UNIT TWO: INEQUALITY

II. Race & Ethnicity

RaceRace: a socially constructed

category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that a society defines as important ! Focus on physical differences ! If people never moved from where

they were born, everyone in a region would look pretty much the same

! Europeans began using the term in the 1500s when global trade began to take hold ! Caucasian ! Negroid ! Mongoloid

! Sociologists view racial categories at best as crude and misleading and at worst as a harmful way to divide humanity ! There is no biologically “pure” race ! People within a racial category often

vary between one another

Why Do Races Exist?! A method of asserting dominance over a “weaker”

race ! Europeans attached cultural traits to skin color to

justify conquering and oppressing others ! Africans- “beastlike” ! Asians- “devious” ! Native Americans- “red savages”

! Italian and Irish immigrants were put into a separate racial category to help justify their low pay and poor living conditions

! States defined someone as “colored” if they had as little as 1/32 African ancestry (one great-great-great-grandparent)

Ethnicity! Ethnicity: a shared cultural

heritage, which typically involves common ancestors, language, and religion

! While race and ethnicity are different, the two may go together when groups share not only certain physical traits but ethnic traits as well ! Korean Americans, Native

Americans, and Nigerians ! Multiracial People

! 7 million in U.S. describe themselves as multiracial

! As time goes on, fewer people see one another in rigid racial categories

Table 3-1

Early Immigration! The racial and ethnic diversity in the

United States is a product of immigration ! everyone who lives in North America descended from people who lived elsewhere

! The “Great Immigration” extended from the end of the Civil War (1865) until the outbreak of World War I (1914)

! Industrial factories offered many jobs

! 25 million people came across the Atlantic Ocean

! By 1900, 80% of the people living in New York City had been born abroad or had parents who were

! Nativists opposed immigration as they feared that immigrants might overwhelm neighborhoods and schools and threaten the country’s mostly English culture

! Disliked:

! Darker skin

! Languages other than English

! Religions other than Protestantism

More Recent Immigration! Congress passed many laws during the 1920s to limit

immigration ! Immigration Act of 1924: created a quota, or limit on the

amount of immigrants that could come into the country in a given year

! The next great immigration began in 1965 when Congress ended the quota system. ! Immigrants came mainly from Mexico and other Latin

American nations, as well as the Philippines, South Korea, and other Asian nations

! 1986 Immigration Control and Reform Act: outlawed the hiring of undocumented immigrants ! Also granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants

already in the country

The Current Immigration Controversy! In 2007, the total U.S.

population reached 302 million including about 38 million who are foreign born

! It is estimated that 500,000 illegal immigrants enter the country each year from Mexico

! In June 2012, the Supreme Court struck down most of Arizona’s SB 1070-the strictest and broadest anti-immigration act in recent history

Patterns of Majority-Minority Interaction

Minorities

! Minority: any category of people, identified by physical or cultural traits, that a society subjects to disadvantages

! Characteristics: ! They share a distinctive

identity-they are visibly different

! They tend to be disadvantaged

! About one-third of the people in the U.S. fall into a minority racial or ethnic category

Patterns of Minority – Majority Interaction! Genocide – the systematic killing of one

category of people by another ! Rwanda-Hutu vs. Tutsi ! Nazi Holocaust

! Segregation – the physical and social separation of categories of people ! United States ! Apartheid-South Africa

! Assimilation – the process by which minorities gradually adopt the cultural patterns of the dominant majority population ! US/Native Americans

! Pluralism – a state in which people of all racial and ethnic categories have roughly equal social standing

National Map 3-1 Language Diversity across the United States

Table 3-2

Table 3-4

Table 3-6

National Map 3-2 The Concentration of Hispanics/Latinos by County

National Map 3-2 (continued) The Concentration of African Americans, by County

National Map 3-2 (continued) The Concentration of Asian Americans, by County

National Map 3-2 (continued) The Concentration of Arab Americans, by County

Prejudice! Prejudice – any rigid and

irrational generalization about an entire category of people ! Can be both positive and negative ! Involve social class, gender,

religion, age, and sexual or political orientation

! Most common prejudice is race and ethnicity

! Stereotypes – exaggerated descriptions that are applied to everyone in the same category ! Greatly contribute to the

perpetuation of prejudice ! All Jews are rich and stingy ! All African Americans are good at

sports ! All Asians can’t drive well

Racism

! The most serious kind of prejudice is racism: the assertion that people of one race are innately superior or inferior to others ! Less blatant than it once was

! Institutional racism: racism at work in the operation of social institutions ! Racial profiling

! Subtle forms of racism are still very much part of our national life ! Stereotypes

Measuring Prejudice: The Social Distance Scale! In the 1920s, Emory Bogardus developed this

scale to measure prejudice among U.S. college students

! High social distance meant high negative prejudice

! Today’s students: ! Are more accepting of minorities ! See less difference between the various

minorities ! Express the most prejudice toward Arabs and

Muslims

Figure 3-1 Bogardus Social Distance Scale

Causes of & Solutions to Prejudice

Causes of Prejudice! Personality factors

! People with a strong authoritarian personality

! Lower levels of education ! People who have lived in

communities where everyone is the same as them their entire lives

! Societal factors ! Scapegoat Theory: people

are frustrated with their lack of control over their lives and need someone to blame it on

! Cultural Theory: prejudice is built into our culture ! Most people have the same

prejudices against the same groups of people

Discrimination! While prejudice is an attitude, discrimination is a matter

of actions ! Discrimination: unequal treatment of various categories

of people ! Discrimination can be positive or negative ! Institutional discrimination is built into the operation

of social institutions, including the economy, schools, and the legal system ! School segregation

! Because prejudice and discrimination reinforce each other, societies can create a cycle of social inequality ! Prejudice ! Discrimination ! More Prejudice ! More

Discrimination

Affirmative Action: Reverse Discrimination or Cure for Prejudice?! Affirmative Action: Policies intended to improve the

social standing of minorities who were the subject of past prejudice and discrimination

! Began after WWII with the GI Bill ! Kennedy Administration created affirmative action to

require employers to identify and hire qualified minority applicants

! 1970s: extended to college admissions ! “Quota Systems:” employers and colleges set aside a

certain number of places for minorities ! University of California Regents V. Bakke (1978)

! Court ruled that “rigid” quotas were illegal, but schools could use race and ethnicity as part of the overall process of admitting students

Structural-Functional Analysis: The Importance of Culture! The Culture of Poverty: the culture of certain groups

is to blame for racial/ethnic inequality ! Minorities grow up accepting their situation, and assume

that life will never get better ! Don’t take advantage of opportunities ! Different attitudes toward success

! American Indians: more cooperative than competitive ! African Americans: “oppositional culture” discourages members

from excelling by labeling success as “acting white”

! Critics contend that this approach defines people as responsible for their own disadvantage ! Is low self esteem and lack of optimism a cause or effect

of racism/prejudice?

Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: The Personal Meaning of Race

! Being white has become a “master status” ! Everyone is measured by the standards of

whites

! People recognize races, and this affects how people interact with each other

! Race has become part of a person’s social identity, which is a disadvantage to people of color

! Critics contend that race involves more than individual behavior

Social-Conflict Analysis: The Structure of Inequality ! The Importance of Class: the elite people of society try to

use race as a way of dividing the lower classes in order to prevent an uprising

! Multicultural Theory: US culture provides privileges to the European majority while pushing minorities to the margins of society ! Christopher Columbus and Native Americans ! Classical music usually refers to European music ! Using the term “ethnic” to classify anyone of non-English

background ! Critics contend that social-conflict theory:

! Does not take into account that many people in the US share things in common as “Americans”

! Takes away people’s responsibility for their own lives ! Tends to minimize the significant strides that have been

made in dealing with social diversity

Conservatives: Culture and Effort Matter! People should be equal before

the law ! People are responsible for

their own social standing ! Different cultures place

different emphasis on what is important, and this leads to inequality ! Schooling ! Jobs

! Italians-building trades; Irish-public service Jews-many professions; Koreans-retail businesses

! Importance on financial success ! Our society allows personal

freedom, but that means that there will be some inequality

Liberals: Society and Government Matter! Liberals believe that

cultural differences are not the main reason for inequality

! Prejudice and racism are the main causes of social inequality ! Not everyone has the same

chance to get ahead ! Institutional racism

! The Government should be the solution by supporting policies, such as antidiscrimination laws-that reduce racial and ethnic inequality

Radicals: Fundamental Changes Are Needed! Attack the source of all

inequality: capitalism itself ! More equal economic

system ! Eliminate the concept of

race because it provides an ideological basis for dividing people ! Is it possible to do this?

UNIT TWO: INEQUALITY

III. Gender

What is Gender?

! Gender: the personal traits and life chances that a society links to being female or male ! Socially constructed

! Sex: the biological distinction between females and males ! Biologically constructed

Gender Stratification and Patriarchy! Gender Stratification:

unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women ! Gender stratification

frequently takes the form of patriarchy: social patterns by which males dominate females ! Matriarchy is the

opposite: females dominate males

! Patriarchy is widely evident in the U.S. and around the world

! Sociologists see patriarchy - and gender itself - as the creation of society itself

Explanations of Patriarchy! Men’s greater body size and

strength ! Physical strength is much less

important today than in ancient times

! Brain power ! Differences in academic

performance are linked more with social background than sex

! Greater aggressiveness (testosterone) ! Both testosterone and estrogen

are found in males and females at varying degrees

! Most sociologists reject the idea that any behavior is “hard-wired” into human biology ! Society creates patriarchy, not

biology

The Problem of Sexism! Sexism is the

assertion that one sex is innately inferior to the other ! Sexism supports

patriarchy by claiming that men are “better” than women and therefore should dominate them.

Quick Activity

Left Side Right Side

! Three characteristics you look for in a romantic partner (ideals)

! Three characteristics of the “uber” member of your gender

! What kinds of characteristics does the ideal “man” or “woman” have

Gender Stereotypes

Masculine Feminine

! Independent ! Rational ! Competitive ! Strong/Physical ! Good at math/science

! Dependent ! Emotionally Driven ! Sensitive ! Gentle ! Good at verbal skills/

communication

Global Map 4-1 Women’s Power around the World

Gender Stratification

Income! Gender income inequality is the result of men holding

different kinds of jobs, family life, and gender discrimination ! Median pay for men working full time: $45,159 ! Median pay for women working full time: $35,421 (78%) ! Workers earning less than $25,000 a year

! Women: 26%; Men: 17% ! More than twice as many men as women earn more than $75,000 a

year ! Reasons for inequality:

! Types of jobs ! Social responsibility for raising children ! Gender discrimination: women are paid less for the same job

(illegal) ! Glass Ceiling: tendency for women to be blocked from the

highest positions in organizations ! 24% of CEOs of the 1,000 largest US corporations are female

National Map 4-2 The Salary Gender Gap across the United States

Housework

Violence Against Women! The most serious problem linked to patriarchy is men’s

physical violence against women ! Assault, rape, and murder ! 1.7 million physical assaults against women take place

each year ! 304,000 aggravated assaults ! 237,000 sexual assaults ! Over a five year college career, about 20% of all women

experience such crimes ! Why is violence a gender issue?

! Physical aggressiveness is a key element of the cultural definition of masculinity.

! Gender violence is not so much sexual as an expression of power

! When it comes to serious violence, the most dangerous setting for women is the home

Sexual Harassment! Sexual Harassment: unwanted

comments, gestures, or physical contact of a sexual nature ! Quid Pro Quo: one thing in

return for another-blatant harassment ! Professor pressures a student

for sex, threatening a poor grade if she refuses

! Law considers this a violation of civil rights

! Hostile Environment- more subtle behavior ! Sexual teasing ! Jokes ! Whistling

! All depends on whether a victim interprets actions as harassment

Sexuality, Beauty, and Reproduction! Our society tends to

assess women according to their sexual attractiveness

! Social norms encourage females to wear attractive clothes and to be attentive to men

! Women’s reproduction has been regulated ! Regulation of birth

control ! Restricted access to

abortion clinics

Activity- Gender Roles on T.V.! We are going to watch clips

from the following two television programs.

! I Love Lucy ! https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=62JEg8iGV3k ! http://

www.schooltube.com/video/f0edeab4ec4f2fef8b8a/Gender-roles-reinforced

! How I met your mother ! Netflix

! Write a one page reflection that compares the gender expectations evident in the older programs with those portrayed in modern television shows.

! Use the following words in your reflection:

! Gender, Gender Roles, Socialization, patriarchy, matriarchy, sexism, Education, Work , Politics

1950s! Very Traditional

gender roles ! Mother takes care of

home ! Father works and

disciplines children ! Not allowed to use

“pregnant”, demonstrates stigmatization of womanhood

Modern T.V. Shows ! Less traditional gender

roles ! Single women pursue

career ! Men are more sensitive

and take care of family

! How I met your Mother