SOC 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Authoritarian Personality, Arab Americans, Conflict Theories
Chapter 11: Race and Ethnicity
The Social Meaning of Race
Race
• A race is a socially constructed category of people who hare biologically transmitted
traits that members of a society consider important
o People classify one another racially based on physical characteristics such as skin
color, facial features, hair texture and body shape
• Skin color is the result of our ancestors living in different geographic regions of the
world
• The variety of physical traits found today are the product of migration; genetic
characteristics once common to a single place
• We think of race in terms of biological elements, but it is a socially constructed concept
o The idea that the physical traits actually matter
o 3 racial categories in US
• Racial types:
o Scientists invented the concept of race more than a century ago when they tried to
organize physical diversity
o Caucasoid: people with light skin and fine hair
o Negroid: people with dark skin and coarse hair
o Mongoloid: people with yellow or brown skin and distinctive folds on the eyelids
o Sociologists consider these terms misleading at best, and harmful at worst
o The three racial categories differ in just 6% of their genes
• A trend toward mixture:
o Genetic traits from around the world have become mixed
o Today more people are willing to define themselves a multi-racial
Ethnicity
• Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage
o People define themselves, or others, as members of an ethnic category based on
common ancestry, language, or religion that gives them a distinctive social
identity
• The US is a multiethnic society
o A predominantly Protestant nation, but with several other prominent religions
• The concept of ethnicity is also socially constructed
o Constructed from cultural traits
o Often race and ethnicity go hand in hand
Minorities
• A minority is any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that
a society sets apart and subordinates
o Minority standing can be based on rae, ethnicity, or both
• Non-Hispanic white people are still a majority
o Minorities are increasing
• Minorities have two important characteristics:
o They share a distinctive identity based on physical or cultural traits
o They experience subordination
• Not all members of any minority category are disadvantaged, but it serves as a master
status
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Prejudice and Stereotypes
• Prejudice is a rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people
o All people in some category are described as the same
o May target people of a particular social class, sex, sexual orientation, age,
political affiliation, physical disability, race, or ethnicity
o Prejudices are prejudgments that can either be positive or negative
▪ Our positive prejudices tend to exaggerate the virtues of people like
ourselves
▪ Our negative prejudices condemn those who differ from us
• Can be anything from mild dislike to hostility
o Everyone has at least some prejudice
• Prejudice often takes the form of a stereotype
o A simplified description applied to every person in some category
o Many white people hold stereotypical views of minorities
o Minorities too stereotype whites and other minorities
Measuring Prejudice: The Social Distance Scale
• One measure of prejudice is social distance: how closely people are willing to interact
with members of some categories
• Emory Bogardus developed the social distance scale
o People felt much more social distance from some categories than from others
• Recent study using the social distance scale:
o The long term trend is that students are more accepting of all minorities
o Today’s students see less difference between various minorities
o The climate of concern over terrorism in the world probably has increased
prejudice toward Arabs and Muslims
Racism
• A powerful and harmful form of prejudice is racism
• Racism is the belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another
o Racism has existed throughout world history
• Racism has also been widespread throughout the history of the United States
o Supported slavery
o Remains a serious social problem
Theories of Prejudice
• Scapegoat theory:
o Holds that prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves
disadvantaged
o A scapegoat is a person or category of people, typically with little power, whom
people unfairly blame for their own trouble
• Authoritarian personality theory:
o Extreme prejudice a personality trait of certain individuals
o These authoritarian personalities rigidly conform to conventional cultural values
and see moral issues as clear-cut matters of right and wrong
o View society as competitive
• Culture theory:
o A third theory claims that although extreme prejudice is found in some people,
some prejudice is found in everyone
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