ethnicity and race. chapter outline ethnic groups & ethnicity status shifting race &...
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Chapter Outline
ETHNIC GROUPS & ETHNICITY Status Shifting RACE & ETHNICITY
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACEHypodescent: Race in the United StatesRace in the CensusNot Us: Race in Japan Phenotype and Fluidity:Race in Brazil
ETHIC GROUPS, NATIONS, & NATIONALITIES Nationalities and Imagined Communities
ETHNIC TOLERANCE & ACCOMMODATION Assimilation The Plural SocietyMulticulturalism and Ethnic Identity ROOTS OF
ETHNIC CONFLICT Prejudice and DiscriminationChips in the Mosaic Aftermath of Oppression
ETHNIC GROUPS & ETHNICITY
Ethnicity is bases on cultural similarities and differences in a society or nation.
Status Shifting
Ascribed status - social status based on little or no choice
Achieved status – social status based on choices or accomplishments
Some status aren’t mutually exclusive, but contextual. EX. People can be both black and Hispanic or mother and a senator
CLAMED IDENTITY
NUMBER(MILLIONS)
PERCENTAGE
White (non-Hispanic)
199.7 66.1
Hispanic 45.4 15.5
Black 38.8 12.9
Asian 13.4 4.5
American Indian
2.9 1.0
Pacific Islander .5 .2
Total population
301.1 99.8
Racial/Ethic Identification in US 2007
RACE & ETHNICITY
NATIONAL ORIGIN PERCENTAGE
Mexican American 64.4
Puerto Rican 9.1
Cuban 3.5
Central and South American
13.3
Other Hispanic/ Latino origin
9.8
Total 100.0
Race is a cultural category rather than a biological reality. Ethnic groups, including “races,” derive from contrasts perceived and perpetuated in particular societies rather than from scientific classifications based on common genes.
It id not possible to define human races biologically. Only cultural constructions of race are possible- even though the average person conceptualizes ‘race” in biological terms
American Hispanic, Latinos 2007
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
RACE
Hypodescent: Race in the United
States
In American culture, one acquires his/her racial identity at birth, as an ascribed status, but race isn’t based on biology or on simple ancestry. American rules for assigning racial status can be more arbitrary. In some state, anyone known to have any black ancestor, no matter how remote, is classified as black. This is a rule of decent, but of a sort that is rare outside of contemporary US.
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
RACE
Race in the Census
Racial categories in census (1990) includes: White, Black or Negro, Indian (American), Eskimo, Aleut or Pacific Islander and Other. A separate question is asked about Spanish-Hispanic heritage.
Choice of “some other race” in US Census more than doubled from 1980 (6.8 million) to 2000 (over 15 million) suggesting imprecision in and dissatisfaction with the existing categories.
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
RACE
Not Us: Race in Japan
North Americans view Japan is a nation that is homogeneous in race, ethnicity, language, and culture.
Japan is hardly the uniform entity
10% of Japan’s national population are minorities of various sorts
Aninu
Okinawans
Burakumin
Children of mixed marriages
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
RACE
Phenotype and fluidity: Race in
Brazil
Along with the rest of Latin American, Brazil has less exclusionary categories, which permit individuals to change their racial classification.
Brazilians use over 500 racial labels
Racial Classification pays attention to phenotypes
Phenotypes – expressed physical characteristics of an organism
ETHIC GROUPS, NATIONS, &
NATIONALITIES
Nationalities and Imagined
Communities
Nationalities – Ethnic groups that have once had, or want their own country
Even when they become nation states, they remain “imagined communities because most of their members, through feeling comradeship, will never meet. They can only imagine they are the same unit.
ETHNIC TOLERANCE & ACCOMMODATION
Assimilation – absorption of minorities within a dominant culture
Minority culture is so incorporated into dominant culture that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit
The Plural Society
Societies with economically interdependent ethic groups
Ethic groups can persist despite generations of interethnic contact
ETHNIC TOLERANCE & ACCOMMODATION
Multiculturalism & Ethnic
Identity
A multicultural society socializes individuals not only into dominant (national) culture but also into an ethnic culture.
ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT
Prejudice and discrimination
People are prejudiced when they hold stereotypes about groups and apply to them to individuals.
Chips In the Mosaic
Discrimination –
Policies and practices that harm a group of its members
Although the multicultural model is increasing prominent in North American ethnic competition and conflict also are evident. There is conflict between newer arrivals, for instance, Central American and Koreans, and longer established ethnic groups such as African Americans
ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT