Chapter 11: Sociology, Schaefer, 1995-2012 See also: Michael Kearl

Minority Groups:

• Individual vs. Group.
• Versus Dominant Group
• Differential access to societal resources.
  1. Unequal treatment.
  • Poor white kids are less likely to go to prison than rich black kids, Washington Post Wonkblog, 3/23/16.
  2. Physical/cultural stigma.
  3. Ascribed status.
  4. Group solidarity (in and out groups).
  5. Endogamous (map).
• The Next America (Pew Research Center, April 10, 2014)

Down to Patterns of Dominant/Subordinate Group Interaction

Race:

Biological Significance (see also)

Social Significance (see also)

• Social Perceptions of the Color-Line
• STL Mayoral Primary Voting, 2013
• Dress codes

Typifications

• Stereotypes
• Definition of the situation.
• The Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Ethnicity:

Culture and Learning

Racism:

Does Racism Still Exist, 2015? (local copy)

https://youtu.be/fTcSVQJ2h8g [transcript]

Functions:

• Ideology justifies inequality--socialization.
• Dirty work
• Discourages questioning
• Impact of change-paternalism
• Ethnic Succession (see also)
• Ethnocentrism

Dysfunctions:

• Use of resources in order to maintain inequalities
• Social problems
• Waste of Resources (especially human)
• Impact on international relations

Conflict:

Exploitation Theory

• Split labor market (Japanese, Chinese, Slavery) (see also: Bonacich, Edna. A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market. American Sociological Review, Vol. 37, No. 5 (Oct., 1972), pp. 547-559. (local copy)
• Profit and the rationalized self-interest of dominant groups.
• Poverty and the reserve labor pool (Race, class, and the state in contemporary sociology: the William Julius Debates, by Jack Niemonen. 2002.

White Privilege (images)(What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege, Lori Lakin Hutcherson, 7/14/2010. Another version)

Most Whites think that white people get little or no advantage from their race, Oliphant, Baxter. Pew Research Center Fact Tank. September, 27, 2017.

Racial Formations (Michael Omi and Howard Winant, eds., Racial Formation in the United States, Second
Edition, 1994. pp. 3-13).

Critical Race Theory (if broken try the Purdue OWL article or UCLA School of Public Affairs | Critical Race Studies)

Interactionism:

• Sherif's--Robber's Cave
• Non-competitive, equal status and common super-ordinate goals.

Theories of Gender Stratification

Theories of Age Stratification

The Cycle of Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice: Attitude=> stereotypes

• Discrimination: Behavior=> unequal treatment

• Prejudicial attitudes can be the foundation of an ideology which justifies unequal treatment. Denied access to societal resources can lead to internalization of a sense of worthlessness, and/or produce the reality of failure in competition for prized rewards. Failure and a sense of worthlessness can then serve to justify the original prejudicial attitudes, and the cycle begins again.
• This is the "Social Construction of Reality"
• The reality of a "Self-fulfilling Prophecy"
• These patterns of interaction can be "built in" to interactional patterns in various ways
• Merton:

• Individual:
  1. Authoritarian personality
  2. Socialization
• Structural
  1. Norms and status hierarchies
  2. Institutional support (education, criminal justice, etc)
  3. Social isolation (Racial segregation in major American cities)(see also and this)(map home)

• Individual
• Institutional
• Legal
• Altering:
  1. U.S. 1954: Brown v Board of Ed.-Topeka
  2. 1964 Civil Rights Act--EEO, Affirmative Action
  3. 1987-expanded to ethnic groups as well
  4. Yet--embedded structures are difficult to change: Affirmative Action and Education (NY Times, August 24, 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.htm.

Dominant Group Privilege

• Associate with own race (with ease)
• No trouble shopping for a home
• Not followed in stores
• Not evaluated in racial terms
• Applies to categories other than race

Back

• Genocide
• Expulsion
• Assimilation: A+B+C=A. Forced or voluntary; names, cultural practices-religion, Passing.
• Segregation: forced, voluntary, and/or institutional. (Racial segregation in major American cities)
• Pluralism: A+B+C=A+B+C. Equal status and tolerance. U.S.--religion, ethnic neighborhoods. Problem here--language
• Amalgamation: A+B+C=D. America the "Melting Pot" vs . The "Salad Bowl."

Back to Theories

(New Immigrants) (Immigrant views of the USA)

Every Person in the USA

African-Americans

• 11.2% of population
• Poverty (1/3)
• Income ~1/2 whites (The Money Gap)
• 20% of military
• 25% of soldiers in the Gulf War
• Legacy of Slavery
• Dr. Martin Luther King-civil disobedience
• Malcolm X: Black Power
• Little Change past 50 years: Income, Health (infant mortality), Education, Residence
• Criminal justice: 13% of current drug users, 35% of arrests for drug use, 55% of convictions, 70% of incarcerations
• 1/3==> Middle-class, yet mobility stalled
• Black politics: Urban change =>St. Louis: Freeman Bosley, Jr.
• W. J. Wilson: The Underclass
• Infant Mortality (graph)

Native Americans

• 0.8% of population
• Genocide
• Reservations
• Diverse groups--Pan-Indian Movement
• Bleak--poverty, alcoholism, violence.
• BIA and schools--Wax: cultural conflict

Asian Groups in the USA (see also, The Rise of Asian Americans)(4.6%)(Fastest growing group: 3% growth rate 2015-2016)

Chinese

• 1% of population
• Railroad
• Opium
• 1882 Exclusion Act
• Change since WWII

• .2% of population
• Recent arrival
• Nisei (3rd generation) and assimilation
• Internment and WWII
• Denial of rights

Indochinese:

• very recent, esp. Vietnamese
• Rejected
• Dispersed
• Asian-Americans: Model Minority Myth

Ethnic Groups

• 2017: 18% of population: Since 2000 have become largest minority in USA, second fastest growing.
• Growth
• Language
• Diversity: what makes one a Hispanic?

Arab Americans: ~1% of the population

• Arabic language
• Diversity

Jews:

• Anti-Semitism
• Assimilation

Gender Stratification

Age Stratification

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/010/racethic.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated: Saturday, October 21, 2017 10:06 AM