognitive level;
emotional level; action-oriented level)
a. Stereotyping
b. Ethnopaulisms
c. Causes:
(1) socialization
(2) self-justification
(3) personality
(4) frustration-aggression
(5) competition
(6) social norms
B. Define DISCRIMINATION
1. Our text refers to
this as an "action-oriented level of prejudice"
C. DISTINGUISH ACTION-ORIENTED
PREJUDICE FROM MORE SERIOUS PHENOMENA LIKE RACISM OR ETHNISM: WHAT IS
RACISM?
1. DISCRIMINATION (on basis of race) + _____ = RACISM
2. DISCRIMINATION (on basis of ethnic identity) + _____ = ETHNISM
D. HOW COULD MAJORITY MINORITY
RELATIONS BE IMPROVED? THE TEXT'S FORMULA OF EDUCATION AND INCREASED CONTACT.
1. INTERACTION REDUCES PREJUDICE
2. FORCED CONTACT MAY INCREASE IT
3. FREQUENCY AND DURATION ARE IMPORTANT VARIABLES
4. THE RELATIVE STATUS BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS IS IMPORTANT
5. NATURE OF INTERACTION, COMPETITIVE OR
COOPERATIVE IS IMPORTANT SITUATIONAL VARIABLES—WHETHER THEY MEET
IN A POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS, OCCUPATIONAL, RECREATIONAL OR RESIDENTIAL SETTING.
