SOCI-102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Racialization, Social Fact, Meritocracy
Document Summary
Racialization is a term used to highlight the fact that groups are constructed on biological assumptions which are false. Racialization: the construction of groups claimed to be biologically different, accompanied with a label of superiority and inferiority in terms of said biology. Attributing complex social characteristics (morality, iq, goodness) to racial categories. The distinction between minority (as a subordinate group) versus majority: the minority is disadvantaged and subject to discrimination; the majority is the advantaged group with more access to resources, rights and recognition of their value. Ex the belief that white people who are successful worked hard while the blacks got lucky . Minority/majority refers to access to resources, not to a numerical measure of people. Ex apartheid in africa: 80-90% of population was black, yet white south africans, at 8% were the majority (access to resources, despite being the numerical minority). The whites had democratic rights, while blacks lacked these rights and others.