RACE AND ETHNICITY

1. RACE AND ETHNICITY

2. RACE DEFINED • A race is a grouping of people who have been singled out on the basis of real or alleged physical characteristics • Race is physically based but socially constructed. • “If things are defined as real, they are real in their consequences”

3. CHARACTERISTICS • Skin and/or hair color or texture • Facial features, eye color, head form • height • blood type • nationality

4. TIME AND PLACE • Possible to be considered a race at one time but not at another--the Irish and the Italians of 100 years ago. • Possible to be considered a race at one place but not at another-- Brazil vs the United States

5. ETHNIC GROUP • Ethnicity--Common cultural characteristics people share, such as the same language, place of origin, dress, food, values. • Ethnic Group-- People who share ciltural features such as language, place or origin, dress, food, and values. • Ethnic Identity-- The internalization of ethnic status and role as part of a person’s self-concept.

6. CENSUS 2000 RACE AMERICAN POPULATION • One Race: 97.6% • White 75.1% • African American 12.3% • Hispanic 12.5% • Asian 3.6%

7. SELF-IDENTIFIED ANCESTRY • German 46,452,074 • Irish 33,026,794 • English 28,255,308 • American 19,643,0454 • Italian 15,903,962 • French 9,768,319 • Polish 9,050,122

8. MINORITY GROUP • Visibility--must possess distinctive or cultural characteristics that can be used to distinguish it from the majority. • Domination--no matter its numerical size, it is dominated by the majority. • Inequality--denied equal treatment. • Judged as Inferior--used to justify the groups maltreatment.

9. MORE ON MINORITIES • Common Identity--Minority identifies as such and develops a culture on the basis of that identity. • Ascribed Membership--Minority membership not shed easily.

10. MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME 2000 • White $44,226 • African Am $30,439 • Hispanic $33,447

11. PERCENT OF WHITE MEDIAN INCOME

12. FROM AMERISTAT 2002 • Except at the very oldest ages, black Americans have the highest death rates of any of America's racial and ethnic groups. In large part, this can be attributed to inequalities in economic status, education, and occupation — all of which are related to the risk of mortality. But the racial differences in mortality persist even in studies that compare individuals with similar levels of income and education.

13. AFRICAN AMERICANS, cont. • The disadvantage for blacks appears for all the major causes of death: heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The disadvantage is greatest in deaths from HIV infection, for which the risk to blacks is over seven times the risk to white Americans.

14. ASIANS, HISPANICS, AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS • Asian and Pacific Islanders and Hispanics, by contrast, have much lower mortality rates than would be expected from their social and economic status in the United States. Their advantage is especially apparent in the leading causes of death — heart disease and cancers. One factor contributing to the good health of both Asians and Hispanics in the United States is the "immigrant advantage."

15. IMMIGRANT ADVANTAGE • Several studies have shown that international migrants tend to be particularly healthy and optimistic individuals, with better diets and more positive health-related behaviors than non-immigrants. And both Asian and Hispanic populations include a higher proportion of recent immigrants than do either the white non-Hispanic or the black non-Hispanic populations..

16. BEYOND THE IMMIGRANT ADVANTAGE • But the immigrant advantage itself does not explain entirely the paradox of Hispanic and Asian-American good health. • More research needed.

17. AMERICAN INDIANS • Death rates for American Indians are similar to those of whites for most causes, but are substantially higher for cirrhosis of the liver and for injuries, suicide, and homicide.

18. INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS & AMERICA’S DIVERSITY • The United States adopts more children from abroad than any other country. Three-fourths of the 20,000 children adopted by U.S. parents last year were from China, Russia, South Korea, Guatemala, or Ukraine

19. FOREIGN ADOPTIONS • The number of foreign children adopted by U.S. parents has increased sharply. At just over 20,000 in Fiscal Year 2002 they contribute to the United States' racial and ethnic diversity and links to foreign countries. And because many adopted children come from a different racial or ethnic background than their American parents, they contribute to the blurring of racial and ethnic boundaries

20. PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION • Prejudice: An attitude that predisposes and individual to prejudge entire categories of people unfairly. • Discrimination: The unfair and harmful treatment of people based on their group membership. • Stereotypes: Rigid and inaccurate images that summarize a belief.

21. Prejudice and Discrimination: Some Social Types • All-weather Liberal:neither prejudice or discriminates • Fair-weather Liberal:unprejudiced but discriminates • Timid Bigot: prejudiced but does not discriminate • All-weather Bigot: both prejudiced and discriminates

22. RACISM • Racism is the belief that race determines human ability and that as a result, certain races deserve to be treated as superior. • Institutional Racism is a situation in which racist practices become part of the social practice and institutions of society.

23. PRINCIPLE OF CUMULATION • This is the process in which discrimination by the majority keeps the minority in an inferior status and that inferior status is then cited as “proof” that the minority does not deserve better treatment.

24. JOINING A NEW SOCIETY • Assimilation: The blending of the culture and structure of one racial or ethnic group with the culture and structure ofsociety. • Americanization: The process within American society in which minority group members change their behavior and in doing so become more like the majority group.

25. PATTERNS OF ASSIMILATION • Cultural Assimilation: Taking on the mainstream dress, food, customs, values, norms, and language so as to be virtually indistinguishable from the majority. • Structural Assimilation: Interacting at work, home and in the community with people from the majority and having friends and/or spouse from the majority.

26. MORE ON JOINING • Melting Pot: A situation in which the culture and social structure of both the minority and majority change in such a way that a new, blended grouping emerges that combines some features of both groups.

27. AND SOME MORE... • Pluralism: A situation in which separate racial and ethnic groups maintain their distinctiveness even though they may approximately equal standing. • Ethnic Revival: A situation in which racial and ethnic groups clamor for political autonomy and sometimes demand independence.

28. AND STILL MORE…. • Ethnic Revival: A situation in which racial and ethnic groups clamor for political autonomy and sometimes demand independence. • Symbolic Ethnicity: An attempt to preserve and participate in disappearing ethnic roles and culture.

29. OPPRESSION • Expulsion: The forceful exclusion of a racial or ethnic group from a society. • Annihilation: The process by which one ethnic or racial group exterminates another group.

30. THE CULTURAL MOSAIC • America may be described as a cultural mosaic with many different racial and ethnic groups who are in different phases of cultural and structural assimilation, and whose mainstream culture in constantly undergoing a degree of modification that results from the continual interaction of new and old groups.