Race

1. Race Today: • What is Race? • Assignment: As you enter: write a stereotype or label on the board that you feel others have of a group you belong to (does not have to be a racial or ethnic group) Be prepared to discuss this • Race versus Ethnicity

2. Guidelines for discussing race and ethnic relations: • Respect. • Respect each other’s viewpoints. • Allow everyone to complete their statements before responding • Remember not to make generalizations or stereotypical comments about any racial, ethnic, or religious groups (even your own).

3. Race vs. Ethnicity • Race: a category of people who share physical characteristics • Ethnicity: a shared cultural heritage and/or national origin Example: Cubans/Puerto Ricans/Dominicans are of the same ethnicity but can be of different races

4. Race is a social construct • Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, these categories are not based on science. • Race is a social construction. This means that race is not a scientific fact. • Scientifically we are all a part of the same race-the human race. • People think of races as sharply distinguishable and fixed biological entities, their boundaries are in fact set by social agreement.

5. Race is a social construct • Often times race designations change because the criteria we use to distinguish race are blurred and imperfect. • Commonly used criteria such as skin color, eye shape, nose shape, and geographical origin can intertwine and overlap within their agreed upon categories. • Example: a person who traces their origins to Europe may have darker skin than a person who traces their origins to Africa (Southern Italians can have darker complexions than Egyptians)

6. Race is a social construct • Race designations are also blurred is because most people are not of one “race.”

7. Historical Racial Classification and the Census Years and Categories: • 1890 White, Black, Mulatto, Quadroon*, Octaroon**, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian • 1900 White, Black, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian • 1910 White, Black, Mulatto, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Other (plus write-in) • 1920 White, Black, Mulatto, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hindu, Korean, and Other (plus write-in) • 1930 White, Negro, Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hindu, Korean (Other races, spell out in full) 1940 White, Negro, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hindu, Korean (Other races, spell out in full) *Quadroon-1 grandparent other white **Octaroon-One biracial grandparent

8. Historical Racial Classification and the Census Years and Categories: • 1950 White, Negro, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino (Other races, spell out) • 1960 White, Negro, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Part Hawaiian, Aleut, Eskimo • 1970 White, Negro or Black, Indian (American), Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Korean, Other (print race) • 1980 White, Negro, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian (American), Asian Indian, Hawaiian, Guamanian, Samoan, Eskimo, Aleut, Other (specify); each person can also be Hispanic or Latino.

9. U.S. Census 1990

10. U.S. Census 1990 *Aleut: indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska

11. U.S. Census 1990 *Aleut: indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska

12. U.S. Census 2000

13. U.S. Census 2000

14. U.S. Census 2000

15. Assignment • Write a stereotype or label on the board that you feel others have of a group you belong to (does not have to be a racial or ethnic group) • Be prepared to discuss

16. Stereotypes A preconceived, simplistic idea about the members of a group Hinder social interactions, lead to false assumptions about others View example 2:15

17. Prejudice and Discrimination • Prejudice- refers to attitudes (Fear, anger, strong dislike, hatred, other negative emotions towards a group) • Discrimination – refers to actions(Unequal treatment based on group membership ) • Racism – refers to discriminatory beliefs or actions based on race

18. Types of Discrimination: Individual • any behavior on the part of an individual which leads to unequal treatment on the basis of race or ethnicity. • A taxi-driver’s refusing to pick up someone due to race

19. Types of Discrimination: Institutional • any arrangements, practice within a social institution that tend to favor one race or ethnic group (usually the majority group) over another. • procedures and operations that result in unequal treatment or unequal opportunities for minorities • May be deliberate, (as in discriminatory voting laws) or subtle and perhaps unintended • Example: Redlining in real estate, tracking in schools • A taxi company instructing drivers not to pick up certain groups due to race

20. Which type of discrimination is worse?Individual or Institutional? Which type is more difficult to get rid of?

21. Robert Merton’s Typology on Prejudice and Discrimination is based on the principle that prejudice and discrimination do not always occur together. • 1. All weather liberal:unprejudiced non-discriminator • 2. Fair weather liberal:unprejudiced discriminator (if in a setting where others discriminate may also discriminate) • 3. Timid bigot: prejudice non-discriminator • 4. All weather bigot: prejudice discriminator • Many people do not fit into the first and last categories where people behave consistently with their beliefs. • Social pressures begin to explain the other 2 behaviors • Very few people fit in one category all the time

23. Sources of prejudice and discrimination Sociological and Psychological Perspectives Causes of prejudice can be grouped into 4 categories. • Cultural Transmission • Group Identification Theory • Personality theories • Frustration-aggression hypothesis

24. Sources of prejudice and discrimination 1) Cultural Transmission: focuses on how prejudice is transmitted through culture from generation to generation. • child learns prejudice in the same manner he or she learns how to speak, eat, and dress • building blocks for prejudice are contained with a society’s culture and transmitted naturally to the child through home and community in the form of: • stereotyping (by family or media) • social distance-this refers to the extent of contact members of one group would allow or desire with members of another group.

25. Sources of prejudice and discrimination 2)Group Identification Theory: focuses on how prejudices are tied in with an individual’s racial and ethnic group membership. • human groups are drawn together through common interests, develop a view of themselves as “in-group” and tend to rate others as lower • A person’s self-worth may be raised by either accepting an exaggerated view of the value of their own group, or by downgrading the value or importance of another group. • In other words, pride in one’s group may become excessive and give rise to prejudice.

26. Sources of prejudice and discrimination 3) Personality theories: assert that those with authoritarian personalities have higher tendencies of holding prejudice beliefs. Authoritarian personality: • rigidly conventional • uncritical of authority within their group • preoccupied with power • close-minded • raised by excessively harsh and disciplinarian adults have a highly antidemocratic view of the world which can lead to intolerant views of other groups

27. Sources of prejudice and discrimination 4) Frustration-aggression hypothesis: ethnic prejudices develop in response to people’s need to cope with the frustration in their daily lives. Ethnic groups provide scapegoats for hostility and frustration people experience

28. Which of these do you think best explains racism? Why? • Cultural Transmission: focuses on how prejudice is transmitted through culture from generation to generation through family and/or media. • Group Identification Theory: focuses on how prejudices are tied in with an individual’s racial and ethnic group membership. • Personality theories: assert that those with high levels of frustration or authoritarian personalities have higher tendencies of holding prejudice beliefs. • Frustration-aggression hypothesis: ethnic prejudices develop in response to people’s need to cope with the frustration in their daily lives.

29. Can one person make a difference? Would you? View example

30. SolutionsCreate a solution for prejudice based on the theory you agree with most.This can be a policy for employers, law for a state, requirement for families, requirement for the media industry, curriculum standard for teachers, etc. • Cultural Transmission: focuses on how prejudice is transmitted through culture from generation to generation through family/media. • Group Identification Theory: focuses on how prejudices are tied in with an individual’s racial and ethnic group membership. • Personality theories: assert that those with high levels of frustration or authoritarian personalities have higher tendencies of holding prejudice beliefs. • Frustration-aggression hypothesis: ethnic prejudices develop in response to people’s need to cope with the frustration in their daily lives.

31. Coming up • Read article on Website for Monday – White Privilege, PRINT AND BRING TO CLASS, underline 5 points she makes that strike you • Study guide for quiz 2 (Tuesday) is on course website

32. Why do we care about racial categories? • View: Questions of Race, Race is History

33. White Privilege • Peggy MacIntosh’s acknowledges the privileges she feels she has in her life solely due to being white. • Of the many situations MacIntosh describes, which strike 5 you most? (This can mean you relate, you agree, you disagree, or feel that these 5 are most important) • Underline or star these 5 Share 3 that your underlined with 1-2 people, explain why you selected these 3 6 minutes