Ask me what it was like to have grown up a Mexican kid in

Sacramento and I will think of my father's smile, its

sweetness, its introspection, its weight of sobriety. Mexico was

most powerfully my father's smile and not, as you might

otherwise imagine, not language, not pigment. Richard Rodriguez

/

ethnicstudies:http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/ethnicstudies/

Today• Global inequality• Race and Ethnic relations• video: “True Colors”• Hypotheses and Questionnaire due

asap (latest = Wed. Feb. 16th)

Pop Quiz1. In order to get their group out into the

field collecting survey data and to help their Recitation Leaders grade their “Hypotheses and Questionnaire” effectively (and to have a pleasant Valentine’s Day), Sociology 101 students should:a. turn in carefully written and thoroughly edited and

pre-tested Hypotheses and Questionnaires which will be a pleasure to read and write comments on.

b. turn in a last minute attempt to develop Hypotheses and a Questionnaire which are difficult to read, make sense of, or comment on usefully.

Review (who knew?)Social Stratification• Class (economic)

• Status (respect, deference)

• Power (whose needs get 1st priority?)

POWER: “The capacity to CONTROL EVENTS and influence the behavior of others.”

Marx: power based on class

Weber: power also based on status groups

Summary: People have different start points in pursuing the good life.

1. F<---S The

2. S -------------> F Good

3. S ---> F Life

4. S-----> F

5. F<-----S

Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States, 1500-2100 (Projected)

Source: Richard T. Schaefer. 2002. Sociology: A Brief Introduction, 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill,Figure 9-1, p. 226. From author’s estimate, Bureau of the Census sources and Russell Thornton. 1987. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1942 . Norman: University ofOklahoma Press.

2100(projected)

1500 1790 1880

1940 2000

AmericanIndians100%

AmericanIndians

13%

AfricanAmericans

16%

Whitenon-Hispanic

70%

All others1%

AfricanAmericans

12%

Whitenon-Hispanic

86%

All others2%

African Americans 10%

Whitenon-Hispanic

87%

All others 2% AfricanAmericans

13%

Whitenon-Hispanic

87%

Asianand other

4%

Hispanic 12%

AfricanAmericans

15%

Whitenon-Hispanic

52%

Asianand other

11%

Hispanic 24%

Foreign-Born Population by Region of Birth: Selected Years, 1850 to 1997

Source: Census Bureau. 1999. Profile of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 1997 . Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, p. 11.

92.2 86.2 86 83 61.7 61.7 39 22.9 16.9

6.7

10.7 11.49.2

9.8

8.7

6.5

9.4

19.4

33.1

44.3

51.3

8.9

19.3

26.3 26.8

0.7

4

2.2

5.6 5.1

1.0 1.3 2.92.52.12.22.63.1

1850 1880 1900 1930 1960 1970 1980 1990 1997

Asia

Other (regions notshown separately

Latin America

Northern America

Europe

Race and Ethnic Relations

• Not reducible to class inequality

• Yet has economic implications

Video: “True Colors”1) What subtle forms do prejudice and

discrimination take?

2) How do these prejudices apply to other forms of stratification, such as class and religion?

3) How overcome prejudice and discrimination?

What subtle forms?

Apply to class, religion, etc.?

How end the cycle?

Race & ethnic cleavages:• observable PHYSICAL or CULTURAL

DIFFERENCES from dominant group

• negative evaluation and PREJUDICE can follow (based on ethnocentrism)

• DISCRIMINATION follows via abuse of unequal power

• IDEOLOGY follows to legitimate inequality

• OPPRESSION used when necessary to support system

Dysfunctions of Racism

• Inefficiency (wastes talent)

• Inconsistent with American values

• Generates conflict in society

• Two or more groups merge to become a new

ethnic or cultural group

• A + B + C = D

• 1800 and 1900 European immigrants to U.S.

became “Americans”

• U.S. today with Hispanic and Asian immigration?

SIX RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS

1) AMALGAMATION

2) ASSIMILATION

• become like dominant group

• common in U.S.

• Brazil, Argentina

3) PLURALISM (“mosaic,” “tapestry”)

• distinct group identity and culture remains

• some immigrant groups

• Switzerland (French,

German, Italian, Romansh)

4) LEGAL PROTECTION OF MINORITIES

• minority group enjoys protection of government, in spite of some hostility

• U.S. / India

• European Union requires this for entry

5) CONTINUED SUBJUGATION• minority group legally restricted• U.S. until 1960’s• South Africa until 1990’s• legal versions infrequent today, yet

remains defacto in schools and neighborhoods

• remove minorities altogether

• American Indians• South African

“homelands”• Uganda• back to Africa

movement• ethnic cleansing in

Kosovo• Palestinians in Israel

6) POPULATION TRANSFER and GENOCIDE

EXTERMINATION (genocide)

• English in America

• English in Tasmania

• Dutch colonizers of South Africa

• Hitler against Jews and Gypsies

• Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda

U.S. history includes all six forms:

• amalgamation• assimilation• pluralism• legal protection• continued subjugation• pop. transfer & genocide

Race and ethnic relations continueto be important throughout the world

“Between Two Worlds”

• How can cultural differences create distrust?

• What can we do as individuals or as a society to increase trust?

differences => distrust How create trust?

PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

PREJUDICE: negative ATTITUDE toward members of another group

• starts with ethnocentrism

• uses stereotypes: assumes a fixed (negative) set of characteristics for all group members

• scapegoating: blaming group for social problems

DISCRIMINATION: negative ACTION against other people on basis of group membership

• add power (or fear) to prejudice and you get discrimination

• Prejudice and discrimination become a self-perpetuating cycle.

“RACE” VS. “ETHNICITY”

RACE: some observable physical difference between groups.

ETHNICITY: shared cultural traits

• national origin and culture

• religion

KEY: Do people see themselves (and are seen by others) as a distinct ethnic group?

Q: How many identify as a member of a race or ethnic group?

Even though biological differences exist, what we

make of race is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

• There is a CONTINUUM of skin colors and

physical characteristics

• Distinct groups are almost meaningless (Caucasoid,

Mongoloid, Negroid)

• Thousands of distinct races could be identified (or

none)

• How we group these is a social decision

What are:

• people of India?

• Polynesians?

• Slavs?

• People of western Asia?

Chinese in South Africa were “colored” but Japanese were “white.”

• What we MAKE of these differences differences reflects SOCIAL RELATIONS between the groups, not biological differences.

• The “three great races” derive from geographic circumstance of continents, not biological groupings.

Solutions?• contact (busing?)

• equal rights (shared school funding?)

• “affirmative action”?

Synthesis• Race/ethnic relations are highly

variable

• Peace and mutual respect are functional for society

• Will world population flows end negative race and ethnic relations?

Thanks for feedback• discuss videos in recitation if not lecture• provide overview at end as well “review”• provide outlines (www?)• class needs to be more quiet

These 4 will nudge us toward a better learning environment.

We really are [many] countries, and it's really remarkable that each of

us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in

Durham--both are certain they are the real American.

Maya Angelou

America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one

cloth. Jesse Jackson