1. Chapter 1 The Study of Minorities
Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations 3rd Edition
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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2016

2. Chapter 1 Learning Objectives
To introduce students to the sociological perspective for the study of race and ethnic relations.
To present the concept of the social phenomenon of the stranger as the focus through which to understand majority-minority interaction.
To acquaint students with the concepts of minority (subordinate) groups, ethnocentrism, social distance, the three major sociological perspectives, and the problem of objectivity.

3. Chapter 1 Learning Objectives (cont)
To familiarize students with the concept of the Dillingham Flaw and its relevance to the acceptance of diversity.

4. Similarity and Attraction
Aristotle ( BCE)
“We like those who resemble us, and are engaged in the same pursuits.”
Cross-cultural studies find that individual’s like others because of similar attitudes, values, beliefs, social status, or physical appearance.
“Birds of a feather flock together” part of U.S. cultural folklore.

5. The Stranger as a Social Phenomenon
Social distance
Five national studies were completed by Emory Bogardus.
Relatively consistent positioning of response patterns illustrated the similarity-attraction relationship.
Distribution over 50-year period showed White Americans, Canadians, and northern and western Europeans in top third; southern, eastern, and central Europeans in middle third; racial minorities were located near the bottom third.

6. The Stranger as a Social Phenomenon (cont)
Twenty-first century studies (see Table 1.1, page 5) show non-ethnic whites still remaining in the top position as the most accepted, with five other top ten slots filled by Canadians, British, Irish, French, and Germans, thus maintaining an 85-year pattern.

7. The Stranger as a Social Phenomenon (cont)
Particularly striking though, was the dramatic rise of African-Americans. Ranking fifth in 2012, they first broke the racial barrier by entering the top sector in 2001 and placing ahead of most racial groups in In the 2012 study, African American attained their best ever social distance ranking. The findings revealed a greater receptivity among white college of blacks.

8. Perceptions Perceptions
Simmel theorized that strangers represent both nearness and remoteness. Nearness because they are physically close; and remoteness because they have different values and ways of doing things.
Categoric Knowing: The classification of others on the basis of limited information usually obtained visually or verbally.

9. Perceptions (cont)
Categoric knowing serves as the basis behind many stereotypes.
Natives perceive stranger in abstract, typified way. The individual stranger thus becomes totality or stereotype of group as a whole.

10. Interactions
Migration: Movement of people in and out of specified area.
Emigration: Narrower term referring to movement of people out of a country to settle into another.
Immigration: Movement of people into another country to take up residency.

11. Interactions (cont).
Can speak of emigration of people out of a county and their immigration into another.

12. Minority (Subordinate) Groups
The term minority group
Group connotes a small, closely interacting set of persons.
Minority group does not refer to a group’s numerical representation.
Refers to a group’s relative power and status in society. For this reason, “subordinate” group oftentimes seen as more accurate term

13. Minority/Subordinate Group Characteristics
Three historic classifications
Donald Young: Americans use in context of race or national origin.
Louis Wirth: Expanded definition to include group consciousness and differential treatment. Enlarged focus of groups studied.
Third examines power relations within existing social hierarchy.

14. Minority/Subordinate-Group Characteristics
Group members practice endogamy
Membership is an ascribed status
Feels a sense of peoplehood
Identifiable by distinguishing physical or
cultural traits that are held in low esteem
Receives unequal treatment as a group

15. Racial and Ethnic Groups
Dominant Group
Group that has social, political, and economic dominance. Not necessarily numerically superior. Minority group occupies subordinate status relative to dominant.

16. Racial and Ethnic Groups (cont)
Race
A categorization in which a large number of people sharing visible physical characteristics regard themselves or are regarded by others as a single group on that basis.
Ethnic group (ethnicity)
A group of people who share a common religion, nationality, culture, and/or language.

17. Social Construction of Race: The Brazilian Experience
The Brazilians categorize race differently than we do in the U.S.

18. Social Construction of Race: Brazil

19. Social Construction of Race: Brazil

20. Racial and Ethnic Groups (cont)
Racism
An ideological belief system that links the biological conditions of a human organism with alleged sociocultural capabilities and behavior asserted to prove superiority of one group over another.

21. Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau (July 14, 1816 – October 13, 1882) was a French aristocrat who developed the theory of the Aryan master race in his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races ( ).
Gobineau was a successful diplomat whose career in Iran influenced the development of his ideas. He came to believe that race created culture. In his view the development of empires created racial mixture, which led to the 'degeneration' of races. He called this process Semiticization, because of his belief that Semitic peoples were a product of the Middle-Eastern cross-over between the otherwise distinct "black", "white" and "yellow" races. Gobineau was known for his reactionary aristocratic politics, as well as his hatred of mass democratic culture. He believed himself to be the descendant of Nordic Vikings and Condottieri.
The Count Joseph Authur de Gobineau was a supporter of eugenics. He heavily influenced 19th century thinking concerning race. He referred to race as a cluster of inherited characteristics. De Gobineau argued that there are three races: the White, Black, and Yellow. According to De Gobineau, Whites were the most evolved of the three races and Blacks the least evolved. De Gobineau equated cultural evolution with biological.

22. Ethnocentrism Ethnocentrism
A view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.

23. Ethnocentrism (cont) Ingroup
Group to which an individual belongs to and which they feel loyalty towards.
Outgroup
Consists of groups individuals are not member of.

24. Ethnocentrism (cont) Social-Identity Theory
Ingroup members automatically think of their group as being better than outgroups. Enhances social status and social identity and raises value of self- image.

26. Scientific Method The Scientific Method
Involves repeated objective observations, precise
measurement, the formulation of theories based
on the best possible explanations, and the
gathering of additional information of
the questions following from those theories.

27. The Dillingham Flaw The Dillingham Flaw
A committee conducted between by Senator William P. Dillingham.
Using an inaccurate comparison based on simplistic categorizations and antiquated judgments.
Seriously undermines the scientific worth of supposedly objective evaluations.

28. William P. Dillingham
A Republican lawyer, from 1900 till his death in 1923, Dillingham occupied the seat of senator for the state of Vermont. He chaired the Senate commission that from produced a 41-volume report on immigration. Dillingham concluded that immigration from southern and Eastern Europe posed a threat to the national security of the U.S. as a result of its transforming the U.S. from a literate, Protestant society based on private property to a rural, non-Protestant nation full of disease, illiteracy, and crime. The commission Dillingham headed recommended that immigration from southern and eastern Europe be greatly reduced.
Dec. 12, to July 12, 1923

29. Personal Troubles and Public Issues
C. Wright Mills explained that an intricate relationship exists between individual lives and the larger historical context
Public issues are matters concerning the public that transcend the local environments of the individual.
Personal troubles are matters concerning individual relations with others.

30. Copyright @ Allyn & Bacon 2006
Functional Theory
A stable, cooperative social system in which everything has a function and provides the basis for harmony.
Societal elements function together to maintain order, stability, and equilibrium.
Social problems, or dysfunctions, result from temporary disorganization or maladjustment.
Allyn & Bacon 2006

31. Functional Theory (cont)
Rapid social change is the most frequent cause of loss of societal equilibrium.
Necessary adjustments will restore the social system to a state of equilibrium.
Critics argue that functionalism focuses on order and stability and ignores the inequalities of gender, race and class that generate conflict.
Allyn & Bacon 2006

32. Copyright @ Allyn & Bacon 2006
Conflict Theory
Society is continually engaged in a series of disagreements, tensions, and clashes.
Conflict is inevitable because new elites form, even after the previously oppressed group “wins.”
Disequilibrium and change are the norm because of societal inequalities.
If we know who benefits from exploitation, we understand why discrimination persists.
Allyn & Bacon 2006

33. Conflict Theory (cont)
False consciousness is a technique by which a ruling elite maintains power and control of resources. Reinforced through ideology.
Group cohesiveness and struggle against oppression are necessary to affect social change.
Critics argue that conflict theory focuses too much on inequality and overlooks the achieved unity and mutual dependence found in society.
Allyn & Bacon 2006

34. Interactionist Theory
This theory focuses on the microsocial world of personal interaction patterns in everyday life.
Shared symbols and definitions provide the basis for interpreting life experiences.
Shared expectations and understandings, or the absence of these, explain intergroup relations.
Allyn & Bacon 2006

35. Interactionist Theory (cont)
Better communication and intercultural awareness improve majority-minority interaction patterns.
Critics argue that the interactionist’s focus on the everyday neglects culture and the structural influence of class, race and gender.
Allyn & Bacon 2006

36. Social Construction of Reality
Social Construction of Reality—Individuals create background against which to understand separate actions and interactions with others.
Individuals thus create cultural products, loosing awareness overtime of having created their own social and cultural environment (objectification). Internalize these supposed facts of objective reality through socialization process (internalization).

37. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN STUDY OF RACE/ETHNIC RELATIONS
Emphasis
Functionalist
Macrosocial View
Conflict Theory
Interactionist
Microsocial View
View of Society
Focus on cooperative social system of interrelated parts that is relatively stable
Focus on society as continually engaged in a series of disagreements, tensions, and clashes
Focus on microsocial world of personal interaction patterns in everyday life
Interaction Processes
Societal elements function together to maintain order, stability, and equilibrium
Conflict is inevitable because there is always a societal elite and an oppressed group
Shared symbols and definitions provide the basis for interpreting life experiences
Interaction Results
Societal dysfunctions result from temporary disorganization or maladjustment
Disequilibrium and change are the norm because of societal inequalities
An internalized social construction of reality makes it seem to be objective reality
Reason for Problems
Rapid social change is the most frequent cause of societal equilibrium
False consciousness allows the ruling elite to maintain power and benefit from exploitation
Shared expectations and understandings, or their absence, explain intergroup relations
How to Improve Society
Necessary adjustments will restore the social system to equilibrium
Group struggle against oppression is necessary to effect social change
Better intercultural awareness will improve interaction patterns
Source: Parillo, Table 1.2, Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations (2016), 28.