01:920:108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Hypodescent, Haitian Revolution, Miscegenation
19 Dec 2016
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SOCIOLOGY 108: MINORITIES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY
HISTORY OF SLAVERY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE OVERVIEW
I. Categories vs. Groups
A. Category - a class whose nature and composition is decided by the person who
defines the category; e.g. persons earning wages in a certain range may be
counted as a category for income tax purposes
B. Group - defined by the nature of the relations between the members
II. Mechanisms of group-making
A. Social disclosure
● Social group’s actions that lead to exclusion and restriction of benefits to
those outside the group in order to maximize the group’s advantage
B. Categorization
● Process by which people are recognized and differentiated and placed
into different categories
C. Political action and group-making
● Political processes can impact informal and formal contexts of ethnic
categorization, which may lead to new official categories and/or
heightened sense of group identification
III. Ideal type
A. A model or a set of exaggerated characteristics defining the essence of certain
types of behavior or institutions observable in the real world
B. “Ideal” signifies “pure” or “abstract,” not desirable
IV. Slavery and the development of race
A. Africans in historical perspective
B. Early European accounts of Africans
C. Reasons for African slavery as main source of labor
D. Centrality of slavery - chattel slavery
V. Customs and Laws defining race
A. Sexual relations and miscegenation
B. One-drop rule (rule of hypodescent)
● Significance and history
C. Classification and census enumeration
D. Jim Crow - social customs and laws; perpetuated one-drop rule
E. Formal laws and legal cases
● Dred Scott case
● Plessy vs. Ferguson
F. Hypodescent - lower status of parents passed on to child
VI. “Racial mixing” - status of offspring
A. Status same as subordinate group (one-drop rule)
B. Lower than either parent group (ex. Korea)
C. Higher than either parent group (Haitian revolution)
D. In-between parent groups (“coloureds” in South Africa)
E. Status defined more by class than physical appearance
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Document Summary
Social group"s actions that lead to exclusion and restriction of benefits to those outside the group in order to maximize the group"s advantage: categorization. Process by which people are recognized and differentiated and placed into different categories: political action and group-making. Political processes can impact informal and formal contexts of ethnic categorization, which may lead to new official categories and/or heightened sense of group identification. Ideal type: a model or a set of exaggerated characteristics defining the essence of certain types of behavior or institutions observable in the real world, ideal signifies pure or abstract, not desirable. Significance and history: classification and census enumeration, jim crow - social customs and laws; perpetuated one-drop rule, formal laws and legal cases. Plessy vs. ferguson: hypodescent - lower status of parents passed on to child. Racial mixing - status of offspring: status same as subordinate group (one-drop rule, lower than either parent group (ex.
