1. Lesson 11: Race, Racism and Privilege
Social Problems
Robert Wonser

2. Race
Social construction that uses certain traits to organize people into hierarchies
Traits may be physical, religious, cultural, or socioeconomic
Constructions entrenched in social structures and organizations

3. What Does “Black” and “White” Look Like Anyway?
What race is this man?
What marks him as Black?

4. What Does “Black” and “White” Look Like Anyway
What Does “Black” and “White” Look Like Anyway? Obama and his Grandfather

5. Other Examples of Race as a Social Construction
One drop rule in the United States
“Money whitens” saying in Latin American cultures
Jews considered a separate race in Nazi Germany
“White Ethnics”

6. Ethnicity Social construction based on Cultural heritage
Often connected to nationality
May be associated with languages, surnames, holidays, clothing styles
Ranges on a continuum of strength from thick to thin (symbolic ethnicity)

7. Minority Group
Refers to the group’s share of power and resources not size
Women are a numerical majority of the population but lack the income and political power of men.
People of color are the numerical majority globally, but they hold minority status in the United States

8. Racism
A system of advantage and disadvantage based on race

9. Colorblind Racism Race is irrelevant
Racial discrimination a thing of the past
Problems minorities encounter must stem from individual inadequacies

10. Tokenistic Fallacy
Assumption that because a few members of a minority group have achieved equality with majority counterparts, the group no longer experiences racial disadvantage
Examples: Oprah, Barack Obama

11. Institutional Discrimination
Policies and practices embedded in social institutions that favor members of the majority group while systematically disadvantaging people of color
May not be racially intended
Sometimes difficult to identify
Results in “sedimentation of racial inequality”

12. Jim Crow
System of racialized segregation that existed from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1865 to the landmark civil rights legislations of the late 1960s.
Blacks often remained unable to:
own their own labor
testify as witnesses
obtain an equal education
vote

13. New Jim Crow (Alexander 2012)
Criminal justice system acts as the major enforcer of Jim Crow today Example: White crack users more likely to be sentenced to treatment than prison; only 25 percent were arrested, compared to 63 percent of black users (Beckett et al 2005).

14. Internalized Racism
Occurs when people of color buy into the dominant ideology and view themselves as inferior

15. Race and Structural Functionalism
Minorities must assimilate into the dominant culture
Poor integration harmful to social equilibrium
Segmented assimilation: traditional, downward, or hybrid
Bumpy line assimilation: individuals can have “thick” or “thin” ties to parents’ culture of origin.

16. Race and Conflict Theory
W.E.B. DuBois’s double consciousness
Blacks possess a dual understanding of (1) themselves as fully capable human beings, and (2) the majority group’s obscured perception of them.
Similar to white privilege

17. Race and Symbolic Interaction
Contact hypothesis (Allport 1954)
the more intergroup contact between whites and racial/ethnic minorities, the less likely they are to be prejudiced
Contact most effective when:
People are of equal status
Contact is regular and sanctioned by an authority

18. Race and Symbolic Interaction
Stereotype threat (Steele 1995; 1997)
Occurs when minorities’ self-concepts and performance on tasks are harmed by societal stereotypes that portray them as less competent than other racial groups