SOC100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Visible Minority, Racialization, Social Inequality
Lecture 7: Racialization and Marginalization
● Racialization: the habit of putting people into racial or ethnic categories
○ Racialization is the way race is produced and bestowed on people by
institutional social actions
■ Race is something people do to other people, rather than reflecting
what/who they are
■ We create “race” and racial inequality by performing the idea of
racial differences
● Racialization practices
○ Racialization and racism are tools used to justify inequality on the basis of
supported racial superiority
■ Racism is used to justify the exploitation of another group
■ Members of the dominant group blame the misfortunes of the
subordinate group on inferior genes, bad cultural values, or both
● Modern genetic research shows human “races” are more alike than different
○ Increasingly, scientists reject the “essentialist” view of race
■ Genetic evidence shows that human groups are significantly more
alike than they are like non-human groups
○ There is a continuum of physical features among humans, but
■ Race is uncorrelated with intelligence, morality, industry, etc.
except where links are socially constructed
● From “visible minorities” to “racialized Canadians”
○ The term “visible minorities” is losing acceptance in Canada because it
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■ Reinforces a belief that whiteness is not visible (it is)
■ May promote stigmatization of certain (non-white) groups
● Despite many deep similarities, people continue to celebrate superficial
differences
○ Racial (and ethnic) identities have proved more resistant to change than
early sociologists had ever imagined
■ Marx expected class identities to replace ethnic identities,
especially in the minds of class-conscious workers
■ The survival of ethnicity would have also surprised Emile Durkheim
and Max Weber
● The “ethnic community”: an imaginary world (Benedict Anderson)
○ An ethnic community is a group of people with common ancestry, often
living together in a defined geographic location
■ But an ethnic group is only an imagined community: a set of people
who think they share a great deal because they (accidentally) share
the same ethnic origins
● This ignores huge and important differences by class and
sex
● To maintain ethnic differences, people “perform” symbolic acts of differentiation
○ Ethnicity (like gender) is a performance, not an essential quality
■ Ethnicity refers to perceived social and cultural characteristics
people are believed to share
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■ An ethnic group is a set of people who consider themselves, or are
considered by others, to share common cultural characteristics that
distinguish them from other groups in a society
● Ethnic differentiation results in social inclusion of some and exclusion of others
○ Racial and ethnic minorities are among the many who suffer social
exclusion in our society
■ How might social exclusion affect people’s consumption patterns?
○ Research has found social exclusion fosters riskier but potentially more
lucrative decisions by consumers
■ Why might this be so? -- the authors attempt to study this through a
series of four studies
● Study 1: the effects of recent exclusion
○ In this study, the authors induce selected individuals
to feel either excluded or included in a virtual ball-
tossing exercise
■ Next, the participants are asked to take part in
gambling exercise
○ The participants who experienced social exclusion
were likely to take more risks in the gambling exercise
than those who experienced inclusion
● Study 2: the effects of remembered exclusion
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Document Summary
Racialization: the habit of putting people into racial or ethnic categories. Racialization is the way race is produced and bestowed on people by institutional social actions. Race is something people do to other people, rather than reflecting what/who they are. We create race and racial inequality by performing the idea of racial differences. Racialization and racism are tools used to justify inequality on the basis of supported racial superiority. Racism is used to justify the exploitation of another group. Members of the dominant group blame the misfortunes of the subordinate group on inferior genes, bad cultural values, or both. Modern genetic research shows human races are more alike than different. Increasingly, scientists reject the essentialist view of race. Genetic evidence shows that human groups are significantly more alike than they are like non-human groups. There is a continuum of physical features among humans, but. Race is uncorrelated with intelligence, morality, industry, etc. except where links are socially constructed.