1. Chapter 8 Racial–Ethnic Relations

2. The Problem in Sociological Perspective
Prejudice is an attitude.
Discrimination is action, differential treatment.
Minority group:
People who are discriminated against because they belong to a particular group.
Dominant group: those who discriminate

3. Characteristics of Minority Groups
Membership is not voluntary (achieved status) but comes through birth (ascribed status).
Physical or cultural traits are held in low esteem by the dominant group (prejudice).
Members are treated unequally by the dominant group (discrimination).
Minority members tend to marry within their group (endogamy).
Minorities feel group solidarity because of physical or cultural traits and disadvantages of these traits.

4. Characteristics of Minority Groups
Affinity groups: voluntary segregation
Objectives of minority groups
Pluralism
Assimilation
Secession
Militancy

5. Policies of Dominant Groups
Pluralism
Assimilation: forced or permissible
Segregation
Internal colonialism
Population transfer: direct or indirect
Genocide

6. Ideas of Racial Superiority
Race
The inherited physical characteristics that identify a group of people
Eugenics
Attempts to improve the human “race” through selective breeding
Race is an arbitrary social category.
Sociologists use the term racial–ethnic group.
Racial–ethnic group: people who identify with one another on basis of ancestry and cultural heritage

8. The Scope of the Problem
The melting pot vs. The salad bowl
Anglo-conformity
Stereotypes: unrealistic generalizations of what people are like
Effects of discrimination reach beyond statistics

9. Symbolic Interactionism
Ethnophaulisms: derogatory labels that are applied to racial–ethnic groups
Socialization into prejudice
Labels affect prejudice by causing selective perception
Self-fulfilling Prophecy: labels so powerful they justify prejudice and discrimination
Compartmentalize: separate negative acts from other aspects of their lives

10. Functionalism Functions and dysfunctions of discrimination
Racial–ethnic stratification
Ensures that society’s dirty work gets done
Society needs a division of labor
Ethnocentrism
Helps dominant group justify higher social position and greater share of society’s resources
Dysfunctions
Interfere with people’s welfare and the functioning of society

11. Conflict Theory Surplus value of labor Split-labor Market
Weakens the bargaining power of workers by splitting them along racial–ethnic lines
Reserve Labor Force
Minority workers are ideal for the reserve labor force
False class consciousness
Consequences of a split-labor market
Leads minorities and whites to view one another as enemies
Riots

12. Research Findings Native Americans
2 million Native Americans representing more than 500 tribes
Exogamy: intermarriage
Treaties: broken for land and resources
Stereotypes: justify inhumane acts
Education and culture conflict: Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Pan-Indianism: moving beyond identification with a particular tribe and emphasizing common elements that run through all of their cultures

13. Latinos (Hispanics) African Americans Largest ethnic group in the U.S.
Unauthorized immigrants
Factor that clearly distinguishes Latinos from other U.S. minorities is the Spanish language
African Americans
Civil Disobedience: deliberately but peacefully disobeying laws considered unjust
Rising Expectations
Militancy: after M.L. King’s death
1954 Supreme Court decision to integrate U.S. schools led to even more segregation

14. Race or Social Class? A Sociological Debate
Any group of people who have more or less similar goods, services, or skills to offer for income in a given economic order and who therefore receive similar financial remuneration in the market-place
Life Chances
Quality of life and experiences

15. Asian Americans Detention Camps Discrimination against Chinese
Development stages of Chinatowns
Involuntary segregation
Defensive insulation
Voluntary segregation
Gradual assimilation
General economic success of Asian Americans seems to be rooted in three factors: family life, education, and assimilation

16. Social Policy
Centers on goals of encouraging cultural pluralism and preventing discrimination
Appreciating different backgrounds
Establish national, state, and local “cultural centers”
Teach history in ways that recognize the contributions of many groups
Teach foreign languages in public schools

17. Preventing Discrimination
Use the legal system
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination by race, color, creed, national origin, and sex, must be enforced
Education vouchers
Parents could choose any school they wanted their children to attend, private or public

18. The Dilemma of Affirmative Action
The Bakke Case
Proposition 209
The University of Michigan Case
Absent constitutional amendments like those in Michigan and California; states that want to use race–ethnicity in college admissions must follow the Supreme Court’s decision

19. Principles for Improving Relations
People of different racial–ethnic backgrounds should have equal status.
People in interethnic contact should work together.
To achieve equality, groups must demonstrate cooperative dependence.
Authority, law, and custom should support interaction among groups.

20. The Future of the Problem
Progress
Inconsistent and backwards at times
An ongoing struggle
Disparities in education
Education is the key in improving racial–ethnic relations
Disturbing possibility is permanent underclass
Militants, from minority or dominant group, are an unpredictable factor in future racial–ethnic relations
The American Dilemma