1.Why do you think stereotypes are so easily interchanged between groups? Do you believe that our society is becoming more or less racist? How effective were previous movements to attain equality?

1.Why do you think stereotypes are so easily interchanged between groups? Do you believe that our society is becoming more or less racist? How effective were previous movements to attain equality?
I. Race and Ethnicity A. Ethnicity 1. An ethnic group is a social construct and it refers to a social category of people who share a common culture. 2. Ethnic groups develop because of their unique historical and social experiences that become the basis for the group’s ethnic identity. a. Ethnic identification may be strengthened when a group faces prejudice or is the target of exclusionary practices. b. Ethnicity gives people a sense of community. B. Defining Race 1. A race is primarily a social construct, and it is a term used to describe a group treated as distinct in society based on certain characteristics, some of which are biological, that have been assigned social importance. 2. The social categories used to divide groups into races are not fixed, and they vary from society to society. 3. Racialization is the process whereby some social category, like social class, ethnicity, or nationality, takes on what is perceived in the society to be racial characteristics. a. Race is thus socially constructed, based on certain characteristics that have been assigned social importance in society by the most powerful group(s) in a society for political and economic purposes. b. Definitions of race are created and maintained by the most powerful group (or groups) in society and based on what these presumed group differences mean in the context of social and historical experience. 4. The Significance of Defining Race – racial formation is the process by which a group comes to be defined as a race. a. This definition is supported through official social institutions such as the law and the schools. b. The biological differences presumed to define different racial groups are somewhat arbitrary and different groups use different criteria to define racial groups. c. Most variability in biological characteristics is within and not between racial groups. C. Minority and Dominant Groups 1. A minority group is any distinct group in society that shares common group characteristics and is forced to occupy low status in society because of prejudice and discrimination. a. Minority group status is not a numerical representation, as indicated by the apartheid system in South Africa where blacks were a numerical majority. b. Minority groups possess characteristics regarded as different and suffer prejudice and discrimination by the dominant group. c. Membership is frequently ascribed (not achieved) and members feed a strong sense of group solidarity. 2. The group that assigns a racial or ethnic group a subordinate status is called the dominant group or social majority. II. Racial Stereotypes A. Stereotypes and Salience – People routinely categorize other people based on readily apparent (salient) characteristics. 1. Stereotypes are oversimplified sets of beliefs about members of a social group or social stratum that presumably, but usually incorrectly, describe a ‘typical member’. 2. Racial-ethnic stereotypes are based on race or ethnicity. 3. No group in U.S. history has escaped the process of categorization and stereotyping, even White groups. 4. The application of stereotypes is based on the salience principle, which states that we categorize people on the basis of what appears initially prominent and obvious; salient characteristics include skin color, gender, and age. 5. The choice of salient characteristics is culturally determined (e.g. middle easterners consider religion more salient than race). B. The Interplay among Race, Gender, and Class Stereotypes 1. Racial, ethnic, gender, and social class are prominent features for stereotyping and interrelate in complex ways in our society. 2. Gender stereotypes about women are more negative than those about men and are culturally constructed. 3. Social class stereotypes are based on assumptions about social class status. 4. The principle of stereotype interchangeability holds that stereotypes— especially negative ones—are often interchangeable among groups, especially those for those groups having the lowest social status in society. III. Prejudice and Discrimination A. Prejudice is the evaluation of a social group, and individuals within that group, based on conceptions about the social group that are held despite facts that contradict it. 1. Prejudice involves both prejudgment and misjudgment. 2. Everyone possesses prejudices. 3. People who are more prejudiced are also more likely to stereotype others by race or ethnicity, and gender, than those who are less prejudiced. 4. Prejudice is revealed in the phenomenon of ethnocentrism – the belief that one’s group is superior to all other groups. Generally, the greater the difference between groups, the more harshly the out-group will be judged by an ethnocentric individual of an in-group, and the more prejudiced that person will be against members of the out-group. 5. Prejudice and Socialization. All agents of primary or secondary socialization contribute to prejudice; the media have been particularly culpable of perpetuating stereotypes. B. Discrimination is overt behavior that treats members of a particular group unequally just because they belong to that group. 1. Racial-ethnic discrimination – the unequal treatment of a person based on race or ethnicity, takes many forms, may be combined with other forms of discrimination (like gender discrimination), and does not necessarily go together with prejudice. 2. Despite legislation outlawing discrimination in employment and housing, the income gap and residential segregation indicate that discrimination is still practiced. IV. Racism A. Racism, both attitudinal and behavioral, is the perception and treatment of a racial or ethnic group, (and member of that group) as intellectually, socially, and culturally inferior to one’s own group. 1. Different forms of racism include: a. Jim Crow racism b. aversive racism c. implicit bias d. laissez-faire or symbolic racism e. color-blind racism f. White privilege g. institutional racism h. racial profiling 2. Institutional racism is negative treatment and oppression of one racial or ethnic group by society’s existing institutions based on the presumed inferiority of the oppressed group. a. It persists because of the economic and political power that accrues to dominant groups because of their position in social institutions. b. Institutional racism can exist even without prejudice being the cause. c. It can be seen in persistent economic inequality, in racial profiling and other forms of unequal treatment in the criminal justice system, and even in such everyday activities as sales transactions. V. Theories of Prejudice and Racism A. Psychological Theories of Prejudice 1. Assimilation theory examines the process by which a minority becomes socially, economically, and culturally absorbed within the dominant society. 2. Pluralism – the separate maintenance and persistence of one’s culture, language, mannerisms, practices, art, and so on. Symbolic Interaction Theory a. Symbolic interaction theory also studies how race and ethnicity are socially constructed. Also, contact theory argues that interaction between whites and minorities will reduce prejudice on the part of both groups only when: i the contact is between individuals of equal status, ii contact is sustained, and iii participants agree upon social norms favoring equality. 4. Conflict Theory a. Conflict theorists argue that class inequality is an inherent and fundamental part of social interaction in all groups, cultures and societies. b. The current ‘class vs. race’ controversy demonstrates how important class and race are in explaining inequality and its consequences. c. The theory also focuses on the interaction of class, race, and gender through the intersection perspective, which acknowledges that gender differences are viewed differently within different racial or class groups. VI. Diverse Groups, Diverse Histories A. Native Americans: The First of This Land 1. The size of the indigenous population in North America in 1492 is estimated from one to ten million people. 2. Conquest, disease, and expulsion from their lands resulted in a rapid decline in population to 600,000 by 1800 and 300,000 by 1850. 3. Today, about 55 percent of all Native Americans live on or near a reservation. 4. They suffer from the highest poverty rate of all minorities and massive unemployment (over 50% among males). B. African Americans 1. The development of slavery in the Americas is related to world markets for sugar and tobacco. 2. Between 20 and 100 million Africans were transported to the Americas, with the vast majority going to Brazil and the Caribbean, and only 6 percent to the United States. a. Slavery, in which people were chattel, evolved as a rigid caste system based on patriarchy and white supremacy. b. Research reveals extensive slave resistance and armed rebellion. c. After slavery presumably ended with the Civil War, sharecropping emerged as a new exploitative system. d. The Great Migration of blacks from the South to the urban North from the 1900s through the 1920s and beyond encouraged the development of collective political, social, and cultural action. C. Latinos – The diverse Latino or Hispanic American population has grown considerably over the past few decades. These two terms obscure important differences in how different Latino groups entered the American society. 1. Mexican Americans a. Before the Anglo conquest, Mexican colonists had formed settlements and missions throughout the West and Southwest that displayed a class system within the Chicano community. Land loss and enclosure following the Mexican-American War of 1946-1848 corresponded to the racial formation of Mexicans as inferiors, a belief system that justified their lower status and Anglo control of the land. c. In the 20th century, year-round production of irrigated crops in the Southwest and West created a need for migrant workers continuing until today. 2. Puerto Ricans a. Puerto Rico became a Commonwealth in 1952, followed by the launching of Operation Bootstrap, designed to attract U.S. corporations to the island using tax breaks and other concessions. b. With the persistence of unemployment, seasonal workers began to migrate to the United States. c. To reduce unemployment, the U.S. government instituted population control programs on the island, including forced sterilization of women. 3. Cubans a. The largest migration of Cubans to the U.S., after the 1959 revolution, was defined as a political exodus. b. In contrast, Cuban immigrants from 1980 were labeled as undesirables and forced to live in primitive camps for long periods, and have been unable to achieve the social and economic mobility achieved by earlier Cuban immigrants. D. Asian Americans – Asian Americans come from different countries and diverse cultural backgrounds, such as the following: 1. Chinese a. Chinese Americans began migrating to the U.S. in the mid-19th century as a cheap labor force, relegated to the most difficult and dangerous railroad work from 1865-1868, followed by their abrupt expulsion from railroad work near the turn of the century. b. In 1882, the federal government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act banning immigration of laborers and intermarriage. Hostility and exclusion resulted in the creation of Chinatowns by the uprooted in search of strength and comfort. 2. Japanese a. Many first-generation immigrants (Issei) who entered the U.S. between 1980 and 1924 before the Japanese Immigration Act were employed in agriculture and in small Japanese businesses. b. The 1913 Alien Land Law of California stipulated that Japanese aliens could lease land only for three years and that land already owned or leased could not be bequeathed to heirs. c. The second generation (Nisei) became better educated and assimilated. d. The third generation (Sansei) became even better educated and assimilated, although they still met with prejudice and discrimination. e. Relocation in camps from 1942 until 1946 destroyed numerous Japanese families and ruined them financially. f. In 1987, legislation awarding $20,000 to each relocated person and offering an apology was passed. 3. Filipinos Filipinos entered the U.S. freely from 1899 through 1934 when the islands became a commonwealth of the United States and immigration quotas were imposed. b. Over 200,000 Filipinos, mostly professionals and high educated, arrived between 1966 and 1980. 4. Koreans a. Many Koreans entered the U.S. in the late 1960s, with a large concentration settling in Los Angeles. b. Although many Koreans experienced downward mobility in the U.S., about half the Korean American population is college-educated; nearly one in eight owns a business. c. The concentration of Korean greengrocers in African American communities has fanned negative feeling and prejudice on both sides. 5. Vietnamese a. South Vietnamese began arriving into the U.S. following the fall of South Vietnam to communist North Vietnam in 1975. b. A second wave of immigrants followed after China attacked Vietnam in 1978. c. Despite tension and discrimination, most Vietnamese heads of household are employed full time. E. Middle Easterners 1. Christian and Muslim immigrants from Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran began arriving in large numbers since the mid-1970s. 2. Like other immigrants, many have experienced downward mobility and they have formed their own ethnic enclaves. 3. Many Middle Easterners were harassed, attacked, racially profiled, and came under suspicion after the September 11th attacks. F. White Ethnic Groups 1. White ethnic immigration to the U.S. dates to the original WASP (White, Anglo- Saxon Protestant) immigrants from England, Scotland, and Wales (this term usually refers to the WASP male). 2. As immigrants from Northern and Western Europe and later Eastern and Southern Europe began to arrive, particularly during the mid to late nineteenth century, WASPs began to direct prejudice and discrimination against many of these newer groups. 3. WASP dominance began to decline in the 1960s. 4. More than 40 percent of the world’s Jewish population lives in the U.S., largely as a result of fleeing from European anti-Semitism. 5. The National Origins Quota Act of 1924, which instituted ethnic quotas based on proportions of groups already in the U.S., was one of the most discriminatory legal actions ever taken by the U.S. in the field of immigration. VII. Attaining Racial and Ethnic Equality: The Challenge Increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S., and the resulting intergroup contact, has intensified the importance of addressing sociological concerns about intergroup conflict and inequality. A. The Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was initially based on the passive resistance philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr., learned from the philosophy of Satyagraha (“soul firmness and force”) of the East Indian Mahatma (meaning “leader”) Mohandas Gandhi. 2. The major civil rights movement in the United States intensified shortly after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the famous Supreme court case that ruled that “separate but equal” in education was unconstitutional. B. The Black Power Movement 1. More militant leaders grew increasingly disenchanted with the limits of the civil rights agenda, which was perceived as moving too slowly. 2. The Black Power movement of the late 1960s rejected assimilation and instead demanded pluralism in the form of self-determination and self-regulation of Black communities. 3. The Contemporary Challenge: Race-Specific versus Race-Blind Policies. a. The tension between color-blind and race-specific policies is a major source for many of the political debates surrounding current race relations. b. The debate is exemplified in the controversy over affirmative action programs, on whether wide-based minority recruiting and the use of admission slots in education and set-aside contracts on jobs are quotas. c. Legal decisions on the state and federal level continue to challenge affirmative action and related strategies. d. The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) of the NAACP forcefully argues for the preservation of affirmative action. e. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases modifying the 1978 decision that race could be used as a criterion for admission to higher education or for job recruitment as long as rigid quotas were not used. The decisions ruled out the use of a point system interpreted as a type of quota, but allowed race to be used as a factor in admissions decisions, along with other factors.
1.Why do you think stereotypes are so easily interchanged between groups? Do you believe that our society is becoming more or less racist? How effective were previous movements to attain equality?
Class & Stratification Class Social stratification is a relatively fixed, hierarchical arrangement in society by which groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth. Social stratification is a system of structured social inequality. Social Status- ex. Shopping structurally different experiences Social class and sports How you see the world Types estate system of stratification, the ownership of property and the exercise of power are monopolized by an elite class who have total control over societal resources. caste system, one’s place in the stratification system is an ascribed status meaning it is a quality given to an individual by circumstances of birth. class systems, stratification exists, but a person’s placement in the class system can change according to personal achievements. Life Chances (Weber) Labels/Status symbols Conspicuous Consumption (Veblen) Inequality Economic restructuring refers to the decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States, the transformation of the economy by technological change, and the process of globalization. Wealth & Income Income is the amount of money brought into a household from various sources (wages, investment income, dividends, and so on) during a given period. (Wine Glass) Wealth is the monetary value of everything one actually owns. Wealth is calculated by adding all financial assets (stocks, bonds, property, insurance, savings, value of investments, and so on) and subtracting debts, resulting in one’s net worth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM Student debt Bankruptcy and the fall of the middle of the class Ladder US “Open” Class system Status attainment socioeconomic status (SES) is derived from certain factors. Income, occupational prestige, and education are the three measures of socioeconomic status that have been found to be most significant in determining people’s placement in the stratification system. Class system urban underclass- includes those who are likely to be permanently unemployed and without much means of economic support. The underclass has little or no opportunity for movement out of the worst poverty. Class conflict Inequality is the result of stratification from resources Race, gender, age, etc. Race vs. Class Mobility: Myth Vs. Reality meritocracy—that is, a system in which one’s status is based on merit or accomplishments, not other social characteristics. Social mobility is a person’s movement over time from one class to another. Class consciousness is the perception that a class structure exists along with a feeling of shared identification with others in one’s class—that is, those with whom you share life chances (Centers 1949). two dimensions to class consciousness: (1) the idea that a class structure exists; and (2) one’s class identification. false consciousness to describe the class consciousness of subordinate classes who had internalized the view of the dominant class. Theory Marx- Ideology refers to belief systems that support the status quo Weber- Class, Status, Party Structural Functionalism Rewards based on importance of task pleasantness of task scarcity of talent Criticism Scarcity can be artificially created social class influence many high rewards come from unnecessary jobs (rock star, plastic surgeon) Conflict theory Power relationships create inequality Criticisms even without unequal power relations people would achieve differently organizations work better with authority models. Loss of talent Symbolic Interaction theory Self-fulfilling prophecy Poverty culture of poverty argument attributes the major causes of poverty to the absence of work values and the irresponsibility of the poor. Structural causes- changing economy & labor market Concentrated poverty Feminization of poverty Extreme poverty
1.Why do you think stereotypes are so easily interchanged between groups? Do you believe that our society is becoming more or less racist? How effective were previous movements to attain equality?
Ch. 7 Deviance and Crime Deviance – behavior that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms. Formal deviance is behavior that breaks laws or official rules. Informal deviance is behavior that violates customary norms. Social movements, which are networks of groups that organize to support or resist changes in society. Deviance is socially constructed medicalization of deviance -attributes deviant behavior to a “sick” state of mind, which is “cured’ through psychological treatment. Ignores the effects of social structures Theory on Deviance Functionalist- creates social cohesion by providing contrast for “normal” behavior Anomie, as defined by Durkheim, is the condition that exists when social regulations in a society break down. Structural strain theory traces the origins of deviance to the tensions caused by the gap between cultural goals and the means people have available to achieve those goals. Retreatism, Ritualism and Rebellion Social control theory, a type of functionalist theory, suggests that deviance occurs when a person’s (or group’s) attachment to social bonds is weakened. Conflict Theory-dominant class as controlling the resources of society and using its power to create the institutional rules and belief systems that support its power. Elite deviance refers to the wrongdoing of wealthy and powerful individuals and organizations. Social control is the process by which groups and individuals within those groups are brought into conformity with dominant social expectations. Social control agents are those who regulate and administer the response to deviance, such as the police and mental health workers. Symbolic interaction theory holds that people behave as they do because of the meanings people attribute to situations. Differential association theory, a type of symbolic interaction theory, interprets deviance, including criminal behavior, as behavior one learns through interaction with others. Labeling theory- label is the assignment or attachment of a deviant identity to a person by others. Stigma is not from action but from label Deviant identity is the definition a person has of himself or herself as a deviant. Stigma is an attribute that is socially devalued and discredited. deviant career—a direct outgrowth of the labeling process—is the sequence of movements people make through a particular subculture of deviance. Crime Crime is one form of deviance, specifically, behavior that violates particular criminal laws. Criminology is the study of crime from a scientific perspective. hate crime as a criminal offense that is motivated in whole or part by bias against a “race, religion, disability, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation”. Gender-based violence is the term used to describe the various forms of violence that are associated with unequal power relationships between men and women. Racial profiling is the use of race alone as the criterion for deciding whether to stop and detain someone on suspicion of having committed a crime.